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HKU launches first-of-its-kind Water Footprint Calculator to raise water conservation awareness
The "Jockey Club Water Initiative on Sustainability and Engagement," initiated by the Faculty of Social Sciences, with a donation of over HK$14.7 million by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, launched the first-of-its-kind Water Footprint Calculator mobile app, focusing on food and daily dining habits. This innovative and engaging tool, integrated with evidence-based scientific data, could raise public awareness of the importance of heeding water conservation and integrate the concept of water sustainability into our daily life, subsequently leading to a change in attitudes and behaviour in favour of water conservation. The first phase of the Water Footprint Calculator covers more than 90 local popular dishes, snacks, and drinks. Through the mobile app, the public can calculate the water footprint of their choices of daily meals, either by eatery type (such as Chinese restaurant or Hong Kong-style restaurant) or by food category (such as rice/noodles or dim sum), and understand the total amount of freshwater needed to produce the ingredients of those dishes.
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Ocean Park, CHSC and HKU hold Happy Kids • Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017
Ocean Park hosted a presentation for the Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017, organised in collaboration the Committee on Home-School Co-operation (CHSC) and HKU Department of Social Work and Social Administration for the third consecutive year. The theme this year was to encourage students to develop a positive attitude and appreciate the happy moments in life. Since the launch of the Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017 in mid-March this year, over 6,700 students have received awards. Participating students were required to record every happy moment and something they are grateful for each day in a journal and each school then selected and rewarded 15 students who exhibited the most positivity. Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration said the number of student suicides remained alarmingly high. This year’s Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme helped strengthen students’ mental health and prevent youth suicides.
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HKU mechanical engineering students won the Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition
Team DAELead, a team of four third-year mechanical engineering students from The University of Hong Kong, has been selected by an expert team of judges as the winner ofthe Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition. Team DAELead beat fierce global competition to win the €30,000 first prize with their effective design for a Private Stowage Compartment (PSC) underneath passenger’s feet. The HKU team was among the top 5 teams, shortlisted from 365 entries globally, to spend a week at the Airbus ProtoSpace facility in Toulouse, France to visualise, prototype and test their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment, before presenting them at the final.
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HKU and NGOs organise the first psychosocial intervention programme for children with eczema and parents
Eczema is the most common paediatric skin disease prevalent in around 30% of Hong Kong children. The HKU Department of Social Work and Social Administration, the Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation will jointly offer the territory's first non-pharmaceutical intervention training programme for children with eczema and their parents, so as to enhance the holistic well-being of the parents and the self-esteem, emotional coping and resilience of children in dealing with the disease, as well as facilitate better parent-child relationship in spite of their eczema experience. In a pilot study conducted in 2016 with 27 pairs of parent-child dyad, the results revealed significant improvement in the parents’ psychological and spiritual well-being after the group intervention.
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HKU Faculty of Engineering, Hong Kong Observatory, and Hong Kong Meteorological Society hold earthquake detector design competition
The Earthquake Detector Design Competition was jointly organised by the HKU Faculty of Engineering, Hong Kong Observatory, and Hong Kong Meteorological Society, under the project titled "Earthquake in Hong Kong?", which was supported by HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund granted by University Grants Committee. The competition aims to enhance knowledge of and interest in information technology and seismological instrumentation among the young generations. Over 450 participants from primary, secondary and international schools ranging from Primary 4 to Secondary 6 joined the competition. The Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road) was the champion of the junior category, and Christian Alliance Cheng Wing Gee College Team 2 was the champion of the senior category.
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HKU and Kyoto U reveal a new strategy to enhance the efficiency of cereal straw for biofuel production
Researchers from HKU and Kyoto University (Kyoto U) revealed a new strategy to allow cellulose in rice straw to release its fermentable sugar more efficiently. Currently, expensive and complicated procedures are required to loosen lignin, a complex polymer which provides mechanical strength and structural integrity in plants, in order to utilise cellulose more efficiently during the production of bioethanol. According to the findings by HKU plant biochemists Dr Clive Lo Sze-chung and Dr Lydia Lam Pui-ying and Kyoto U lignin specialist Dr Yuki Tobimatsu, when flavone synthase II (FNSII), a key enzyme involved in tricin synthesis was knocked out, the lignin content in rice straw was reduced by approximately one-third, the yield of glucose from cellulose degradation was increased by 37% without any chemical treatment. In other words, the efficiency of ethanol production can be enhanced at a lower treatment cost for lignin.
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HKU scientists achieve breakthrough in laser imaging; 100 times faster than existing technology
Dr Kevin Tsia, Associate Professor in Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at HKU and his research team developed a new laser-scanning imaging technique that overcomes the limitations of existing technologies, providing more than 100 times faster in scan speed with high image resolution. The new technique could empower new discovery in basic scientific research, with potential applications in a new generation of biomedical microscopy for precise and early diagnosis of diseases including cancers. Dubbed free-space angular-chirp-enhanced delay (FACED) imaging, at the heart of the technique is the “infinity mirror” – a pair of parallel mirrors. Researchers applied this “device” with a subtle twist (~ 0.01 degree). They combine ultrafast pulsed laser and a “tilted” mirror-pair to create an ultrafast sweeping laser beam. Combining FACED imaging with microfluidic technology, the team demonstrated high-resolution and high-throughput single-cell imaging at 10,000 to 100 000 cells per second, which is almost 100 times faster than current microscopy. Such a high throughput imaging could be particularly beneficial for cancer diagnosis by providing an effective and efficient method to detect rare cancer cells in a pool of billions of blood cells.
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