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• This study analyzed demolition practices and discussed existing challenges. • BIM is integrated with advanced technologies for building demolition. • Three key services are proposed to facilitate the building demolition. • A case study is provided to demonstrate the proposed framework. • A benefit-cost analysis is used to assess the proposed framework performance. Hong Kong's construction industry, known for its massive building infrastructure, produces an enormous amount of waste every year, the vast majority of which is disposed for landfills. Therefore, some effective operational measures and waste management policies have been implemented. However, enormous waste remains a concern for stakeholders and exert pressure on the limited capacity of Hong Kong's landfills. Though previous research discusses Building Information Modelling (BIM) application for construction waste management enhancement, the BIM model has not been widely implemented for building demolition with waste management. Hence, as a response to the aforementioned shortcomings, this paper develops a conceptual framework that allows collecting, maintaining, and analyzing comprehensive information through Smart BIM that uses advanced technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and capable of reacting to user activities such as waste quantitative assessment, demolition process planning, optimal disposal route selection, and waste management strategy are executed. The advantages of the proposed framework are shown in a case study benefit-cost analysis based on three planned reuse and recycling-rate scenarios that explain on- and off-site recycling methods. The results show that the proposed framework will pave the way for generating sustainable waste disposal practices by providing technical and decision-making support functionalities to engineers and planners in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to debates about how people's adult lives unfold after experiencing childhood adversity. It presents analysis from the British Chinese Adoption Study: a mixed methods follow-up study of women, now aged in their 40s and early 50s, who spent their infant lives in Hong Kong orphanages and were then adopted by families in the UK in the 1960s. Sixty-eight women participated via questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The paper draws on both quantitative analysis (using standardised measures and systematically coded data on adult life events) and qualitative analysis of interview data to identify the context and subjective meaning of the quantitative findings. We found that most of the women lived largely positive, stable, well-supported lives although punctuated by challenging periods. Using regression analysis, two variables were significantly associated with poorer mid-life functioning over and above other potential influences: a) feeling unhappy about being adopted, and b) partnership adversity after age 25. No associations were found between childhood experiences and patterns of adult adversity. Illustrations are given, based on the interviews, of the women's multi-faceted perspectives on the long-term impact of being internationally adopted and on professional support. We conclude that when early orphanage care (of reasonable quality) was followed by a good quality adoption, most women were able to negotiate the majority of later difficulties successfully. The findings suggest two important implications for understanding mid-life outcomes: a) that experiences in both childhood and adulthood should be taken into account and b) individuals' subjective views on being internationally adopted may help explain divergent outcomes within groups with similar early experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation into two pre-service teachers' reflective learning through a series of integrated and interactive tasks (i.e., collaborative lesson planning, group consultation, microteaching and videoed reflections) in a teacher education course in Hong Kong. Relying on data gathered from interviews and reflection videos and informed by a tripartite model on teacher identity in practice, discourse and activity, the study revealed how the pre-service teachers engaged in reflective practice and identity construction in the course. The paper concludes with practical implications on how to design and implement effective reflective tasks in preparing and developing competent language teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper forms a rejoinder to the paper by Luo & Zhai (‘“I will never go to Hong Kong again!” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott’). It discusses claims Luo and Zhai (2017) make about negative impacts of Occupy Central protests on tourism sector in Hong Kong and debates application of sentiment analysis to censored social media platforms. The rejoinder concludes that there is no clear evidence that there has been a negative impact of Occupy Central on Hong Kong tourism. It also urges tourism academics to be more critical regarding the sources of information for their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are responsible for about 92% of the total energy end-use in Hong Kong, of which above 70% is from the commercial sector. Most of the buildings in Hong Kong are high-rise, and approximately 15% of the total building stock is commercial buildings. Despite the considerable improvement in the understanding of the life cycle energy use of office buildings, there is still a lack of research into the life cycle energy demand of high-rise office buildings. Such knowledge is however essential for facilitating building energy conservation in the high-rise urban environment. The aim of this paper is to investigate the life cycle energy use of high-rise office buildings. The research was carried out through a critical literature review and case studies of ten real-life high-rise office buildings in Hong Kong. Results show that the life cycle energy consumption is 51.78–73.64 GJ/m 2 over the 50-year study period. Building operation consumes 78–89% and the rest (i.e. 11–22%) is taken by the embodied energy. Despite the distinction in terms of the amount of embodied energy between high-rise buildings and low-rise counterparts, no clear correlation is found between building height and embodied energy intensity. Moreover, energy use for material manufacturing and transport should be prioritised in reducing the embodied energy, of which the transport energy needs to be taken into extra consideration for the case of Hong Kong. The findings should inform construction industry participants of the significant potential in reducing the embodied energy of high-rise office buildings. The paper profiles the life cycle energy use of high-rise office buildings and should be important for the policy formulation towards the holistic energy conservation in high-rise buildings over their lifespans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development of Hong Kong's cultural economy and its translation into urban space. On the one hand it focuses on recent economic development and planning strategies to develop a post-colonial identity based on the international cachet of attracting creative industries. On the other hand, it considers the development of grassroots initiatives that herald the potential articulation of Hong Kong as a culturally dense global city. These grassroots initiatives are analyzed from the perspective of their problematic relationship with urban space, and how urban planning both supports and hinders cultural development. The paper argues that top-down planning is in large part catalytic, yet at the same time can run counter to the development of genuine artistic expression. It stresses the importance of ‘middleground’ actors in facilitating the development of spaces for artistic creation, particularly in their productive interlocking with different forms of artistic expression and public policy initiatives. The middleground can be conceived of as a relational space produced by various processes, actors and structures operating at different scales between institutional actors and the interests of ‘underground’ creativity. The article concludes by problematizing the role of middleground actors and underlines the value of ‘unpacking’ the middleground in order to account for the contested and negotiated processes it embodies. Renewed attention to these processes will contribute to enhancing the development of sites of artistic expression in Hong Kong and other emergent contemporary contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents pioneering research investigating the effects of semi-obnoxious facilities on subdivided units (SDUs) via a spatial econometric method. It overcomes the shortcomings of previous studies by employing a spatial-temporal model with the best fit. The paper also considers the effects of the Hong Kong Urban Renewal Authority's proposed urban renewal strategy on SDUs. The study's key findings are in following folds. Initially, the tenants of SDUs pay 39% more in rent than the tenants of market rate housing. Subsequently, accessibility of schools is a primary concern for SDU residents. Thirdly, SDU tenants are willing to live close to disamenities in exchange for lower rent and convenience services provided by semi-obnoxious facilities. Last but not least, proximity to urban rehabilitation projects increase the rehabilitation chances of SDUs. These findings have important implications for urban planners and policymakers in wider geographical areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper integrates bifacial photovoltaics as sunshades into buildings. • The impact of installation and building factors on power generation is studied. • The impact of installation factors of bPV on the energy savings is studied. • The south orientation, small tilt angle and wide bPV are recommended to install. • The buildings with high wall reflectivity and low WWR achieve more energy savings. Solar photovoltaic (PV) shading systems are of great significance for achieving low-carbon buildings. Bifacial photovoltaics (bPV) is a promising technology that can generate electricity from both the front and rear sides of bPV modules. By