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Waste paper disposed in landfills notably contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impedes more sustainable, circular alternatives, such as recycling. In Hong Kong, this unsustainable approach is currently dominant as 68% of waste paper products are treated in landfills in 2020. To contextualize the impact of local waste paper management and explore mitigation potentials of circular alternatives, this paper develops a quantitative assessment framework around GHG emissions development trajectories. Combining guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), national GHG inventories, and local parameters from life cycle analysis, five GHG emissions projections were simulated along the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) until 2060. Most recent baselines indicate that Hong Kong's current waste paper treatment generated 638,360 tons CO 2 -eq in 2020, comprising 1,821,040 tons CO 2 -eq from landfill and 671,320 tons CO 2 -eq from recycling, and −1,854,000 tons CO 2 -eq from primary material replacement. Proceeding along a Business-as-Usual scenario under SSP5, GHG emissions will dramatically increase to a net 1,072,270 tons CO 2 -eq by 2060, whereas a recycling-intensive scenario will lead to a net saving of −4,323,190 tons CO 2 -eq. To complement the quantitative evidence on the benefits of waste paper recycling, field research was conducted to explore the feasibility of circular policy innovation from the perspective of recycling stakeholders. These empirical qualitative and quantitative findings from stakeholders' business routines and material transactions provide crucial indications for policy and institutional innovation: Essentially, for Hong Kong to improve waste paper recycling capacities and facilitate a circular economy (CE), local stakeholders require support via fiscal policy measures (financial subsidies or tax reductions) and infrastructure improvements (delivery access and material storage). In sum, this study employs a novel analytical framework combining original qualitative and quantitative evidence to provide policy innovation towards circular, GHG emission-saving waste paper management. [Display omitted] • A new framework assessing greenhouse gas emissions from waste paper treatment. • Exploring long-term carbon neutrality pathways for managing waste paper. • Using empirical evidence from recycling stakeholders for circular policy innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper folding is a common activity in East Asian kindergartens, but its potential value to early spatial skills have not been empirically explored. This study aims to investigate whether and how paper folding skills can predict spatial ability (SA) in the early years. Altogether 101 preschoolers (Ngirl = 45, M age = 4.54, SD = 0.75) were randomly sampled from two Hong Kong kindergartens and invited to complete the map-use and the paper folding tasks. The paper folding task taps two levels of children's paper folding skills: Basic Folding Skill (BFS) and Advanced Folding Skill (AFS). The parents reported the demographic information and their involvement in spatial activities at home. The results indicated the following: (1) there was a significant age-related increase in the paper folding performance; (2) child age could significantly predict both BFS (β = 0.551, p < 0.001) and AFS (β = 0.627, p < 0.001), while parental involvement could only predict BFS (β = 0.246, p < 0.001); (3) after controlling for confounders, paper folding skills could significantly predict SA as measured by the map-use task; (4) BFS was found to mediate the relationship between parental involvement and SA. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collection, as the first stage of the recycling process, and pre-processing to increase waste stream purity constitute key operations for achieving high recycling rates and a closed loop in the circular economy. For wastepaper recycling in Hong Kong, it is the semi-formal-informal recycling (SFIR) sector that plays a central role in both stages. This study analyses the so far little explored SFIR stakeholder network in Hong Kong and sheds light on value chains, recovered waste paper quantities and the impact of policies on the sector. The findings show that SFIR stakeholders reclaim 55.6 t/recycling station/month of wastepaper and thereby achieve about a 5.7 times higher reclaim rate than the formal-private recycling system. Critical to this achievement is the SFIR transaction network, which enables its stakeholders to develop a value chain and thereby generate an added value of around 1900 HKD (243.9 USD/t) for wastepaper. Given limited circular structures in Hong Kong, financial subsidies are critical to sustain the SFIR's operations over the short-term. However, over the long-term legalization and integration of its stakeholders are necessary to ensure an economically and socially sustainable wastepaper recovery system in Hong Kong. [Display omitted] • Qualitative & quantitative analysis of the semi-formal-informal recycling (SFIR) sector. • The SFIR's wastepaper value chain achieves a cumulative added value of 1900 HKD/t. • The SFIR recovered 5.7 times higher capacities than the formal system in 2021. • Financial support can enhance the SFIR sector's recovery capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Hong Kong Chief Executive's 2020 Policy Address, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government implemented strategies to integrate arts and technology as a new trend in cultural development. With the co-existence of a governmental initiative in 'arts and technology' ('arts tech') development and the rapid advancement of new technologies, it is frequently seen that new technologies (e.g., virtual reality [VR] and augmented reality) have been widely adopted in interactive media art productions in Hong Kong. Drawing on ethnographic research on a commercial virtual event, and a VR theatre performance produced by a Hong Kong cross-media creative studio, this study unveils discrepancies existing between government officials, commercial marketers, and art creators, ranging from objectives to practices in applying technologies to virtual art production. The juxtaposition of a market-driven commercial virtual campaign and the Chinese nationalist agenda embodied in the government-funded arts tech project reflects how the socio-historical background and changing political situation in Hong Kong extends its postcolonial neoliberal nationalism (PNN) to the arts tech arena. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: first, by adopting 'China as method' as epistemological analysis, the mediation of PNN by arts tech explains a 'southbound imaginary' in Hong Kong's arts and cultural practices through a changing relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China. Second, in contrast to the current scholarship focusing on human governance in the formation of neoliberal nationalism, this paper underscores the 'power' of techno-cultural material in mediating the neoliberal nationalism of Hong Kong, after its reversion to China, through arts tech development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countryside, where intensive rural development and rising property values have been observed since the late 1970s, the preservation and meaning of traditional dwellings have emerged as crucial considerations in shaping Hong Kong's countryside conservation policy. The focus of this paper is on the conservation of temples, as we are drawn to these structures not only for their architectural merit but also for their role as public buildings within the countryside. Consequently, their cultural significance is heavily influenced by the stakeholders they are associated with, distinguishing them from other types of dwellings. This paper examines the coastal landscape of South Lantau, which includes several villages with distinct traditions that have undergone significant transformations since the 1960s. Located at the southwest edge of Hong Kong, Lantau Island had a rural lifestyle that was relatively undisturbed before WWII because of the difficulty in accessing the island. However, in response to the large people influx from China's mainland after 1949, the Hong Kong government introduced the Lantau Development Plan in 1953, mainly to open up new sources of freshwater resources for Hong Kong Island. The construction of South Lantau Road in 1955 and Shek Pik Reservoir in 1957 gradually led to the decline of agricultural activities in South Lantau and the population exodus of local villagers, resulting in a rupture to regional traditions. In multilineage communities such as the villages on South Lantau, worship of a common deity provides a vital source of social bonding, particularly for an area long beset by typhoons, piracy and banditry. Local people pray for safety and prosperity through collective rituals and celebratory activities. Therefore, temples are not only religious establishments but also embody the sense of social solidarity among villagers on South Lantau. Through the case study of three rural villages on South Lantau, this paper examines how temples play an important role in the continuity of the communal network amid repercussions from the postwar disruption of traditional rural