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HKU Urban Studies and Planning team offers solution to a GPS blind spot in multilevel road networks
Present vehicle navigation system that uses GPS has a long existing problem in determining which road level a vehicle has entered, especially for flyovers parallel to the ground level. Professor Anthony Yeh Gar-On’s research team at the Department of Urban Planning and Design solved the problem with their Angle Difference Method which can instantly identify whether a vehicle has entered a flyover or is still on the ground level. It works with an ordinary smartphone that can be put anywhere at any angle in the vehicle with a plugged in or installed onboard diagnostic (OBD) device. The invention won a gold medal award at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions. The team is in talks with major digital map providers to apply the patented method into their navigation systems.
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HKU wins two TechConnect Global Innovation Awards at TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo 2018
HKU has won two TechConnect Global Innovation Awards at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo (TCWI) 2018 to be held in the US in May. The two award-winning innovations, both by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, are "Omniphobic porous membrane and methods for preparing the same" by Professor Wang Liqiu and Mr Zhu Ping An, and "Super Steel - A method for the fabrication of a super-strong and ductile multi-phase steel" by Dr Huang Mingxin and Dr He Binbin. The Innovation Awards identify the top 15% of submitted technologies based on the potential positive impact the technology on a specific industry sector. Over 240 submissions from about 95 organisations were received this year.
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HKU medical research team reveals damage to biliary system by ketamine abuse reversible after quitting
A research team of the HKU Department of Medicine and North District Hospital’s Department of Surgery performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 257 ketamine abusers who had been abusing ketamine for an average duration of 10.5 years. Sixty percent of participants had abnormalities of the biliary system on MRI. Biliary tract damage was reversible in six participants who had a second MRI scan after quitting ketamine abuse, which found all participants had improvement in abdominal symptoms and normalization of liver enzymes. The reversibility of biliary tract damage after quitting ketamine and the development of liver cirrhosis after longstanding exposure are important public health messages which should be emphasized in educational efforts when combating against substance abuse. Dr Walter Seto Wai-kay, HKU Clinical Associate Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology said the study enhances their understanding of the toxic effects of ketamine on the biliary system and the liver. He hopes the findings will motivate current drug abusers to quit, and will encourage our community’s efforts in ‘saying no’ to drug abuse.
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HKU and Mainland scientists develop a scientific model for estimating site-specific metal toxicities in marine environments
A research team led jointly by Professor Kenneth Leung Mei-yee, Deputy Director of the HKU School of Biological Sciences, and Professor Wu Fengchang, Director of State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment at Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), developed a novel empirical model for predicting metal toxicities and deriving their water quality criteria (WQC) in different marine environments worldwide. The novel method developed by the team will greatly improve the management of metal and metalloids in coastal marine environments worldwide, as environmental authorities can employ this method to derive provisional site-specific WQC for facilitating better ecosystem protection with consideration of specific environmental conditions and potential influences of global climate change.
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Dentistry’s Knowledge Exchange Dialogue 2018
The Faculty of Dentistry has recently published Knowledge Exchange Dialogue 2018, which features 14 KE projects conducted by faculty members and students in 2016-17. The stories were written by a group of students from the School of Communication of Hong Kong Baptist University as part of their practicum project.
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Knowledge of Oral Health
Knowledge of Oral Health is an oral health brochure published by the Faculty of Dentistry for the general public. It consists of 74 articles that were published in am730 newspaper between 2015 and 2017.
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HKU launches food app to help consumers make healthier choices in supermarkets
The HKU school of biological sciences and the George Institute for Global Health in Australia jointly developed an app called FoodSwitch HK to help consumers choose healthier food and drinks in the supermarket simply by scanning the barcode of a product. The app highlights the fat, salt, sugar and energy content of the product through a colour coded system and uses a star rating system to indicate the overall nutritious value. It also offers up a healthier alternative when available. The database contains nutrition information of 13,000 pre-packaged products in local supermarkets. Dr Jimmy Louie Chun-yu, assistant professor of food and nutritional science at HKU and a registered dietitian, said based on several studies, Hongkongers eat up to 10 grams of salt a day, twice the World Health Organisation's recommended daily intake. He hopes the new app can help consumers to make healthier choices.
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