integrating bPV shading systems into buildings, more power generation and less building energy consumption can be achieved compared to traditional shading systems. This study aims to integrate and optimize bPV shading systems into the building vertical façades in hot and humid regions, considering varying installation and building parameters. The evaluations of electricity generation and energy saving were conducted based on a typical three-story office building in Hong Kong. The evaluation of electricity generation reveals that the optimal installation condition for bPV sunshades in Hong Kong is south orientation with a tilt angle of 35°. Regarding the width of bPV sunshades, as the width increases, the annual electricity generation per unit area (AEGPA) decreases, but the total annual electricity generation (TAEG) increases. Besides, the bifacial gain of optimized bPV sunshades increases from 3.3% to 6.1% as the wall reflectivity increases from 0.15 to 0.7, while being insensitive to window reflectivity. Similarly, when the window-to-wall ratio (WWR) increases, the bifacial gain decreases. Furthermore, the energy-saving evaluation indicates that the south orientation with small tilt angles and wide sunshades tends to achieve much more energy savings benefits. The findings of this study provide practical guidance for maximizing the power generation and optimizing the design of building-integrated bPV sunshades to achieve maximum energy savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity and inclusion continue to pose significant challenges for many cities. Disparities in access to resources and facilities among the residents of these areas are often influenced by factors such as geographical location and income level, among others. Therefore, creating a quantitative basis to detect spatial and socio-economic inequities in residents' access to vital infrastructures is crucial for advancing smart cities. This paper introduces a novel measure of Spatial Inequity that is based on 1) computing building-level scores for each building in terms of access to facilities, and 2) comparing the distribution of the scores of these facilities using the Gini coefficient. The proposed building-level scores will enable the identification of GIS hotspots at a high resolution. Then, the Gini-based measure will facilitate a comparison of the distribution of the scores, and determine if they are evenly distributed and equitably accessible. The Gini coefficient was highest (0.89) for waste management and elderly care, and lowest (0.56) for hospitals, reflecting varying levels of inequality. This study applies this Spatial Ineqity methodological framework to Hong Kong, a representative of Highly Dense Cities. The framework benchmarks urban infrastructure, identifies hotspots, and selects interventions for equitable urban development. • Novel approach identifies spatial inequities via building-level scores & Gini coefficient. • Precise hotspot identification enhances targeted interventions in dense urban areas. • Applied methodology in Hong Kong offers insights into urban development complexities. • Gini coefficient unveils varying degrees of inequality across essential services. • Geospatial analysis & quantitative measures support equitable urban resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Most peer economies diversify their mix of policies both the supply and demand sides of developing domestic clean energy technologies. • Peer economies with higher innovation rankings tend to provide more direction and coordination mechanisms. • A heavy reliance on technology adoption only is seen in the policy mixes of Hong Kong and Slovakia. • Hong Kong lacks policy strategy(ies) as well as R&D support targeted at energy technology. • Support for production, adaptation and retirement of energy technologies seems to be scarce across all 12 small economies. In this paper, we analyzed Hong Kong's sustainable energy transitions innovation policy, and compared it to the policies in 11 small, high-income jurisdictions. To do this, we identified 696 innovation interventions implemented between 2008 and 2020. We classified them into 42 types of policy instruments. Then we visualized the policy mixes of the jurisdictions with the assistance of correspondence analysis methods. The results suggest that Hong Kong's overall policy mix heavily relies on overarching policy strategies to guide research and demand side policies to support energy technology adoption. However, Hong Kong's support for research and development of domestic clean energy technologies to overcome the so-called "valley of death", a critical gap between public and private support, remains limited. This contrasts with the policy mixes of more innovative peer jurisdictions, which provide R&D funding and business support targeted at encouraging clean energy technologies and facilitating connections across the innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric buses (EBs) are considered a more environmentally friendly mode of public transit. In addition to other practical challenges, including high infrastructure costs and short driving ranges, the operations of EBs are more demanding due to the necessary battery charging activities. Consequently, more sophisticated optimisation models and algorithms are required for effective operations. This paper presents an EB scheduling problem with multiple termini and service routes. Various realistic but complicated factors, such as shared facilities at multiple termini, the flexibility of plugging and unplugging chargers before an EB is fully charged, stochastic travel times, and EB breakdowns, are considered. We propose an integrated learning and mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) framework to overcome the computational difficulties when solving the problem. This framework leverages the strengths of reinforcement learning and MILP for fast computations due to its capability of learning from outcomes of state–action pairs and computational effectiveness guaranteed by the constraints governing the solution feasibility. Q-Learning and Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient are adopted as our training methods. We conduct numerical experiments on artificial instances and realistic instances of a bus network in Hong Kong to assess the performance of our proposed approach. The results show that our proposed framework outperforms the benchmark optimisation approach, in terms of penalty on missed service trips, average headway, and variance of headway. The benefits of our proposed framework are more significant under a highly stochastic environment. • Electric bus scheduling with multiple termini and service routes. • Shared facilities at multiple termini and the flexibility of plugging and unplugging chargers considered. • Integration of Q-learning and mixed-integer linear programming for solving the problem. • Experiments on artificial instances and a real-world case to demonstrate the high computational performance. • Managerial insights derived from the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of an ecological security pattern (ESP) is an important undertaking in ensuring the stability of the ecosystem and the long-term growth of humanity. Existing research, However, existing research often overlooks the quantification of policy implications in ESP development. The objective of this paper was to bridge this gap by integrating policy quantification analysis (PQA) with nature, society and into ESP construction and providing targeted ecological management recommendations. The policy texts were quantified into reusable research data, which served as a foundation for the selection of indicators and the optimization of ecological security patterns, by using machine learning techniques. The methodology "Patch-matrix-corridor" was used to create a spatially correlated ecological security pattern. Through factor analysis and Random Forest (RF), the impact of each indicator on ecological security was thoroughly examined, offering substantial support for policy development and ESP construction planning. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GBA) was selected as the study area, the study found that: (1) The proposed framework PQA based-ESP could provide a useful eco-management tools. (2) Policy adaptability had a substantial impact on environmental security in the GBA, but the ecosystem service index has the highest impact. (3) Applying the framework, we identified a total of 1,993 km2 of ecological sources, 23 key ecological corridors, 58 general ecological corridors, and 31 ecological nodes. An improved ESP, characterized as "one circle, two bays, three rivers, multiple areas, corridors, and nodes," was constructed in the GBA. (4) Given the multi-scale analysis, tailored ecological management policy recommendations were proposed for each city in the GBA. The study's findings offer actionable solutions for the international community facing growing ecological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc worldwide. To mitigate the spread of the virus, societies around the world implemented various social control measures and restrictions on mobility. Traditional work practices were upended, leading to a widespread adoption of telecommuting in many cities, effectively turning urban spaces into expansive work-from-home laboratories. The exchange of digitized documents, virtual conversations, and online transactions replaced physical movements and face-to-face communication, allowing for the continuation of productive activities. This shift to telecommuting raises important questions about the impact on traditional business practices and power dynamics in the workplace. It also prompts us to examine how new communication and surveillance tools facilitate collaboration and enhance worker productivity. Furthermore, it is essential to understand how employees navigate and adapt to the opportunities and limitations presented in a teleworking environment. To gain insights into these issues, this paper focuses on the experiences of work-from-home employees in the community of Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong, using the concept of governmobility as an analytical framework. The findings reveal that