life. Significantly, this pilot study also draws attention to the functions of temples in their historical context. It emphasises the importance of recognising and re-evaluating these buildings for cultural enhancement as part of community engagement. This study provides valuable insights for future conservation efforts for religious buildings in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has resulted in the substantial population growth in metropolitan areas. However, existing research on population change of the cities predominantly draws on grid statistical data at the administrative level, overlooking the intra-urban variegation of population change. Particularly, there is a lack of attention given to the spatio-temporal change of population across different urban forms and functions. This paper therefore fills in the lacuna by clarifying the spatio-temporal characteristics of population growth in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) from 2000 to 2020 through the methods of local climate zone (LCZ) scheme and urban–rural gradients. The results showed that: (1) High population density was observed in the compact high-rise (LCZ 1) areas, with a noticeable decline along urban–rural gradients. (2) The city centers of GBA experienced the most significant population growth, while certain urban fringes and rural areas witnessed significant population shrinkage. (3) The rate of growth tended to slow down after 2010, but the uneven development of population-based urbanization was also noticeable, as urbanization and industrialization varied across different LCZ types and cities in GBA. This paper therefore contributes to a deeper understanding of population change and urbanization by clarifying their spatio-temporal contingences at landscape level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the nature and characteristics of the volatility transmission channels of major crash events in international stock markets between 03 July 1997 and 09 March 2021. Using dynamic conditional correlations (DCC) for conditional correlations and volatility clustering, GARCH-BEKK for the direction of transmission of disturbances, and the Diebold-Yilmaz spillover index for the level of volatility contagion, the paper finds that the climbs in external shock transmissions have long-lasting impacts in domestic markets due to the contagion effect during crisis periods. The findings also reveal that the heavier magnitude of financial stress is transmitted between Asian countries via the Hong Kong stock market. Additionally, the degree of volatility spillovers between advanced and emerging equity markets is smaller compared to the pure spillovers between advanced markets or emerging markets, offering a window of opportunity for international market participants in terms of portfolio diversification and risk management applications. Furthermore, the study introduces a novel early warning system created by integrating DCC correlations with a state-of-the-art deep learning model to predict the global financial crisis and COVID-19 crisis. The experimental analysis of long short-term memory network finds evidence of contagion risk by verifying bursts in volatility spillovers and generating signals with high accuracy before the 12-month crisis period. This provides supplementary information that contributes to the decision-making process of practitioners, as well as offering indicative evidence that facilitates the assessment of market vulnerability for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informational domain related to COVID-19 reflects the degree of uncertainty and pace of evolution of the pandemic. This places a burden on peoples' searches for information to guide their choices, importantly including for COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, it is important for health communications that support vaccination campaigns to attenuate vaccine hesitancy to be accessible, including in terms of readability, and adapted to the evolving pandemic. This paper aims to understand internet searches on COVID-19 vaccination, specifically the mix of sources and readability of the sources over a two-year period (2021–2023) in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, for search results in English, as English is a main language for each of these locations. The sources accessed through online searches in June 2021 and May 2023 were categorized by type of source and whether they were from one of the focal locations or elsewhere. The readability of information from web-search results was assessed using a set of readability tests (Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman–Liau Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Grade level). Over the two-year period there was an increase in government sources and reduction in mass media sources with distinct local patterns. Local government sources increased in Singapore whereas foreign government and multi-lateral organization sources increased in Hong Kong, with the Philippines being an intermediate pattern. In contrast to the changing mix of sources, the readability tests indicate a low proportion of URLs scoring within recommended readability thresholds across locations and types of sources over the two years. Information on COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment is an important part of health communications that includes internet search. The paper contributes to understanding health communications during a pandemic, including mix of local and non-local sources and contingency on local social and health context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong is a city with a diversified public transport system. However, the number of private cars has increased abnormally, especially the completion of private housings in the New Territories and North Lantau, due to the daily work of the urban areas or personal needs. The number of citizens of private cars has increased significantly. In recent years, the problem of "frequent and severe congestion" has resulted in the saturation of the more timely railways. The main reason is that the roads in the existing busy areas cannot meet the large number of private cars, and the major roads in the New Territories of Hong Kong and Kowloon have been subject to "frequent and severe congestion". The Government's solution to the problem is to build roads and railways only. In recent years, many new roads and railways, the congestion of old roads and highways have not been improved. Railways cannot change the private car owners to switch to public transport habits, "but increased", what is the main reason? Where roads and railways solve problems, this study agrees that denser areas without rail services are necessary to build or extend existing rail routes. But what is the need to build a new railway to relieve the existing railway saturation? We use the railway but not others? Is railway extension is one of the cause for traffic congestion? In recent years, the government has recognized that private cars are the main source of traffic congestion in Hong Kong. Government indicated that it planned to introduce another electronic road toll and increase private license plate or registration tax. Hope that this report will help us understand the problems we are facing now and discuss how we can resolve them so as to come up with better solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qianhai—an innovation park in Shenzhen—has the possibility of boosting innovation in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and in the wider region. This paper reviews the existing evidence about which policies have promoted profitable innovation in the Qianhai region (Hong Kong and Shenzhen) in the past. We also point to the importance of profitable innovation—rather than just innovation for its own sake. Profits attract and keep firms in an international financial centre. Yet, until we know exactly how much profitability these innovative firms require and how to promote such profitability, the advice given in the literature to Qianhai's and other policymakers will remain woefully inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most comparative studies of media are undertaken between different countries. It is normally assumed that there are considerable commonalities between the media in a given country and it is usually argued that these are sufficient to form a 'media system', which can usefully be contrasted with that of another country. It is relatively unusual to find two sets of media within one country that are sufficiently distinct as be considered as different systems. This paper explores one of the exceptions to that general rule: the case of the Hong Kong media as compared with those of mainland China. Given the different historical and current situations of the two locations at the time the research was conducted, it is to be expected that the kinds of journalism practised would be radically dissimilar. The results of a content analysis of five mainland and three Hong Kong papers demonstrate that, at the aggregate level, there are indeed important differences. A more detailed analysis, however, demonstrates that each of the three Hong Kong papers is in fact closer to mainland groupings than they are to each other. One Hong Kong paper, Ta Kung Pao, is closest to the most 'official' grouping