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HKU publishes EOC-funded study on unconscious bias
A study, “Doing Equality Consciously: Understanding Unconscious Bias and its Role and Implications in the Achievement of Equality in Hong Kong and Asia”, funded by the Equal Opportunities Commission was published on 24 September 2019. The project was housed at The University of Hong Kong’s Women’s Studies Research Centre (WSRC) and the Faculty of Law’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL), and aimed to look into the types and extent of unconscious bias and the potential for intervention in different settings. The report offers several recommendations, including incorporating implicit bias awareness into early childhood education, and institutionalising training in governmental, educational, corporate, health, civil society, legal, and social welfare organisations.
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HKU linguist’s project on preserving an endangered language
Dr Cathryn Donohue, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Arts, has been working to preserve an endangered Tibeto-Burman language, Nubri, which has been described as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘definitely endangered’ by UNESCO. She has been working on the documentation of Nubri with the local community for the past few years and hopes to contribute to the preservation of this language. She also investigated possible maintenance efforts and in order to introduce a writing system to allow Nubri to be written and used in more domains, she facilitated a gathering of the Nubri people by organising eye clinics and have resulted in nearly 500 villagers in the remote Nubri Valley in Nepal receiving eye treatment and more than 50 villagers regaining sight through cataract surgery. By restoring vision for many in this community, the project created an opportunity for the community gathering to discuss orthographic options, and to record some of Nubri’s traditional medicinal practices. It also has a longer-term impact by contributing to the documentation of Nubri language and culture, and hopefully to the preservation of the language through the introduction of a community-endorsed writing system.
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HKUMed reveals WhatsApp chat support enhances smokers’ quitting rate
The Smoking Cessation Research Team at the School of Nursing and School of Public Health of the HKU Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine(HKUMed) conducted a cluster-randomised controlled trial at the 8th “Quit to Win” Smoke-free Community Campaign organised by the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health, which found that “WhatsApp chat support”, combined with brief smoking cessation interventions, could increase the chance of quitting by 60% to 90%. The study recruited 1,185 daily cigarette smokers, where 591 participants were randomised to the intervention group and 594 to the control group. Those who joined the intervention group have a quitting rate 90% higher than the control group at a three-month follow-up, and the chance of verified quitting was still 60% higher in the intervention group at six-month follow-up, which was three months after the end of “WhatsApp chat support”.
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Faculty Knowledge Exchange Awards 2019
The annual Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards recognise each Faculty’s outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organisations. Results of the 2019 Faculty KE Awards are now available.
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HKU longitudinal study finds screen readers improve learning efficiency in students with visual impairment
A two-year study by HKU Faculty of Education found screen readers effectively assist people with visual impairment to learn. A total of 50 participants including primary and secondary school students as well as adults with visual impairment were recruited. It found these students mainly used screen readers in language classes at school, which could replace Braille textbooks and help to reduce the weight of their school bags and increase their reading speed; adult users also found screen readers useful for helping them to cope with difficulties in their daily lives. Dr Allan Yuen, Deputy Director of the HKU Centre for Information Technology in Education, called for programme developers to consider the compatibility between screen-reading software when developing software, to provide more software for use by people who are visually impaired. He also recommended schools to provide sufficient computers to students with visual impairment for classroom and after school learning.
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HKU scholar receives 2018 Top Ten Healthy Mobile Phone / Tablet Apps Award for developing bilingual news glossary App “Newssary”
“Newssary”, a free Chinese-English news glossary App developed by Dr Eva Ng of the HKU Faculty of Arts has been named one of the 2018 Top Ten Healthy Mobile Phone / Tablet Apps in the “2018 Healthy Mobile Phone / Tablet Apps Contest” organised by the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA) of the HKSAR government. “Newssary” builds on the extensive bilingual news and current affairs glossary of nearly 9,000 entries created by Dr Ng and her team as a central feature of her website “Resources for Interpreting”. The glossary also includes buzzwords and slang.
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‘HKcBirds: Common Birds of Hong Kong’ was awarded the 2018 Top Ten Healthy Mobile Phone/Tablet Apps
The mobile app ‘HKcBirds: Common Birds of Hong Kong’, developed by Dr Yip Chi Lap, Beta and Dr Wong Ka Yan, Ivy of the Department of Computer Science, was awarded as one of the top 10 winning apps at the "2018 Meritorious Websites Contest and Healthy Mobile Phone/Tablet Apps Contest". The contest, organised by the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA), aims to encourage the youth to browse healthy websites and develop good surfing habit. The App "HKcBirds: Common Birds of Hong Kong" is jointly developed by HKU Department of Computer Science and The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society since 2014. It was under the KE Impact Project 2013/14 titled "Birds of Hong Kong in Your Hands".
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