telecommuting is enabled by innovative social interaction mechanisms, changes in power dynamics, and the implementation of new discourse and surveillance methods, all of which are contingent on specific work and life conditions. The various experiences of telecommuting, such as working in a home office, in virtual workspaces, and using on-body devices, demonstrate adaptable responses to the emerging opportunities and constraints of telecommuting. These experiences illuminate the intricate ways in which work and life intertwine in both physical and temporal dimensions. • Exploring the mechanisms of governmobility in telecommuting during the Covid-19 pandemic. • Theorizing diverse telecommuting practices and experiences. • Discussing the prospects of telecommuting in the post-Covid world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examine the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. • Establish an AI supported digital technological framework. • Propose and discuss future research areas. In the digital age, supported by disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain (BC), digital twins (DT), and extended reality (ER), the use of metaverse for real-world operations has emerged. In this paper, we examine the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. To be specific, we first examine the related literature by a selective critical review. Then, we discuss how the use of metaverse can facilitate transportation operations with some relevant cases such as the metaverse project of MTR (from Hong Kong). We establish an AI supported digital technological framework, called the ABCDE framework, for transportation and logistics companies to adopt with their use of metaverse. Finally, we propose and discuss several important future research areas. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which comprehensively examines the use of metaverse for transportation and logistics operations. The theoretical framework also lays the foundation for future studies. The findings and insights provide constructive and helpful guidance to both practitioners and academics on the future development of the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper captures the group dynamics underpinning preservice teacher identity formation to understand how childhood schooling and teacher education shape the teaching metaphors teachers construct of intercultural education. We propose a theory of identity grafting (IG) for a precise framing of the diverse ways teachers identify with intercultural education vis-à-vis other pre-established aspects of their teacher identities. Studying their IGs helped us connect the preservice teachers' experiences with the experiences of other teachers that had emerged in global literature. We draw insights from our efforts to co-construct with preservice teachers their professional development in facilitating intercultural education. Adapting the activities based on their responses, we co-constructed with each other during the workshop teacher identities with a sense of connectedness between intercultural education and other pedagogical forms. We observed preservice teachers as we facilitated their discussions, employing ethnographic approaches to immerse ourselves in the interactions of the workshop participants. The findings revealed that preservice teachers had become more mindful of the implications of their intercultural education practices after having reflective dialogues with each other. However, although the teachers successfully integrated each other's views about intercultural education practices, this could not be sustained when they attempted to contextualize these efforts. The teachers could not reconcile their disparate childhood experiences with cultural diversity as students graduating from schools with differing academic performance rankings (school banding). Therefore, they struggled to connect their experiences with other pedagogical forms that they had previously encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiative cooling coating technology is gaining increasing attention in the context of mitigating urban heat island and tackling global climate change. This paper is concerned with the development of an inorganic geopolymer-based radiative cooling coating using red mud, incorporating varying sizes of TiO 2 and hollow glass beads. The developed colored coating demonstrates its radiative cooling capability in reducing the surface temperature by harnessing the potential of red mud. The physico-chemical properties, surface morphology, and element distribution of the coating were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TG-DAT, SEM and EDS. The coating exhibited lower UV (0.0844) and visible reflectance (0.5275) but high NIR reflectance (0.7536), as well as high infrared emissivity of 0.9455, enabling a red color with a CIE value of L* = 74.56, a* = 9.55, and b* = 11.98, and a maximum temperature reduction of 7.3 °C under the climate of Hong Kong. Additionally, the skid resistance, abrasive resistance and adhesion strength of the proposed coating could meet the requirements of standards, indicating a great potential for footway applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A method based on Neural Network is proposed for provincial-level CO 2 emissions estimation. • An autoencoder is proposed to downscale the provincial-level CO 2 emissions to city-level. • A complete city-level CO 2 emissions inventory of GBA and surrounding cities is complied. • Spatial dependence and agglomeration characteristics of CO 2 emissions are analyzed. • Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of factors affecting CO 2 emissions is investigated. Significant attention has been given to the issue of CO 2 emissions worldwide, especially for China as the largest emitter. Cities, as the main carriers of China's economic development, account for up to 85 % of CO 2 emissions from energy use in the country. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and surrounding cities play important leading roles in low-carbon development. However, compiling city-level CO 2 emissions is challenging due to the limited availability of data. In this paper, a new idea is proposed by using SSA-BP for estimating provincial-level CO 2 emissions and downscaling provincial-level CO 2 emissions to city-level CO 2 emissions by reconstructing missing values of city-level CO 2 emissions with an autoencoder. This study compiles a city-level CO 2 emissions inventory and conducts a spatio-temporal analysis of CO 2 emissions in the GBA and surrounding cities. The results show that CO 2 emissions exhibit a spatial distribution pattern with spatial dependence. Furthermore, according to the analysis of spatio-temporal heterogeneity, GDP influenced CO 2 emissions the most within the five influencing factors, and the influences of GDP, population, and energy intensity were mainly positive, while the influence of patents was mainly negative, and that of trade was both positive and negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an assessment model based on multi-layer fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCE) of classroom acoustical environment is proposed. The model classifies five major factors affecting overall assessment model into several subsets alternatives. The weightings of these main criteria and alternatives were collected through questionnaires among students based on analytic hierarchy process methodology (AHP). An evaluation score was calculated from the proposed model with the weightings generated from AHP method. In this paper, classrooms in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University were used to develop the assessment model. The result shows that the evaluation score of PolyU classrooms is about 87.2, which refers to “Good” evaluation set. It indicates that classrooms in PolyU needs to be improved. The weightings generated from AHP method can be considered for the importance of each alternatives. The assessment model can provide proper recommendation to universities for acoustic treatment so as to increase the acoustic quality of the educational environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maritime industry has adopted the concept of clustering to promote the growth of related maritime sectors. Based on the theoretical development of maritime cluster evolution in the current research literature, components and functions of maritime clusters are observed to have changed over time. However, very few empirical studies have been conducted on maritime cluster evolution that reflect the diverse components and their interactions within a cluster. Particularly, there is insufficient literature that systematically studies the relationship between ports and other maritime sectors, though the port is deemed to play an important role among sectors in maritime cluster development. This paper aims to fill these research gaps by analysing two cases – London and Hong Kong. London is considered as an international maritime service centre, while Hong Kong is en route to be an international maritime service centre, with the latter cluster possesses a supportive port while the former does not. Grounded on the symbiosis theory, this paper examines the evolution of maritime clusters empirically through investigating the interactions between a port and other sectors within a maritime cluster with the Lotka-Volterra model. Empirical results show that advanced maritime services, namely marine insurance and shipbroking, benefit from port development in London. However, these maritime services sectors are in pure competition with the port sector in Hong Kong. The research provides reference for policy makers on the dynamic development path of maritime clusters in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity consumption in cities is steadily increasing. Using a life cycle approach and fuel mix data from power companies’ sustainability reports, this paper analyzes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity consumption in Hong Kong. The results show that coal contributed on an average 74.3 percent, liquefied natural gas 25.1 percent, and oil 0.6 percent of the thermal energy consumed for generating electricity