of mainland papers, while Ming Pao falls in to a grouping with the 'liberal' mainland paper. The now defunct Apple Daily, on the other hand, has the closest links with the 'popular official' mainland press. Taken together, these findings suggest that the common assumption that different forms of journalism are best compared on a national basis is incorrect and that factors like market position and ideological orientation have an important influence on the kinds of journalism practised across borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of standard block and modular dwelling designs in Hong Kong's public housing provision since the mid-1950s. It explores how standard types have evolved in relation to housing policies, demographic and socio-economic changes, and minimum space requirements. In contrast to other countries, Hong Kong lacks defined space or room standards. In the absence of space standards, Hong Kong relies on a living density standard. This paper studies the historical development of Hong Kong's public housing in terms of dwelling size as a measure of housing quality, questioning the effectiveness of standard block and dwelling designs as housing design controls and highlighting the contextual nature of dwelling usability and size. The analysis is based on public housing design projects, policies, and data implemented or presented by the Hong Kong government, particularly the Hong Kong Housing Authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discursive experiences can contribute to shaping lives and their identities. For minoritized youth in Hong Kong, the 2019 protest movement provided many such experiences, although very little has been heard about them. Instead, reporting has focused on the experiences of the dominant Chinese population. This paper aims to highlight the voices of minoritized youth in relation to the social movement that dominated Hong Kong in the second half of 2019. It is well recognized that identity is not fixed and that there are more likely multiple identities that transition from one to the other. Yet little is known about the influences on identity formation and the processes that underlie them. This was the issue addressed here. The paper draws on Lacan's theory of identity in examining interviews involving minoritized youth and their engagement in Hong Kong's 2019 protest movement. It shows how individual responses to the movement differed, how the movement challenged identities, and how these challenges were resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the spatial patterns and dynamics of tourism services and facilities is crucial for tourism and land use planning. However, most studies in the spatial analysis of tourism rely on the city- or regional-level data; limited research has used POI (point of interest) data to accurately uncover the spatial distribution of tourism, especially its interactive and coupling relationship with the local economy and population. Based on POI data, this paper, therefore, investigates the spatial patterns and driving forces of tourism services distribution and how tourism space is coupled with the local economy and population in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. The results show the following: (1) Different categories of tourism services (catering, shopping, scenic spots, leisure, and sports) exhibit diverse spatial patterns and agglomerations, but they tend to align with the variables of economic level and population in a grid of 1 km2. (2) The spatial econometric models further reveal that population density, transportation, and hospitality facilities are positively correlated with the spatial distribution of tourism services, but GDP in a grid of 1 km2 shows a weak negative correlation with the POI of tourism services, which may be attributed to the incoordination between GDP and tourism in some areas. (3) The analysis of coupling degree further identifies the areas where tourism services have good interaction/coupling with the local GDP and population density, such that these areas can be viewed as hotspots suitable for tourism promotion. This paper thus offers meaningful policy implications by calling for an optimization of the coupling of tourism services with local social–economic factors in the GBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greater Bay Area (GBA) is to become a major innovation and technology hub of global impact. Such a transformation is to take place in the midst of a policy-driven economy in GBA's Mainland region and a market-driven economy in Hong Kong and Macau. In this paper, we examine the uniqueness and complexities of logistics and trade facilitation in GBA. This study establishes a discourse in GBA's logistics and trade facilitation between government and non-government stakeholders. Based on the discourse, we provide a conceptual context on the unique aspects of GBA, pinpointing critical issues such as the coexistence of differing institutional systems and interplay between state planning and market economy. A major objective of the paper is to identify and conceptualize unique logistics and trade features of GBA development, and to highlight opportunities for academic and policy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2020 Asia–Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC 2020) was held in Hong Kong, SAR, China, on December 8–11, 2020. The conference was organized by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation (AP)/Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Chapter of Hong Kong, and technically co-sponsored by the IEEE MTT Society, the IEEE AP Society, the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves, City University of Hong Kong; the Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong; and the Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Out of 531 papers submitted, 402 papers were accepted for presentation at the conference and publication in the 2020 APMC proceedings. These papers have also been published online on the IEEE Xplore website. The technical program involved more than 1000 authors coming from 28 different countries/regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super Typhoon Saola (2309) skirted past south-southeast of Hong Kong within 40 km on the night of 1 September 2023, posing a significant storm surge threat to Hong Kong. Given the close proximity of Saola with a peak intensity of about 210 km/h within 300 km of Hong Kong, a close call of the "super typhoon direct-hit" scenario, this case provides valuable insights from a hindcast review of storm surge forecasts and warning operation using the Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model, which is the operational storm surge model adopted by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO). The performance of the HKO's PRobabilistic Inundation Map Evaluation System (PRIMES) using both statistical and model ensemble approaches was also reviewed in this paper. Saola was a challenging case for operational forecasting of a compact TC structure with changes in storm size and intensity when it came close to Hong Kong. With major observations of storm structure using weather radar and dense automatic weather station, tide gauge and water level gauge networks, the high sensitivity of storm surge forecasts to the storm size parameter and the distance of closest approach was clearly revealed in the case of Saola. Even with a circularly symmetric TC parametric model like SLOSH, the hindcast review results illustrated that the model outputs were reasonably accurate during the closest approach of Saola given an accurate storm size and distance of closest approach were input, and using a highly computationally efficient storm surge model made it possible for the nowcasting of storm surges to handle compact and intense TC direct-hit cases in operational TC forecasting. Taking a nowcasting approach not only helps provide more reliable storm tide forecasts, but also facilitates the formulation of a better warning strategy when making final-call decisions in emergency response actions, based on the more frequent real-time analysis of TC position, intensity and storm size and the more accurate prediction of these parameters. A nowcasting workflow for storm surge operation was proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue sets out to revisit major bilingual and multilingual education policy and planning issues in key cities across the dynamic Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China (including Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau), as informed by the emerging insights from translanguaging theory (Li in Appl Linguist 39(1):9–30, 2018). Specifically, contributions are invited from the GBA and beyond to trace the milestone developments of relevant language policy and planning (LPP) initiatives featuring governmental policies on the language of instruction (e.g., English as Medium of Instruction, Chinese as Medium of Instruction) and the daily use of multiple linguistic resources or repertoires (e.g., language learner's L1 or mother tongue) in foreign/second language classrooms and/or in content-based classroom instruction. As such, major papers in the special issue not only set out to provide historical and analytical reviews of these related LPP issues across Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong Province but also reflect upon the language use and behaviors of the residents, showcasing their identity and attitudes and ideological stance toward the multiple languages that are being taught or used in daily life. Toward the end, we outline our research agendas for future endeavors in broader domains in the GBA and beyond through the translanguaging analytical tools. Overall, our position is that the GBA presents itself as an evolving, complex, and superdiverse zone of "Translanguaging Spaces" within which key LPP issues may need to be reconceptualized and implemented in such a way so as to fully reflect the dynamic and fluid multilingual, multicultural, and multisemiotic lived reality of the residents in this megapolis region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caught between its Chinese and British colonial history, Hong Kong’s path to self-actualization is unsure without preserving its tangible and intangible heritage. This paper examines the region’s several layers of heritage through the movement to preserve the Star and the Queen piers in 2007, using two theoretical frameworks, Abbas’ culture of disappearance and Tunbridge’s dissonant heritage. Despite the piers’ demolition, their role is vital in understanding conflicting histories and decolonizing the region’s identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the freezing project of the North Arch Tunnel of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge as an example. Based on Darcy's law and the theory of heat transfer in porous media, using the coupled module of the temperature field and seepage field in the COMSOL Multiphysics software, numerical simulations of the freezing reinforcement of the new pipe curtain freezing method are conducted to study the influence of different factors on this method under seepage conditions. The research shows that an increase in the groundwater flow velocity will affect the development of frozen soil curtains, prolonging the formation time of frozen soil curtains. A rise in the initial ground temperature will increase the time required for the formation of frozen soil curtains during the freezing process, resulting in a slight increase in the temperature of the final frozen soil curtains. With an increase in the salinity of the groundwater, the temperature at the temperature measurement point upstream of the freezing pipe increases, while the temperature at the temperature measurement point downstream of the freezing pipe decreases. The average temperature of the frozen soil curtain also increases with an increase in the salinity of the groundwater. This study is expected to provide a valuable reference for similar projects in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel insulated gate bipolar transistor with Semi-Insulated POly Silicon (SIPOS) is presented in this paper and analyzed through TCAD simulation. In the off state, the SIPOS-IGBT can obtain a uniform electric field distribution, which enables a thinner drift region under the same breakdown voltage. In the on state, an electron accumulation layer is formed along the SIPOS, which can increase the injection level of the "PiN region" in the device, and the carrier concentration in the drift region is also increased due to the charge balance effect. Moreover, the SIPOS-IGBT can achieve a quick and thorough depletion in the drift region during the turn-off transient, which can greatly reduce the turn-off loss of the SIPOS-IGBT. These advantages improve the tradeoff between the conduction and switching losses. According to the simulation results, the SIPOS-IGBT obtained a 58% lower turn loss than that of a field-stop (FS) IGBT and 30% lower than an HK-IGBT with the same on-state voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gouty arthritis (GA), as a multifactorial disease, is characterised by intense pain, active inflammation symptoms, and swollen joints. It has utterly complex pathogenesis, of which the amount of research publications on GA has increased during the last few decades. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to investigate the trends, frontiers, and hot spots in global scientific output in GA research over the last decade. We retrieved the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) for publications and recorded information published from 2012 to 2021. we carried out the bibliometric analysis and visualisation analysis of the overall distribution of annual outputs, leading countries, active institutions, journals, authors, co-cited references, and keywords with the VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The impact and quality of papers were assessed using a global citation score (GCS). We retrieved 2052 articles and reviews in total. The annual number of publications (Np) related to GA research has increased during the latest decade. China published the most papers, and the USA achieved the highest H-index and number of citations (Nc). The League of European Research Universities (LERU) and Clinical Rheumatology (Clin Rheumatol) are the most productive institutions and periodicals. The total GCS of the paper written by Kottgen, A. in 2013 was 479, ranking the first. The most common keywords were "Gout," "hyperuricemia," and "gouty arthritis." This research revealed that though there was a slight fluctuation in publications related to GA, the Np raised on the whole. China was an enormous creator, and the USA was an influential nation in this domain. The top three contributor authors were Dalbeth, N., Singh, JA., and Choi, HK. There were few investigations on the treatment of GA by Chinese medicine monomer, and the "mechanism," "pathway", "nf- kappa-b", "injury", "receptor", and "animal model" were growing research hotspots. Our research illustrated the hotspots of research and development trends in the research field of GA during the last decade. Recognition of the most critical indicators (researchers, countries, institutes, and journals for the release of GA research), hotspots in the research field of GA can be helpful for countries, scholars, and policymakers in this field to understand GA better make decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents and reflects on the process of preserving and presenting the ICH in the form of a virtual museum by taking the case study of a China's national-grade intangible cultural heritage – the Hungry Ghosts Festival organized by the Chaozhou community in Hong Kong. The documentation, exhibition and interpretation in this virtual museum adopt a participatory bottom-up approach, in which the voices of the local organizers and participants are highlighted, and personal anecdotes are played up. The virtual museum intends to aggregate and exhibit all the elements of this ICH in one virtual space, including its origins and development, the tangible artefacts it entails, its dynamic and fluidic nature (e.g., ambiance, performance, communal spirits), and its multiple layers of meanings. As the Hungry Ghosts Festival celebration lasts merely a matter of days each year at a particular place for a local community, this virtual museum enables a wider public to access this festival at any time, in any place and from different dimensions. This paper shows how the virtual museum presents the aforementioned facets of the ICH through different display techniques and evaluates their usefulness, including (1) traditional text and image panels, (2) 3D reconstructed scene and models, and (3) 360-degree video. This is significantly different from the earlier work, which mainly focused on the accuracy of re-enacting the given form of intangible cultural heritage, such as performance and craftsmanship in a virtual environment, or a particular creative presentation by professional performers and elites with specific meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the character of multi-level pedestrian accessibility and walkability within the public and quasi-public realm in Hong Kong, using the particular case of the redevelopment of Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay. In an era when the value of public space as a space for public activity and debate is coming under increasing scrutiny, both in Hong Kong and internationally, this paper explores multi-level interior and exterior public and quasi-public realm, as a hybrid form of interior open and transit space in a commercial setting that has becomes a central part of the city's planning, designed to both serve and profit from the high level of pedestrian traffic. This paper draws on empirical research of pedestrian behaviour patterns to interrogate the value and significance of linked-spaces within commercial districts, both to the users and the real estate travelled through, using the city of Hong Kong as a reference and the specific case of Taikoo Place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Train distance estimation in a turnout area is an important task for the autonomous driving of urban railway transit, since this function can assist trains in sensing the positions of other trains within the turnout area and prevent potential collision accidents. However, because of large incident angles on object surfaces and far distances, Lidar or stereo vision cannot provide satisfactory precision for such scenarios. In this paper, we propose a method for train