Environmental benchmarking of Hong Kong buildings

A method for assessing the environmental performance of Hong Kong’s buildings has been developed, known as the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method or HK-BEAM. The assessment is a type of expert-based survey, either of the design, in the case of proposed buildings, or an evaluation of building performance for newly built or existing buildings. The assessment essentially provides a benchmark of environmental performance against a series of qualitative and quantitative measures that earn “credits”. Buildings can be rated as “excellent”, “very good”, “good” or “fair”. The assessment covers global, local and indoor issues. The original assessment has been in use since 1996 and allowed appraisal of new and existing air-conditioned offices. A new version has been recently produced for residential buildings. The latest version has addressed some of the criticisms of the earlier versions and covers a wider range of issues, taking a life-cycle approach. Reviews the latest new residential version, making comparisons with the earlier new offices scheme.

Interrelationship between anxiety, lifestyle self-reports and fitness in a sample of Hong Kong University students

Although anxiety in university students has been well documented, the influence of lifestyle and fitness status in relation to anxiety has not been investigated from a cultural perspective previously. To make recommendations regarding the avoidance or management of anxiety in this anxiety-prone cohort that are rationally based, this preliminary investigation examined the interrelationship between anxiety, lifestyle self-reports and aerobic fitness in Hong Kong Chinese University students. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y-2) and a lifestyle questionnaire were completed by 213 students. Female students were more anxious than male students. Subjects with high anxiety reported more deleterious lifestyle behaviours including higher salt consumption and lower levels of exercise; in addition to more frequent symptoms of anxiety such as headaches and daytime somnolence. The extremes of this sample were stratified into a low anxiety group ( n =17) and a high anxiety group ( n =14) to compare their fitness status. Although both groups had below normal aerobic capacity, the higher systolic blood pressure observed for the high anxiety group is consistent with signs of anxiety, or greater deconditioning in this group or both. The results of this study have highlighted anxiety as a concern in Hong Kong University students and identified some lifestyle and fitness correlates. Understanding lifestyle and pathophysiological correlates of anxiety in Hong Kong University students that may have a cultural basis, is a crucial step toward averting or managing anxiety when these students are studying either in Hong Kong or abroad.

Ethical perceptions of Hong Kong chinese business managers

This paper investigates ethical perceptions among Hong Kong Chinese managers of themselves and peers according to age, location of education and employment (local vs. multinational), based upon responses to thirteen potentially unethical situations.

The major conclusions of the study are: (1) there is little consistency among perceptions of ethical situations; (2) Hong Kong managers perceive their peers as more unethical than themselves; (3) ethical perceptions in some situations are affected by age and to a lesser extent, place of education; and (4) significant interactions were found between age and the nature of employer, as well as between the place of education and the nature of employer.

To conclude, the management implications of these findings are discussed.

Food habits of Hong Kong adolescents and their families

Findings from this research indicate that parents' eating habits and school food policy did not exert a positive influence on students' food choices. Only very few principals believed education influenced eating habits, and there were discrepancies between the attitudes and expections of parents and principals.

Reliability and validity of the IPAQ-L in a sample of Hong Kong urban older adults : does neighborhood of residence matter?

This study examined reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire–Long Form (IPAQ-LC) in Chinese seniors, including moderating effects of neighborhood walkability and socioeconomic status (SES) on reliability and validity. The IPAQ-LC was interviewer-administered (n = 96), accelerometer and 7-day walk-diary data were collected (n = 94), and the IPAC-LC was readministered (N = 92). Acceptable reliability was found for all measures of physical activity (PA) overall and across different types of neighborhood. Participants from highly walkable neighborhoods were more reliable at estimating walking for transport. Participants from low-SES areas were less reliable at estimating leisure-time PA and sitting but more reliable at estimating transport-related walking. IPAQ-LC walking was significantly related to light- but not moderate-intensity accelerometry-based PA. It was moderately to strongly related to a 7-day diary of walking. The data imply slow-paced walking, probably due to age, climate, and terrain. The findings suggest that the IPAQ-LC’s reliability and validity are acceptable in Chinese seniors.

A dynamic model of tourism, employment and welfare: the case of Hong Kong

The present paper uses a dynamic open-economy model with wage indexation to examine the impact of tourism on employment and welfare. Both short-run and long-run situations are analysed. It is well known that tourism converts non-traded goods into tradable goods. An increase in the demand for a non-traded good raises its relative price, which results in an expansion of the non-traded sector at the expense of the traded goods sector. This output shift raises labour employment in the short run. However, in the long run, the higher relative price leads to higher wages, resulting in a negative impact on labour employment. If the output effect is dominant, the expansion in tourism raises employment and welfare. However, under realistic conditions tourism may lower both labour employment and welfare due to rising costs. These results are demonstrated by simulating a dynamic model for the case of Hong Kong.

Application of the adaptive reuse potential model in Hong Kong : a case study of Lui Seng Chun

There is an increasing complexity and interplay between all of the issues associated with property portfolio decisions. This paper explores the relationships between financial, environmental and social parameters associated with building adaptive reuse by way of a case study. A new model predicting adaptive reuse potential is applied to a heritage building in Hong Kong known as Lui Seng Chun. Such application can assist in the transformation of the building and property industry towards more sustainable practices, strategies and outcomes, by providing a means by which the industry can identify and rank existing buildings that have high potential for adaptive reuse. In Hong Kong's case it provides an ability for sustainable, responsive energy and natural resource management by allowing issues regarding excessive and inappropriate resource use to be identified and assessed, and appropriate management strategies to be implemented. Given the building's current age and condition, Lui Seng Chun has at least 25 years of physical life remaining. The further application of a multi-criteria sustainability evaluation tool supports the conclusion that an adaptive reuse strategy for this building will make a demonstrable contribution to the economic, social and environmental amenity of Hong Kong. The application of these techniques to other buildings with significant "embedded physical life" is highly recommended.

Academics' experiences of teaching Australian 'non-local' courses in Hong Kong

This paper reports on some research from an ARC funded project conducted by the authors into the ways in which Australian universities establish collaborations with partners in Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea to offer courses in those countries. The research used principally qualitative methods (interviews, observations, document collection and analysis) to develop case-studies of a range of partnerships in Hong Kong. The project commenced in 1999 and is in its final stages. The paper discusses the experiences of staff who developed, administered and taught courses offered in Hong Kong by Australian institutions in partnership with a local provider. It presents and discusses findings on their reasons for working 'off-shore' in Hong Kong, their engagement with local staff and students, and their experience of Hong Kong students' coping with Australian curricula, pedagogies and assessment.