in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2015. Besides, Hong Kong imported an average of 7.96 billion kWh per year net electricity from a nuclear power plant in Shenzhen. During this period, GHG emissions from annual electricity consumption ranged between 27.0 and 34.1 million tons (MT) and the emission factor ranged between 702 and 792 g CO 2 -eq/kWh. Hong Kong’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased steadily from USD 176 billion in 2002 to USD 297 billion by 2015. As a result, Hong Kong’s electricity productivity increased from 4.62 to 6.75 USD/kWh while GHG emission from electricity consumption per GDP decreased from 0.153 to 0.104 MT CO 2 -eq/USD billion. Hong Kong’s annual electricity consumption was predicted over the short-term period (2016–2020) and medium term (up to year 2030). Electricity consumption is likely to increase to 44.63 billion kWh by 2030 while GHG emissions from electricity consumption would increase to 33.92 MT of CO 2 -eq. The implications are discussed at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public play spaces are designed for children to develop their social and physical abilities and enrich their experience. Through play, children can learn various cognitive skills in a relaxing environment. All children should have the same right to play in play spaces. However, many existing playgrounds lack inclusive facilities to facilitate the needs of the disabled children. This paper takes Hong Kong as a case study. In our preliminary observation there is no disabled children playing or even appeared in nearly all of the play spaces. The current design of the playgrounds also does not take the needs of children's care takers into consideration. This results in misusing playground facilities by the care takers. In order to address the issue of inclusive play for children and the care takers, the paper reviews the playgrounds in Hong Kong in terms of the accessibility and availability and identifies the inclusive issues in playgrounds of the densely populated city. It also highlights the current strategies that the government has developed to deal with the problem. The paper argues that in a populous city such as Hong Kong it is inevitable to encounter difficulties in building inclusive play spaces and promoting inclusive play, and specific strategies of using spaces creatively is a must to ensure an effective design for children's play in needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study tested effects of demographic, psychological, and situational variables on Leave No Litter intention. • Attitude, perceived behavioral control, and preparedness had significant direct effects. • Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control had significant indirect effects. • Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed. Along the line that "Leave No Litter" (LNL) in protected areas is promoted globally, Hong Kong launched its LNL campaign in 2016. The success of the campaign is critically dependent on the compliance of the park visitors. Because behavioral intention is influenced by determinants of different domains, this study adopted a multilevel perspective to examine how demographic, psychological, and situational variables affected LNL intention using a voluntary response sample of 374 hikers in Hong Kong. The results indicated that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and preparedness were significant predictors of LNL intention, indicating the direct associations between them. Furthermore, preparedness mediated the effects of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on LNL intention. The findings of this paper may contribute to the body of knowledge on pro-environmental behavior of recreationists by providing a novel understanding of LNL intention of Hong Kong hikers. Furthermore, this study may cast light on the sustainable management of protected areas in Hong Kong as well as cities around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit-induced gentrification is a popular topic of research and a pressing concern worldwide. However, little attention is paid to the connection between rail transit development and the movement of low-income residents. To investigate this important issue, this paper studies the development of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in Hong Kong between 2001 and 2006, which added three new rail transit lines covering a total length of 65 km. By using census statistics at the district council constituency area (DCCA) level in a difference-in-differences approach, we find that MTR development in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2004 increased the number of advanced degree holders (Bachelor's degree and above) by 10% in the New Territories and 7.81% in the new towns and reduced the number of low-income households by 5.85% in the New Territories and 7.53% in the new towns. To confirm that these socioeconomic changes were driven by internal migration, we further use household-level data from the 5% population censuses in 2001 and 2006 in a multinomial logistic regression. The results indicate that MTR development between 2002 and 2004 was likely to induce high-educated people to move into and low-income households to move out of MTR-served areas. The results show that the New Territories and the new towns in Hong Kong underwent gentrification between 2001 and 2006. We therefore suggest that the Hong Kong government negotiate with MTR Corporation to allocate resources to develop properties for low-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid design and construction of mobile cabin hospitals (MCHs) have become imperative in the COVID-19 response. However, due to unique design specifications (e.g., parallel design and model pre-revision), collaboration in emergency construction projects (ECPs) like MCHs presents data security vulnerabilities, including a lack of traceability and transparency. These hazards invariably reduce design effectiveness, leading to undesirable rework and project delay. Blockchain technology is a potential solution to address the aforementioned security issues in ECPs because it offers immutable and traceable data storage. Nevertheless, directly implementing blockchain in ECPs is impractical, for the blockchain has a complex deployment process and provides limited functions supporting BIM-based design. Therefore, this paper develops a lightweight blockchain-as-a-service (LBaaS) prototype to enhance the ECPs design efficiency by securing and automating information exchange while eliminating the difficulties of deploying and using blockchain. This paper contributes three elements: (1) Security vulnerabilities of design in ECP are identified. Taking an MCH in Hong Kong as an example, this paper investigates its design process and determines two design characteristics and associated security flaws. (2) Key technologies to support easy deployment and usage of blockchain in ECPs are developed. New technical elements, including a Multi-to-One mapping (MtOM) kit for easy blockchain registration, an integrated workflow retaining existing design practices, and smart contracts for secure interaction with blockchain, are developed to support LBaaS functionality. (3) An LBaaS prototype is validated and evaluated. The prototype is illustrated and evaluated using design examples based on actual MCH project data. Results show that the LBaaS is a feasible and secure approach for ECPs collaboration. This paper deepens the understanding of data security issues in ECPs and offers technical guidance in establishing blockchain solutions. • Identified security vulnerabilities of BIM-based collaboration in emergency construction projects (ECPs). • Exploring the mechanism of integrating ECPs design with a lightweight blockchain-as-a-service (LBaaS). • Developed key technical elements to support functionalities of an LBaaS prototype. • Validated LBaaS prototype via three design examples from an actual mobile cabin hospital project. • Results show that the LBaaS is a practical solution for improving data security and ECP design efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two questions facing the use of the concept of the 'good farmer' in rural studies: what are the most appropriate methods to understand good farming; and what is the relevance of the concept in non-western countries? The paper explores these issues in the context of pig farmers' biosecurity decisions and daily disease management practices in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Specifically, we argue that to broaden the relevance of the good farming concept, we need to devise specific methodologies to capture the relational practices among farmers, non-human life forms and substances that construct the 'good farmer' meaning in different cultural contexts. Firstly, we consider the language of 'good farming', its possible translations, potential meanings and alternative phrases used amongst Chinese-speaking farmers. Secondly, we develop a farmer-oriented methodology to analyse how these locally specific translations of good farming are constructed and used in relation to the management of animal disease. Drawing on 12 farmers' mapping and their interview discussion, we develop a narrated mapping methodology in which the creation of farm maps acts as a device to illustrate and talk about biosecurity and good farming. This visual method triangulates the graphical data with subsequent interview data of farmers' maps. From this we show how the idea of the 'diligent farmer' has much stronger resonance in Hong Kong than good farming. Farm maps identify specific symbols of diligence, highlighting values of productivism, environmentalism and social relationships. The mapping methodology also reveals the performative work involved in becoming a diligent farmer. In conclusion, the paper considers the broader methodological implications for the concept of good farming, suggesting that cultural linguistic differences need to be recognised in the concept, and arguing for further methodological advancement. • The methodological and linguistic basis of the 'good farmer' and 'good farming' are questioned. • Visual narrated mapping methodology is developed to explore 'good farming' and 'good farmer'. • Language of 'good farming' and 