distance estimation in a turnout area based on monocular vision: firstly, the side windows of trains in turnout areas are detected by instance segmentation based on YOLOv8; secondly, the vertical directions, the upper edges and lower edges of side windows of the train are extracted by feature extraction; finally, the distance to the target train is calculated with an appropriated pinhole camera model. The proposed method is validated by practical data captured from Hong Kong Metro Tsuen Wan Line. A dataset of 2477 images is built to train the instance segmentation neural network, and the network is able to attain an MIoU of 92.43% and a MPA of 97.47% for segmentation. The accuracy of train distance estimation is then evaluated in four typical turnout area scenarios with ground truth data from on-board Lidar. The experiment results indicate that the proposed method achieves a mean RMSE of 0.9523 m for train distance estimation in four typical turnout area scenarios, which is sufficient for determining the occupancy of crossover in turnout areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multipartner projects, team members from two or more organizations often have different skills and behavioral preferences. A major purpose of managing such teams is fostering cooperation among different types of team members, which is critical for the successful completion of a project. Traditional studies assumed that the preferences of members within a team are homogeneous and examined their effects on cooperation. Motivated by the heterogeneity of team members' preferences within a team, we propose a model of effort expenditures in multipartner project teams with two heterogeneous members to explore how the cooperative effort expenditure (CEE) of one agent is affected by the preference type of a coworker. We theoretically formulate the problem, provide the solution, and conduct the parameter sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, we present a numerical example to demonstrate the usage of the model and gain insight into the mechanism of the effect of heterogeneous preferences on the team cooperation. The theoretical analysis and experimental results showed that the effort cost and potential value of collaboration are the most critical factors that determine the interaction among the team member's optimal CEE, project outputs, and the coworker's preference type. The payoff differences between team members play a complex moderating role in the effect of team members' heterogeneity preference types on team cooperation. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge on project management by understanding the cooperative behavior of team members with heterogeneous behavioral preferences, and providing managerial insights for project managers to promote cooperation in multipartner project teams. Multipartner projects have become increasingly common due to the increasing complexity and difficulty of the projects. These projects, such as mega construction projects, require the input from professionals of diverse disciplines. But the heterogeneities of partners (stakeholders) increase the difficulty of cooperation. This paper provides managerial insights and suggestions for the project managers to promote cooperation between team members with heterogeneous preference types and marginal effort contributions in multipartner projects. First, for low-complexity projects (such as simple housing construction projects) and high-complexity projects (such as the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge project), the project managers may pay less attention to the heterogeneity of team members' behavioral preferences. Second, for other moderate-complexity projects, project managers should emphasize soft management to reduce the negative influence caused by behavioral preference heterogeneity, such as hiring team members with high risk tolerance, reducing payoff information transparency between team members and concealing their payoffs, fostering reciprocity among the agents, reducing their level of spitefulness through team building, and reducing competition, as well as encouraging the positive emotions (such as altruism) through publicity, education, praise, and rewards. Third, to avoid negative influence caused by profit-sharing differences (PSDs), it is better for project managers to set a higher profit-sharing rate for team members with a higher marginal contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biosiliceous sedimentation, closely related to carbon sedimentation in water, has a significant impact on the marine biogeochemical cycle. However, large-scale monitoring data are scarce due to the constraints of biosiliceous sedimentation flux (BSF) gathering methods. There are few reports on the spatiotemporal variation of BSF in estuaries and offshore waters. Additionally, few studies have used satellite remote sensing methods to retrieve BSF. In the paper, satellite images from 2000 to 2020 were used for the first time to estimate the BSF distribution of the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) over the past 20 years, based on a remote sensing model combined with particulate organic carbon (POC) deposition data and water depth data. The results showed that the BSF ranged from 100 to 2000 mg/(m2 × d). The accuracy tests indicated that the correlation coefficient (R2) and significance (P) of Pearson correlation analysis were 0.8787 and 0.0018, respectively. The BSF value varied seasonally and increased every year. The BSF did not follow a simple trend of decreasing along the coast to open water. Shenzhen Bay (SZB) generally had a higher BSF value than the Dragon's Den Waterway (DDW). The BSF in autumn and winter was investigated using empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOF). In autumn, the BSF of the PRE's eastern bank showed little change, while the BSF of the western bank showed obvious differences. In winter, the BSF in Hong Kong waters and inlet shoals fluctuated less, whereas the BSF in DDW and Lingding Waterway (LW) fluctuated more. The grey correlation analysis (GRA) identified two factors affecting BSF: chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and total suspended solids (TSS). Most BSF were primarily affected by TSS during winter. In spring, the two effects were balanced. TSS affected the east coast in summer, and CDOM was the dominant effect in autumn. Four main parameters influencing the distribution of BSF in the PRE were analyzed: ecosystem, reef, flow field and flocculation. This study showed that using satellite remote sensing to estimate BSF has excellent potential, which is worthy of further discussion in terms of spatiotemporal resolution and model optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges brought by a growing number of large-scale land development projects (e.g., Northern Metropolis, Lantau Tomorrow, and related infrastructures) in Hong Kong must be met by innovative land acquisition planning and processes. A recent quick win solution to land supply for Works projects has been in trial commissioning the provisional draft land resumption plan preparations and related survey works from the government to consultants, specifically the Authorized Land Surveyor (ALS) in the private sector. The industry therefore must consider the necessary and diverse sources of expertise available, and the existing land surveying technical resources that will render support to such new initiatives. Collaboration is called for between the spheres of public sector, education, and works industry to successfully move the use of cadastral survey for land management forwards, bridging the gap between lands and works practices for efficient processing of Works projects, and smart city development of Hong Kong.This paper will examine the new approach of professional surveying that private practicing ALSs bring, and why the overall number of ALS and engineering surveyors in the construction industry is growing so slowly. It will additionally compare Hong Kong's practice with that of the mainland China, Singapore, and the UK to grasp global learning points. The paper recommends the establishment of a Cadastral Survey Lab (CSL) firstly to explore the policy implementation of a sound cadastral system. The processing of lot boundary determination by ALS is reviewed. The regulatory roles of the Land Survey Authority (LSA) are requested in approving new land boundary plans; this both replaces the Demarcation District (DD) Sheet boundary and improves land boundary records. Secondly, the CSL can serve as a coordinating body in curating various kinds of land records from diverse sources, and aids the research and knowledge management of cadastral survey, land law, land tenure, land registration systems, land boundary record keeping, problematic lot boundary determination, etc. These topics can be considered in the refining geomatics education curriculum, and furthermore developed into guidance notes for geomatics survey practitioners.The evolution of the traditional land surveying profession into the geomatics services has become a recent international trend that is growing in popularity in the survey profession. Combining geo-spatial data from the planning and design stages, alongside the use of standardised survey data processing in project implementation and asset management, would