'good farmer' varied in non-Western contexts. • The role of 'diligence' and 'diligent farming' is a useful theoretical lens to explore farm biosecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the "Kowloon Walled City" was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of 'product differentiation' in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place. • Challenge dark views of Kowloon Walled City with socio-economic statistics & oral testimonies • Refute representation of Kowloon Walled City as a dark prison • Project a bright picture of Kowloon Walled City [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a first attempt to position the role of museums in land use planning, this paper modifies a neo-institutional economic perspective to canvass the economic advantages of a museum as a form of real property in a community. It explains that a museum , outdoor or indoor, as a derived demand for real property because selected ex situ heritage items need space to concentrate. Such concentration not only reduces the transaction costs of searching for users but also accumulates value by being positioned at a fixed location , as in the case of a heritage building as in situ heritage, so that it may even become a new heritage site (if not also a heritage building) over a period of time. This is demonstrated by the case of London Bus Museum, which stands in sharp contrast to a hidden private collection of retired buses in Hong Kong. An empirical test of the effects on values of neighbouring property of a cattle depot/slaughter house reused as an art museum was conducted to shed light on the economic advantages of a museum. This paper expands the understanding of curating to encompass the formation of a museum and the gaining of heritage value for the museum itself. Some land use implications are discussed, particularly that museums should be purpose-built rather than being accommodated in heritage buildings. • Original economic inquiry of museums in terms of transaction cost reduction & betterment by ex-situ heritage items. • Pioneering study of bus museums in heritage planning terms in a surge of curatorial concepts in planning & urban studies. • Pioneering empirical study of the impact of a museum on nearby property values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several frameworks are introduced to address occupancy-based building performance. However, the performance predictions obtained using these frameworks deviate from real performance. So, this study's aim is to represent a new framework for the automatic assessment of occupants' comfort and building indoor performance using BIM and the SD-ABM platform. Initially, an office space in Hong Kong, consisting of 10 occupants, was considered for the BIM model construction. The occupancy, indoor data and required equations are defined using the SD-ABM model. Essential data from the BIM model can be transferred using the Dynamo-Excel platform. Furthermore, a validation study was conducted using a paper-based survey from the occupants and sensor data for environmental data monitoring while error metrics were also calculated. The framework actively predicts occupant presence, comfort level, temperatures, and CO 2 concentration in the office space. However, a comprehensive usability and feasibility study is required to assess the efficiency of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a rich body of research on face-work, how it is performed in online edu-social groups remains under-explored. Drawing on posts and comments of Facebook groups created for courses at a university in Hong Kong, together with interviews with students, tutors, and the lecturer, this article examines how code-switching is deployed as a powerful discursive resource in the performance of face-work. Notwithstanding English being the medium of instruction of the courses, code-switching is noticeable. Focusing on these participants' practices, our analysis discovers that code-switching serves primarily to signal the breakdown of the expectedly formal academic participation frame and the switch to an informal frame. Multiple layers of action frames are collaboratively and constantly designed and redesigned in these 'social network-educational spaces' (Chau and Lee, 2017), where the formal-informal, public-private, and academic-social boundaries become indistinct. Closer analysis within and across the spaces further reveals that norms of appropriateness of code-switching to achieve informality and solidarity may vary depending on a combination of individual, contextual, and temporal factors. In addition to contributing to existing literature on code-switching and face-work on Facebook, the article offers practical implications for understanding the increasingly informalized discourses in institutional contexts. • Code-switching is a face-work strategy to achieve informality and express solidarity in social network-educational spaces. • Norms of appropriateness of code-switching vary depending on individual, contextual, and temporal factors. • This paper contributes to the strand of literature on face-work with a focus on online discourse in a multilingual setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Big data and artificial intelligence for air pollution monitoring and health management • Personalized and synchronized data for personalized advice and alert • Smart interventions for effecting behavioral change • Causal relationship between PM 1.0,2.5 vs FEV 1 and FVC All people in the world are entitled to enjoy a clean environment and a good quality of life. With big data and artificial intelligence technologies, it is possible to estimate personalized air pollution exposure and synchronize it with activity, health, quality of life and behavioural data, and provide real-time, personalized and interactive alert and advice to improve the health and well-being of individual citizens. In this paper, we propose an overarching framework outlining five major challenges to personalized air pollution monitoring and health management, and respective methodologies in an integrated interdisciplinary manner. First, urban air quality data is sparse, rendering it difficult to provide timely personalized alert and advice. Second, collected data, especially those involving human inputs such as health perception, are often missing and erroneous. Third, the data collected are heterogeneous, and highly complex, not easily comprehensible to facilitate individual and collective decision-making. Fourth, the causal relationships between personal air pollutants exposure (specifically, PM 2.5 and PM 1.0 and NO 2) and personal health conditions, and health-related quality of life perception, of young asthmatics and young healthy citizens in Hong Kong (HK), are yet to be established. Fifth, whether personalized and smart information and advice provided can induce behavioural change and improve health and quality of life are yet to be determined. To overcome these challenges, our first novelty is to develop an AI and big data framework to estimate and forecast air quality in high temporal-spatial resolution and real-time. Our second novelty includes the deployment of mobile pollution sensor platforms to substantially improve the accuracy of estimated and forecasted air quality data, and the collection of activity, health condition and perception data. Our third novelty is the development of visualization tools and comprehensible indexes, by correlating personal exposure with four types of personal data, to provide timely, personalized pollution, health and travel alerts and advice. Our fourth novelty is determining causal relationship, if any, between personal pollutants, PM 1.0 and PM 2.5 , NO 2 exposure and personal health condition, and personal health perception, based on a clinical experiment of 150 young asthmatics and 150 young healthy citizens in HK. Our fifth novelty is an intervention study to determine if smart information, presented via our proposed visualized platform, will induce personal behavioural change. Our novel big data AI-driven approach, when integrated with other analytical approaches, provides an integrated interdisciplinary framework for personalized air pollution monitoring and health management, easily transferrable to and applicable in other domains and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are a main contributor to energy consumption and carbon emissions. The approach of low energy or low carbon building has been widely adopted. However, there exist challenges for energy and carbon modeling, particularly of high-rise buildings in high-density urban environments. The aim of this paper is to examine the challenges and develop strategies for energy modeling of high-rise buildings drawing on the case of public housing in Hong Kong. The paper reviews the knowledge barriers to the use of building energy analysis software and proposes a workflow to incorporate energy simulation into the design stage. Considering the urban environmental factors that may contribute to biased results of energy simulation, the technical issues during the conversion of data from BIM model to energy simulation software are investigated. Thermal zones and user behaviors are also examined as technical and subjective assumptions could lead the simulation to a wrong direction. The examined challenges and developed strategies will help achieve building energy simulation and carbon emission estimation of high-rise buildings in Hong Kong with efficiency and accuracy and also inform practices in other relevant urban settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the second largest GHG emitter in the world, the building sector needs to play an active role in reducing GHG emissions. Particular attention should be directed to existing buildings, not only because of the amount of emissions caused by inefficient buildings but also due to the existence of a variety of sustainable refurbishment solutions for different levels and stages of building refurbishment. The emission reduction performance of different sustainable refurbishment options, however, varies enormously as a result of different building design conditions. Cooling, for example, is a much more important consideration than heating in warmer climates. For high-rise multi-story existing buildings, due to the complexity of the occupant mix and their emission reduction goals, more attention should be paid to reducing the energy consumption of common areas and increasing the energy performance of the building envelope. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the nature and assessment of existing sustainable refurbishment options for residential buildings in sub-tropical high-density cities such as Hong Kong. The paper will also help policy and decision-makers delineate a set of sustainable refurbishment solutions that are suitable for multi-story buildings to maximize the opportunity for reducing their emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In model updating, damage detection and structural health monitoring (SHM), modal identification is usually the first step to calculate the modal properties, such as natural frequencies, damping ratios and mode shapes, of the targeted structure utilizing the measured time-domain responses. Ambient vibration test provides an efficient and economical mean to collect structural vibration responses for the purpose of modal identification since no artificial excitation is required. This paper presents the work on the ambient vibration test and modal identification of a recently constructed boat-shaped building situated in Hong Kong. The building is not an isolated structure, and it is connected with a secondary structure in its fourth and fifth floors. To identify detail mode shapes, sixty-two measurement points were desired. They were located in the three staircases (to minimize the effect on the normal operation of the building) and on a typical floor of the building. Due to the large number of measurement points coving almost all floors of the building, multiple setups with moving references approach were designed. Some common problems encountered in the field test were discussed in this paper. A recently developed fast Bayesian FFT method was employed to perform the modal identification. This method could identify the most probable value (MPV) of modal parameters efficiently and also calculate the associated posterior uncertainty analytically, providing an important tool to evaluate the accuracy of modal parameters. The first nine modes were identified including five translational modes, two torsional modes, one combined mode and one vertical mode. Due to the connections with other building, torsional behavior was observed in some translations modes. Based on the MPV and the associated uncertainty, the variability of modal parameters across different setups is also addressed. Some interesting feathers of this structure were studied and investigated, providing the baseline for the future SHM and condition assessment of this building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first study to investigate the impacts of housing attributes and environmental variables on housing rental price and the-time-on- market (TOM) of sub-divided units (SDUs) in Hong Kong via statistical method. A two stage least square (2SLS) method is introduced in this paper to solve the simultaneous problem of housing rental price and TOM, which overcomes the shortcoming of estimation bias in previous studies. The findings suggest that the size of the SDUs, distance to MTR stations, vicinity to primary school, accessibility to community facilities and park are the major concerns for tenants living in SDUs. These significant results provide valuable information to the urban planners and public housing committee of Hong Kong for a better development of the public housing in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong buildings account for 90% of total electricity consumption and over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore buildings present both a challenge and an opportunity for reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) and Net Zero Carbon Building (NZCB) are recognised as feasible strategies to reduce energy use and carbon emissions leading to a more sustainable built environment. While there is a growing number of NZEBs and NZCBs in relatively cool or temperate climates, there are relatively few examples in the subtropical climate, and in a densely populated city such as Hong Kong. This paper will examine the current progress towards a low carbon built environment in Hong Kong, zero energy/carbon design strategies and technologies applicable to building in a subtropical climate, and examines a case study of Hong Kong's first zero carbon building ZCB. ZCB's energy and carbon performance, experiences and lessons learned, and future directions are discussed. The paper will conclude with the challenges and opportunities for wider adoption of NZEBs and NZCBs in the Hong Kong construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Kwun Tong Promenade in Hong Kong is an exemplary case of government-driven commodification of public space. The waterfront public space was an integral part of the government's plan to redevelop the former industrial center into a new premier business district. Through document analysis, site observations and interviews, this paper seeks to examine how the government has driven commodification of the Promenade and to illustrate how the process was manifested both socially and spatially. It is clear from the findings that the Kwun Tong Promenade was developed and managed by the government primarily to attract investment and drive growth in the area, and, as a result, the voices and needs of the local communities were largely neglected. In addition to the decline in publicness of the public space, the government-driven commodification of the Promenade also led to the exacerbation of uneven development across the rapidly transforming district. By examining the commodification of the Kwun Tong Promenade and highlighting its link to spatial injustice, this paper represents a call for more critical attention to government-driven public spaces as public space developments become increasingly complex and contested in different social, economic, and political contexts. • The Kwun Tong Promenade was largely developed by the government to drive urban redevelopment and attract investment. • Marginalized groups such as the residents and the creative community were neglected and excluded in the development process. • Government-driven commodification of the Promenade has led to its decline in publicness and exacerbated spatial injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cross-case studies were conducted on steel and concrete modular buildings in Hong Kong • Modular construction outperforms conventional, e.g., with 46%-87% of waste reduction • Performance of the steel modular system varied from the concrete one, e.g., being 40% faster • Eight system boundaries were established to dialectically measure modular construction • Systematic strategies were proposed for enhancing urban sustainability using modular approaches The modular approach has been increasingly adopted for building projects. However, few previous studies investigated the performance of different modular construction systems and their impacts on urban development. This paper aims to contribute to a more systematic understanding of modular construction for buildings in high-rise high-density urban environment, through measuring the sustainability of both concrete and steel modular construction. The measurement was conducted using two real-life modular building projects in Hong Kong covering 11 indicators in environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Results reveal that modular construction significantly outperforms the conventional practice, e.g., 46%-87% of waste reduction thus reducing the burden of urban waste disposal. Nevertheless, performance of the steel modular system varies from the concrete one, e.g., being 40% faster thus more suitable for emergency project delivery, but 20% more of electricity consumption. From the discussion, eight system boundaries were identified for dialectical sustainability benchmarking, e.g., density boundary to indicate the project context; and systematic strategies were proposed for sustainability enhancement, e.g., design for circularity for temporary modular facilities. The paper should facilitate the selection of suitable modular systems by demonstrating the sustainability of different modular construction systems and contributing dialectical thinking to construction performance measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An effective nested max–min ant algorithm for VRP model is proposed. • VIP priority and drop-off point has been considered. • Nested max–min ant system for VRP model considered a set of possible scenarios. • The numerical experiments show that the CPLS is implemented successfully. • The model can solve the possible scenarios within reasonable computation times. E-commerce logistics have required rapid and efficient e-fulfillment services to deliver goods to consumers within a short time window to fulfill the customer order requirement. This paper seeks to address how an E-commerce Logistics Company can utilize the Cyber-Physical Logistics System (CPLS) and Internet of Things (IoT), which may unlock the potential for solving the order assignments and the vehicle routing problems on a new twist. The CPLS allocates orders to suitable vehicles and plans the best route in order to maximize the order fulfillment rate through cloud computing to reduce local computation power. This paper presents a novel Nested MAX-MIN Ant System (MMAS) to tackle a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) that can serve as the core element of the CPLS. The objective is to perform to maximize the orders, minimize the total traveling cost and satisfy all the problem constraints. This paper intends to address the issues associated with the VIP priority and drop-off point limitations to make the solution route more realistic and enhance accuracy. The numerical experiences show that the CPLS is implemented successfully in a Hong Kong-based E-commerce Logistics Company with promising performance within reasonable computation times and new better solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to conduct a survey of the academic contribution and influence of Chinese