encourage data sharing, avoid duplicate efforts, and facilitate the formation of a digital city. The spectrums of geomatics education in universities should be widened with a refined curriculum on combining geomatics with cadastral survey that has evolved from the traditional lot boundary survey to multi-purpose cadastre, city information modelling, urban informatics, smart city administration, and a full-blown Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of a growing population and shrinking arable land, the world is facing a global food crisis. One important solution could be to subsidize farmers to sustain their production so that they can produce more food for consumers and earn more money for themselves. An efficient subsidy program should also aim to reduce income inequality among farmers, as measured by the Gini coefficient of farmers' income. In this paper, we examine and compare the effects of input and output farm subsidy programs. The input subsidy reduces the farmers' input purchasing costs, whereas the output subsidy reduces the farmers' output processing costs. By considering a continuum of infinitesimal price-taking farmers who are heterogeneous in their average yield rates, our equilibrium analysis of a game-theoretical model yields three results. First, both subsidy schemes reduce the aggregate income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient. However, they create the following "opposite" effects: the input subsidy decreases the income gap among farmers (under mild conditions), whereas the output subsidy increases it. Second, farmers with low yield rates prefer the input subsidy, whereas farmers with high yield rates prefer the output subsidy. Third, the output subsidy scheme is more effective in improving the total farmer income than the input subsidy scheme, whereas the input subsidy scheme is more effective in reducing income disparities and improving consumer surplus than the output subsidy scheme. Our results provide new insights for policymakers who are crafting subsidy schemes. This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 71971184, 71972025, and 72032001], the Departmental General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University [Grant P0008761], and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [Grants 15504615 and 15500820]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4850. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a dynamic principal–agent setting in which the principal needs to dynamically schedule an agent to work or be suspended. When the agent is directed to work and exert effort, the arrival rate of a Poisson process is increased, which increases the principal's payoff. Suspension, on the other hand, serves as a threat to the agent by delaying future payments. A key feature of our setting is a switching cost whenever the suspension stops and the work starts again. We formulate the problem as an optimal control model with switching and fully characterize the optimal control policies/contract structures under different parameter settings. Our analysis shows that, when the switching cost is not too high, the optimal contract demonstrates a generalized control-band structure. The length of each suspension episode, on the other hand, is fixed. Overall, the optimal contract is easy to describe, compute, and implement. This paper was accepted by Ilia Tsetlin, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: The work of P. Cao is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72122019 and 71771202]. The work of F. Tian is financially supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) funding (RGC Early Career Scheme 2022/23) [Grant 27500822]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4845. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the four major bay areas in the world, the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is a highly integrated mega urban agglomeration and its unparalleled urbanization has induced prominent land contradictions between humans and nature, which hinders its sustainability and has become the primary concern in this region. In this paper, we probed the historical characteristics of land use and land cover change (LUCC) in the GBA from 2005 to 2015, and forecasted its future land use pattern for 2030, 2050, and 2070, using a cellular automata–Markov (CA–Markov) model, under three typical tailored scenarios, i.e., urban development (UD), cropland protection (CP), and ecology security (ES), for land use optimization. The major findings are as follows: (1) The encroachments of build-up land on the other land uses under rapid urbanization accounted for the leading forces of LUCCs in the past decade. Accordingly, the urban sprawl was up to 1441.73 km2 (23.47%), with cropland, forest land, and water areas reduced by 570.77 km2 (4.38%), 526.05 km2 (1.76%), and 429.89 km2 (10.88%), respectively. (2) Based on the validated CA–Markov model, significant differences are found in future land use patterns under multiple scenarios, with the discrepancy magnified over time and driven by different orientations. (3) Through comprehensive comparisons and tradeoffs, the ES scenario mode seems optimal for the GBA in the next decades, which optimizes the balance between socio-economic development and ecological protection. These results serve as an early warning for future land problems and can be applied to land use management and policy formulation to promote the sustainable development of the GBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration monitoring is very important for managing water resources and ensuring the stability of marine ecosystems. Due to their high operating efficiency and high prediction accuracy, backpropagation (BP) neural networks are widely used in Chl-a concentration inversion. However, BP neural networks tend to become stuck in local optima, and their prediction accuracy fluctuates significantly, thus posing restrictions to their accuracy and stability in the inversion process. Studies have found that metaheuristic optimization algorithms can significantly improve these shortcomings by optimizing the initial parameters (weights and biases) of BP neural networks. In this paper, the adaptive nonlinear weight coefficient, the path search strategy "Levy flight" and the dynamic crossover mechanism are introduced to optimize the three main steps of the Artificial Ecosystem Optimization (AEO) algorithm to overcome the algorithm's limitation in solving complex problems, improve its global search capability, and thereby improve its performance in optimizing BP neural networks. Relying on Google Earth Engine and Google Colaboratory (Colab), a model for the inversion of Chl-a concentration in the coastal waters of Hong Kong was built to verify the performance of the improved AEO algorithm in optimizing BP neural networks, and the improved AEO algorithm proposed herein was compared with 17 different metaheuristic optimization algorithms. The results show that the Chl-a concentration inversion model based on a BP neural network optimized using the improved AEO algorithm is significantly superior to other models in terms of prediction accuracy and stability, and the results obtained via the model through inversion with respect to Chl-a concentration in the coastal waters of Hong Kong during heavy precipitation events and red tides are highly consistent with the measured values of Chl-a concentration in both time and space domains. These conclusions can provide a new method for Chl-a concentration monitoring and water quality management for coastal waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health communication in the COVID-19 pandemic can be effectively implemented if all members of the populations, including marginalized population such as migrant domestic workers (MDWs), have good eHealth literacy. Lessons learned during this critical period may help improve planning and mitigation of the impacts of future health crises. Methods: This study aimed to examine and explore the eHealth literacy levels of the MDWs in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic by using a convergent mixed methods research design. A total of 1156 Hong Kong MDWs participated in a paper-based survey using a multistage cluster random sampling design for the quantitative component. eHealth literacy was measured using an eHealth literacy Scale (eHEALS). For the qualitative component, a purposive sampling of 19 MDWs participated in face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to carry out the quantitative analysis, while thematic analysis was used for the qualitative analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were merged and integrated for mixed-methods analysis. Results: The meta-inferences of the quantitative and qualitative results mainly confirmed that MDWs in Hong Kong had good levels of eHealth literacy. The use of Instagram, YouTube and WhatsApp as the COVID-19 information sources, in addition to having an interest in the topic of the current spread of COVID-19 together with the Hong Kong government's policies related to COVID-19, were found to be associated with eHealth literacy. Conclusions: The eHealth literacy level of MDWs in Hong Kong was shown to be good and it was influenced by the use of popular social media platforms including Instagram, YouTube, and