scholars in the field of burns.Method: The PubMed database was searched to obtain literature items originating from various countries and Chinese provinces from 1985 to 2014. The citation data were collected through the Google Scholar engine.Results: A total of 1037 papers published in 256 journals were included in this survey. China was second only to the USA in the number of publications on burns since 2010. In addition, the annual number of papers has increased significantly since 2001. The journal Burns published the most number of articles, but its proportion has been decreasing. Of the papers included in the survey, 58.34% were published in journals with a 5-year impact factor between 1 and 2, whereas only 3.66% were published in journals with an impact factor >5. Both total citations and citations per paper have decreased in the past decade. Randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews merely accounted for a small proportion. Twenty-nine provinces including 64 cities contributed one paper at least. The publications from Taiwan, Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Guangdong were high in both quantity and quality.Conclusion: The Chinese academic contribution to the field of burns is now on a rise. Although the quality of papers is lagging behind quantity, scholars and academies are dedicated to improving China's academic level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, green building (GB) has become the flagship of sustainable development, leading to a number of published works on the topic. This paper examines GB research trend in construction management (CM) through analyzing selected GB research papers published in 10 selected CM journals from 1990 to 2015 (as of end of August). The analysis is conducted in terms of the number of annual GB research publications, contributions made by various countries, institutions and authors, and research topics covered. The analysis reveals an increasing GB research interest in recent times, implying that the importance attached to GB by the construction industry is accelerating. The findings also indicate that during the studied period, researchers from developed economies such as the US, Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore, Italy, and Australia contributed most to promoting GB research. Developing countries such as China, Egypt, and Colombia also made good efforts to promote GB research. Research topics covered tend to focus on GB project delivery and developments, GB certifications, energy performance, and advanced technologies. Research gaps are discussed with directions for future research proposed. This study may serve as a valuable platform for both industry practitioners and researchers to appreciate GB research trends and developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our purpose was to develop a deep learning-based computed tomography (CT) perfusion mapping (DL-CTPM) method that synthesizes lung perfusion images from CT images.Methods and Materials: This paper presents a retrospective analysis of the pulmonary technetium-99m-labeled macroaggregated albumin single-photon emission CT (SPECT)/CT scans obtained from 73 patients at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong in 2019. The left and right lung scans were separated to double the size of the data set to 146. A 3-dimensional attention residual neural network was constructed to extract textural features from the CT images and reconstruct corresponding functional images. Eighty-four samples were randomly selected for training and cross-validation, and the remaining 62 were used for model testing in terms of voxel-wise agreement and function-wise concordance. To assess the voxel-wise agreement, the Spearman's correlation coefficient (R) and structural similarity index measure between the images predicted by the DL-CTPM and the corresponding SPECT perfusion images were computed to assess the statistical and perceptual image similarities, respectively. To assess the function-wise concordance, the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) was computed to determine the similarity of the low/high functional lung volumes.Results: The evaluation of the voxel-wise agreement showed a moderate-to-high voxel value correlation (0.6733 ± 0.1728) and high structural similarity (0.7635 ± 0.0697) between the SPECT and DL-CTPM predicted perfusions. The evaluation of the function-wise concordance obtained an average DSC value of 0.8183 ± 0.0752 for high-functional lungs (range, 0.5819-0.9255) and 0.6501 ± 0.1061 for low-functional lungs (range, 0.2405-0.8212). Ninety-four percent of the test cases demonstrated high concordance (DSC >0.7) between the high-functional volumes contoured from the predicted and ground-truth perfusions.Conclusions: We developed a novel DL-CTPM method for estimating perfusion-based lung functional images from the CT domain using a 3-dimensional attention residual neural network, which yielded moderate-to-high voxel-wise approximations of lung perfusion. To further contextualize these results toward future clinical application, a multi-institutional large-cohort study is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We focus on three locations in the Asia-Pacific region—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore. • We analyze the impact of variations in research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. • In each of the three cases, we compare and contrast the role of public and private R&D in boosting TFP growth as well as the pattern of causality between public and private R&D and the capacity of both types of R&D to generate economic spillovers. • We show that the impact of both private and public R&D varies across the three cases, with significant but limited outcomes for TFP growth in the case of Hong Kong, no significant growth in Shenzhen, but strong and positively significant growth in Singapore. In this paper, we focus on three locations in the Asia-Pacific region—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore—to analyse the impact of variations in research and development (R&D) spending on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. In each of the three cases, we compare and contrast the role of public and private R&D in boosting TFP growth as well as the pattern of causality involving public and private R&D and the capacity of both types of R&D to generate economic spillovers. Our results show that the impact of both public and private R&D varies across the three cases, with significant but limited outcomes for TFP growth in the case of Hong Kong, no significant growth in Shenzhen, but strong and positively significant growth in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the contemporaneous and long-term effects of tropical cyclones and the related policies on economic growth and associated structural changes. We consider three distinguishing features of tropical cyclones, including wind speed, precipitation, and storm surge height, as well as one policy-related feature of tropical cyclones in Hong Kong—the issuing of the No. 8 signal. Using data from Hong Kong for the period 1980–2018, we show that although tropical cyclone landfalls on the coast of Hong Kong have much higher average wind speeds, wind speed does not have a significant influence on either overall GDP or sectoral GDP. Economic losses from tropical cyclones are driven mainly by the issuing of the No. 8 signal, a climate policy in Hong Kong that suspends daily activities in dangerous tropical cyclone weather. With an average shutdown of 1.87 days due to No. 8 signals, the economic loss is about 0.9 billion U.S. dollars. However, in the long run, the No. 8 signal policy has delayed positive impacts on total GDP and some sectoral growth. Our analysis suggests that at least five years of recovery is necessary for damage attributed to severe tropical cyclones. • Precautionary climate policy for tropical cyclone can result in creative destruction effects on economic growth. • Natural disasters have cascading effects on the society, economic evaluation shall consider such effects. • Local government shall consider both short-run losses and long-run benefits when planning the climate-related budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theoretical framework of expected utility with uncertain probabilities, this paper uses actual prices of CSI300 and Hang Seng index to empirically measure ambiguity degrees in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong stock markets. A Markov regime-switching model is proposed to divide the stock market into bear and bull states, and then test whether there exist significant differences in the ambiguity degrees under different states. An ambiguity factor and a risk factor are then proposed to analyze the time-varying relationship among risk, ambiguity, and return under different states. In addition to the mean and variance, the high-order moments, including skewness and kurtosis, are used to test whether they affect the relationship among them. The results show that the ambiguity degrees in the Chinese mainland stock market are significantly higher than those in the Hong Kong stock market, and there are significant differences between bear and bull states for the two markets. Moreover, the regression results among risk, ambiguity, and return indicate that with ambiguity, the effects of risk factors on excess returns is significantly negative under bear state, and significantly positive under bull state, while it is significantly negative under the two states without ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the recent energy use intensity (EUI) in kWh/m2/year of Hong Kong's secondary schools. We found a 22% increase of EUI from, 2003 (86 kWh/m2/year) to 2017 (105 kWh/m2/year) approximately. It may be due to the increase in the number of air-conditioned classrooms. We then use a novel two-stage regression-based approach to analyse the most important set of statistically significant energy performance factors. Then, the energy use intensity (EUI) is normalized with these energy performance factors to find the benchmarking scores used to assess whether the electricity tariff affects schools' energy efficiency. In the first stage of the approach, we first conduct three methods of fitting regression models, backward, forward, and stepwise (OLS), to find a set of normalized factors and construct the benchmarking model. The first stage provides the normalized EUI range, approximately between 50 and 163 kWh/m2/year. In the second stage, if better goodness of fit is desired in the second stage, convex nonparametric least squares (CNLS) regression analyses are employed with the same set of normalized factors. This two-stage regression-based approach is called the OLS-CNLS approach. Using simple EUI (kWh/m2/year) results, we find that high tariff schools' energy efficiency is better than low tariff schools. However, the benchmarking scores (normalized EUIs) of the OLS-CNLS approach show that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. The energy efficiency of high tariff schools is not significantly better than that of low tariff schools. It implies that the tariff level is not a crucial factor associated with secondary schools' energy efficiency in Hong Kong. As the OLS-CNLS approach allows us to take all the significant energy performance factors into consideration to address the electricity tariff concern, the funding/budget policies probably motivate the school management to look for better EUI. • HK secondary school kWh/m2/yr increases to 105 in 2017 from 85 in 2002. • OLS-CNLS are proposed for developing benchmarking models. • OLS-CNLS is an enhanced regression-based method comparing with CNLS. • Benchmarking results show the insignificance of electricity tariff to EUI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, most of the intelligent transportation systems provide average travel times of all vehicles on selected paths in real time on a regular basis. However, path travel times of different vehicles could vary widely under different traffic conditions. There is a need to consider the differences in vehicle classes for path travel time estimation. This paper proposes a novel modeling framework that considers variance–covariance relationships between vehicle classes for real-time estimation of multi-class path travel times with use of multi-source traffic data collected from various types of sensors. The proposed methodology is examined with a case study of a selected urban expressway in Hong Kong with data obtained from multiple sources. The path travel time estimates by vehicle class are validated and the results demonstrate the merits and performance of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based commercial services, exemplified by drone delivery, have captured wide interest in tech companies, entrepreneurs, and policymakers. Structured route-based UAV operations have been implemented for traffic management of UAVs in support of commercial delivery services in cities. Yet, its essence, multi-path planning with constraints is not well solved in the existing literature. Centralized planning might result in inefficiencies and unfairness in the allocation of precious urban airspace to individual routes. This paper describes a novel distributed route planning method to support UAV operations in a high-density urban environment. The method allows each origin–destination (OD) pair to compete against other OD pairs for an optimized route (e.g. shortest distance), coordinated by a system-level evaluation, leading to a network design that maximizes the performance of not only the individual routes but also the entire system. The core concept is the introduction of congestion pricing, a soft constraint to coordinate the allocation of airspace. The method is tested in standard 2D scenarios and compared with other state-of-the-art methods. The results show that (1) the method is able to generate routes with short individual distances as well as occupying the least airspace by the route network; (2) in some complex scenarios, the method is able to find a solution in a short period of time while other state-of-the-art method fails. The method has also been applied to a real urban environment (Mong Kok in Hong Kong) to demonstrate its capability. • Presented a multi-path method to design air route networks for urban drone delivery. • Introduced congestion cost as a flexible constraint for airspace allocation. • Employed a distributed approach for resolving conflicts between origin-destination pairs. • Outperformed other leading methods in balancing efficiency and computation speed. • Validated the proposed system through tests in real-world settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) provides a unique tool for measuring large-scale and long-term land surface deformation. Under the assumption of a single linear deformation model in conventional InSAR, it is difficult to quantify and interpret the impacts of multiple environmental factors that presumably induce nonlinear deformations. In this paper, we propose a SAR-Transformer method to decompose InSAR time-series signals into various physics-related components and apply the method to evaluate the deformation of the world's longest cross-sea bridge, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB). We first developed an improved bridge geometry-based InSAR network to monitor the deformation of the HZMB using Sentinel-1 and COSMO-SkyMed images from 2019 to 2022, which were validated using the leveling and GPS data. The SAR-Transformer model was trained using synthetic InSAR time-series samples and applied to decompose the monitored InSAR measurements. Compared with that of conventional curve-fitting and seasonal-trend decomposition using LOESS, SAR-Transformer reduced the mean absolute error at least by 58.32% and mean absolute percentage error at least by 8.84% for time-series signal reconstruction. We evaluated the decomposed patterns according to the geotechnical, meteorological, and marine processes, and found that: 1) Seasonal thermal expansion owing to temperature changes was significant in all parts of the bridge, and deflection due to concrete shrinkage and creep was observed on cable-stayed bridges. 2) The artificial islands experienced evident ground subsidence with a decelerating trend. In particular, the newly adopted non-dredged reclamation method resulted in a lower decelerated settlement than that of fully-dredged reclamation areas. 3) The seawall showed linear horizontal movement from the outward stretching of the reclaimed soil consolidation and periodic displacement related to sea tidal loading. Furthermore, typhoons and coastal earthquakes had limited effects on the permanent movement of the bridge. These results improve the understanding of the interactions between artificial super-infrastructures and environmental factors, and provide valuable guidelines for the maintenance and management of the HZMB. • An improved BGN was developed to monitor bridge deformations in TSInSAR. • The SAR-Transformer model was proposed to decompose the InSAR time series. • Three indexes were generated for time-series deformation characterization. • The decomposed patterns were evaluated using various environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the time-varying and land use-induced spillover effects of urban redevelopment, providing a lens through which to understand the welfare implications of both the temporal dynamics and the land use changes that occur through urban transformation. By analysing redevelopment project and housing transaction data from Hong Kong between 2005 and 2020, we find significant, positive spillover effects of urban redevelopment on local housing prices following the redevelopment announcement, with diminishing magnitudes as the redevelopment project proceeds. We also find heterogeneous spillover effects associated with different functional land use changes in redevelopment projects. The direction and extent of these externalities depend on the trade-off between the changes in local amenities and the changes in the level of competitiveness in the local housing market. • Redevelopment has time-varying and land use-induced spillover effects. • In general, spillover effects show a diminishing magnitude as the project proceeds. • The time-varying spillover patterns depend on the specific changes in land uses. • Redevelopments pose negative spillovers through the competitiveness channel. • Redevelopments pose positive spillovers through the amenity channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conductive hydrogels have wide use in multifunctional sensors. Nevertheless, the intrinsic features of conductive hydrogels, including the absence of sensation mechanisms with varied properties, impede their application in wearable devices. To this end, this paper fabricated a novel 3D network material, namely C/PVA/CaCl 2 /HK (CPCH) hydrogel, that comprises incorporation of graphite (C), calcium chloride (CaCl 2), hydrolyzed keratin (HK), and the polyvinyl alcohol-based (PVA-based) hydrogel. The CPCH hydrogel and the CPCH secondary hydrogel both exhibit impressive mechanical properties. The former features a maximum stress of 2.98 MPa and a maximum strain of 588 %, while the corresponding values of the latter are 1.590 MPa and 573 %, respectively. Additionally, the result showed a maximum reflected light barrier of the CPCH hydrogel at a wavelength of 248 nm. The study found that the CPCH hydrogel holds the fingers attached to the upper surface during heating for up to 10 s, demonstrating superior heat insulation performance. The gel fraction analysis revealed that the gel makes up 57.1 % of our prepared CPCH hydrogel with a porosity of 62.5 %. Besides, we conducted a conductivity test on the proposed hydrogel, obtaining a measured conductivity value of 0.04 mS/cm. Furthermore, its practicality and feasibility have been confirmed via experiments. The results show that the CPCH conductive hydrogel can potentially be a temperature-strain sensor for wearable devices. [Display omitted] • Discovering a new type of material that can be reused. • Doping graphite can significantly enhance the mechanical properties of the material. • Doping graphite enhances the hydrogel's conductivity and flexibility, thereby improving the sensor's performance. • The temperature-strain sensor made of flexible conductive hydrogel exhibits good reliability and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]