WhatsApp. It is realistic to suggest that such platforms should be harnessed for health communication during the pandemic. Yet, regulations to combat false information on these media are also urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disputes over transactions on two-sided platforms are common and usually arbitrated through platforms' customer service departments or third-party service providers. This paper studies crowd-judging, a novel crowdsourcing mechanism whereby users (buyers and sellers) volunteer as jurors to decide disputes arising from the platform. Using a rich data set from the dispute resolution center at Taobao, a leading Chinese e-commerce platform, we aim to understand this innovation and propose and analyze potential operational improvements with a focus on in-group bias (buyer jurors favor the buyer, likewise for sellers). Platform users, especially sellers, share the perception that in-group bias is prevalent and systematically sways case outcomes as the majority of users on such platforms are buyers, undermining the legitimacy of crowd-judging. Our empirical findings suggest that such concern is not completely unfounded: on average, a seller juror is approximately 10% likelier (than a buyer juror) to vote for a seller. Such bias is aggravated among cases that are decided by a thin margin and when jurors perceive that their in-group's interests are threatened. However, the bias diminishes as jurors gain experience: a user's bias reduces by nearly 95% as experience grows from zero to the sample median level. Incorporating these findings and juror participation dynamics in a simulation study, the paper delivers three managerial insights. First, under the existing voting policy, in-group bias influences the outcomes of no more than 2% of cases. Second, simply increasing crowd size through either a larger case panel or aggressively recruiting new jurors may not be efficient in reducing the adverse effect of in-group bias. Finally, policies that allocate cases dynamically could simultaneously mitigate the impact of in-group bias and nurture a more sustainable juror pool. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Funding: S. A. Yang and A. Zhang acknowledge the support of the Hong Kong General Research Fund [Grant "Decentralizing Platform Governance: Innovations from China; Project 17614921]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4818. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanisation has generated numerous environmental consequences, particularly regarding open space fragmentation. Open space fragmentation is the transformation of open space from a state of homogeneity, integration, and continuity to a state of heterogeneity, division, and incoherence. Nevertheless, one main obstacle to understanding this issue is how to address the spatial heterogeneity of the impact of urbanisation on open space fragmentation. Thus, this paper provides a comprehensive framework for the mechanistic associations between open space fragmentation and urbanisation in Hong Kong's built-up area. The results illustrate that both open space fragmentation index and urbanisation index values are noticeably higher in dense urban areas. Land urbanisation, represented by the percentage of construction land in total land, has the highest explanatory power for spatial differentiation in open space fragmentation, followed by social and population urbanisation factors. Furthermore, the relational interrelations of open space fragmentation drivers are the bivariate and nonlinear enhancement interactions. Social urbanisation and land urbanisation have the strongest bivariate enhancement interaction for the use fragmentation form and the largest nonlinear enhancement interaction for the internal fragmentation form. Based on initial urban planning, open space fragmentation is an adaptation outcome of population, land, and social urbanisation factors, and this self-organisation phenomenon has been further emphasised in the historical process. These insights significantly enrich our understanding of how urbanisation affects open space fragmentation and provide valuable guidance for better open space strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the cocreation of an emergent place-identity in a Hakka household in the Hong Kong countryside triggered by architectural restoration. Located in Kuk Po, a quintessential Hakka village that was established over 300 years ago, Yeung House was restored by the research team under a government-funded initiative to regenerate architectural values. Rebuilt in 1967, Yeung House has experienced decay and evolution over the years. It signifies the adaptive lifestyle of Hakka immigrants through its adapted siting, hybrid tectonics and modernised features. After restoration, Yeung House was repurposed into a base for education and research managed by the three house-owning villagers. Different activities were initiated by the villagers and coarranged by the research team. As a serendipitous outcome, the front yard of Yeung House has been activated into a multifunctional communal space. Subsequently, it is argued that a place-identity has emerged in Ng To and is influenced by the distinctiveness of the restored Yeung House and the continuity of the front yard. New meanings of the place have been created by the villagers through the practice of a potential, alternative lifestyle in the rural-urban parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to accomplish the calibration and validation (Cal/Val) of altimeters, the Wanshan calibration site (WSCS) has been used as a calibration site for satellite altimeters since its completion in August 2019. In this paper, we introduced the WSCS and the dedicated equipment including permanent GNSS reference stations (PGSs), acoustic tide gauges (ATGs), and dedicated GNSS buoys (DGB), etc. placed on Zhi'wan, Wai'ling'ding, Dan'gan, and Miao'Wan islands of the WSCS. The PGSs data of Zhi'wan and Wai'ling'ding islands were processed and analyzed using the GAMIT/GLOBK (Version 10.7) and Hector (Version 1.9) software to define the datum for Cal/Val of altimeters in WSCS. The DGB was used to transfer the datum from the PGSs to the ATGs of Zhi'wan, Wai'ling'ding, and Dan'gan islands. Separately, the tidal and mean sea surface (MSS) corrections are needed in the Cal/Val of altimeters. We evaluated the global/regional tide models of FES2014, HAMTIDE12, DTU16, NAO99jb, GOT4.10, and EOT20 using the three in situ tide gauge data of WSCS and Hong Kong tide gauge data (No. B329) derived from the Global Sea Level Observing System. The HAMTIDE12 tide model was chosen to be the most accurate one to maintain the tidal difference between the locations of the ATGs and the altimeter footprints. To establish the sea surface connections between the ATGs and the altimeter footprints, a GPS towing body and a highly accurate ship-based SSH measurement system (HASMS) were used to measure the sea surface of this area in 2018 and 2022, respectively. The global/regional mean sea surface (MSS) models of DTU 2021, EGM 2008 (mean dynamic topography minus by CLS_MDT_2018), and CLS2015 were accurately evaluated using the in situ measured data and HY-2A altimeter, and the CLS2015 MSS model was used for Cal/Val of altimeters in WSCS. The data collected by the equipment of WSCS, related auxiliary models mentioned above, and the sea level data of the hydrological station placed on Dan'gan island were used to accomplish the Cal/Val of HY-2B, HY-2C, Jason-3, and Sentinel-3A (S3A) altimeters. The bias of HY-2B (Pass No. 375) was −16.7 ± 45.2 mm, with a drift of 0.5 mm/year. The HY-2C biases were −18.9 ± 48.0 mm with drifts of 0.0 mm/year and −5.6 ± 49.3 mm with −0.3 mm/year drifts for Pass No. 170 and 185, respectively. The Jason-3 bias was −4.1 ± 78.7 mm for Pass No. 153 and −25.8 ± 85.5 mm for Pass No. 012 after it has changed its orbits since April 2022, respectively. The biases of S3A were determined to be −16.5 ± 46.3 mm with a drift of −0.6 mm/year and −9.8 ± 30.1 mm with a drift of 0.5 mm/year for Pass No. 260 and 309, respectively. The calibration results show that the WSCS can commercialize the satellite altimeter calibration. We also discussed the calibration potential for a wide swath satellite altimeter of WSCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of proper equilibrium was established as a strict refinement of perfect equilibrium. This establishment has significantly advanced the development of game theory and its applications. Nonetheless, it remains a challenging problem to compute such an equilibrium. This paper develops a differentiable path-following method with a compact formulation to compute a proper equilibrium. The method incorporates square-root-barrier terms into payoff functions with an extra variable and constitutes a square-root-barrier game. As a result of this barrier game, we acquire a smooth path to a proper equilibrium. To further reduce the computational burden, we present a compact formulation of an ε-proper equilibrium with a polynomial number of variables and equations. Numerical results show that the differentiable path-following method is numerically stable and efficient. Moreover, by relaxing the requirements of proper equilibrium and imposing Selten's perfection, we come up with the notion of perfect d-proper equilibrium, which approximates a proper equilibrium and is less costly to compute. Numerical examples demonstrate that even when d is rather large, a perfect d-proper equilibrium remains to be a proper equilibrium. History: Accepted by Antonio Frangioni, Area Editor for Design & Analysis of Algorithms-Continuous. Funding: This work was partially supported by General Research Fund (GRF) CityU 11306821 of Hong Kong SAR Government. Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplemental Information (https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0148) as well as from the IJOC GitHub software repository (https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2022.0148). The complete IJOC Software and Data Repository is available at https://informsjoc.github.io/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe Typhoon Koinu passed south of Hong Kong on 8 and 9 October 2023, triggering the issuance of the Increasing Gale or Storm Signal No. 9, the second highest tropical cyclone (TC) warning signal in Hong Kong. Koinu was a difficult case for TC warning service due to its compact size and rather erratic movement over the coastal waters of Guangdong. To monitor Koinu's movement and wind structure, the Hong Kong Observatory utilized various observational platforms, including meteorological aircraft, ocean radar, and synthetic aperture radar on polar orbiting satellites. The paper presents major observations derived from these measurements. The aircraft probe and dropsonde data suggested boundary layer inflow, warm core structure, eyewall updraft, and high turbulence in the eyewall of the typhoon. The weather radar observations indicated the occurrence of a waterspout in the vicinity of the typhoon. Additionally, the study highlights the forecasting performance of the AI‐based Pangu‐Weather model, which could outperform the conventional global numerical weather prediction models in forecasting TC track in the region. The documentation of these observations aims to provide valuable references for weather forecasters and stimulate further research on forecasting this type of tropical cyclone. Key Points: Observations from meteorological aircraft, ocean radar, and synthetic aperture radar show the structure of Severe Typhoon KoinuWeather radar observations suggest the occurrence of a waterspout in the vicinity of KoinuAI‐based Pangu‐Weather model could outperform the conventional global numerical weather prediction models in forecasting Koinu's track [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the ill-conditioning of the iterative method for nonlinear models is discussed. Due to the effectiveness of ridge estimation for ill-conditioned problems and the lack of a combination of the H-K formula with the iterative method, the improvement of the LM algorithm is studied in this paper. Considering the LM algorithm for ill-conditioned nonlinear least squares, an improved LM algorithm based on the H-K formula is proposed for image distortion correction using self-calibration. Three finite difference methods are used to approximate the Jacobian matrix, and the H-K formula is used to calculate the damping factor in each iteration. The Brown model, quadratic polynomial model and Fourier model are applied to the self-calibration, and the improved LM algorithm is used to solve the model parameters. In the simulation experiment of space resection of a single image, we evaluate the performance of the LM algorithm based on the gain ratio (LMh) and the improved LM algorithm based on the H-K formula (LMHK), and the accuracy of different models and algorithms is compared. A ridge trace analysis is carried out on the damping factor to illustrate the effects of the improved algorithm in handling ill-conditioning. In the second experiment, the improved algorithm is applied to measure the diameter of a coin using a single camera. The experimental results show that the improved LM algorithm can reach the same or higher accuracy as the LMh algorithm, and it can weaken the ill-conditioning to a certain extent and enhance the stability of the solution. Meanwhile, the applicability of the improved LM algorithm in self-calibration is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, modular construction has been adopted for rapidly delivering healthcare facilities, but few have systematically explored the impacts of the pandemic and the contributions of modular construction. This paper aims to evaluate modular construction for delivering healthcare facilities in response to COVID-19, through the exploration of the challenges, strategies, and performance of using modular construction for emergency healthcare building project delivery. The study was conducted using 12 real-life healthcare building projects in Hong Kong with both within- and cross-case analyses. The results of the within-case study reveal critical challenges such as tight program but limited resources available and the corresponding strategies such as implementation of smart technologies. The results of the cross-case analysis indicate 106% improved time efficiency and 203% enhanced cost efficiency of using modular construction compared with conventional practices. Based on the multi-case studies, the paper develops an innovative framework which illustrates the roles of stakeholders, goals, engineering challenges, and management principles of using modular construction. Practically, the paper should assist both policymakers and industry stakeholders in addressing the critical challenges of delivering healthcare facilities under COVID-19 in an efficient and collaborative manner. Theoretically, it should set an exemplar of linking the building construction industry with emergency management and healthcare service systems to facilitate efficient response to pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much confusion in property rights inquiry into real (immovable) property (i.e., land) between open access and common property, and between public property and common property because that is often also open access. This paper argues that the property rights and access control are two distinct dimensions of land resource management. Access control involves the exercise of exclusionary power relevant to the management of the immovable property (property management) for its optimal use. A review of the literature shows that definitions of property management tend to be too narrow but point towards the need to articulate issues within the property rights paradigm. As a contribution to sustainable resource use as a dimension of land planning, this paper points out and discusses the probable sources of the confusion between land property rights and property management. A "Land Property Rights and Management Matrix" (LPRMM) is developed as a theoretical tool for clarifying the confusion and the relationships amongst relevant concepts. The LPRMM is theoretically informed by Barzel's not entirely correct distinction between legal (de jure) and economic (de facto) rights and enriched by relevant literature on property rights and property management. Practical use of the LPRMM is illustrated by its application to analyze the issues pertaining to the actual resource-use phenomena in colonial military buildings erected on both private and public land in Hong Kong. The results show that heritage buildings on land under public ownership as private property can be neglected or intensively managed. The LPRMM is not only a useful theoretical tool for precisely assessing the actual affairs of resource use but also a practical tool for identifying issues of property management in its widest sense. The LPRMM offered is a proper interpretation of Barzel's distinction between legal and economic rights and contributes to systematically re-interpreting property management as town planning writ large in terms of de jure property rights and de facto access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water vapor plays an extremely important role in the monitoring and prediction of weather, and GNSS tomography can obtain 3D spatiotemporal change information and reliable water vapor profiles. In this paper, an improved global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tropospheric tomography technique using an ERA5 (the fifth generation ECMWF reanalysis) product is developed. First, the ERA5 product was adopted to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution of water vapor, and a water vapor density threshold defining the top of the tomography was determined; then, the height of the grid top (GT) of different seasons was obtained through linear fitting; finally, the water vapor value between GT and tropopause is constrained using the data of the ERA5 product as the initial value. The new method for using the ERA5 product to determine the height of the GT of the tomographic grid reduces the height of the top layer of the grid and increases the number of effective GNSS rays. Data from nine CORS stations in Hong Kong in 2019 were selected for experiments. The results showed that the new algorithm increased the number of effective satellite signals by 14%. In addition, the ERA5 data, the radiosonde data, and the COSMIC‐2 data were used as reference values. The accuracy of the water vapor density obtained by the algorithm was improved by 25%, 17% and 9%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]