Newsletter No. 167

2 No. 167 19th June 2000 CUHK Newsletter Partnership to Advance Software Development The University is joining forces w i th Flashline.com Inc., the company running the premier software component portal, to deliver top-of-the-line software products, services, and resources to businesses and organizations worldwide. The Open Component Foundation (OCF) of the University's Centre for Innovation and Technology w i ll work with Flashline.com Inc. to promote the process of component-based development. Developing software with reusable components or building blocks of code instead of wr i t i ng them line by line dramatically increases the productivity of the programmer and results in highly stable and flexible systems. Proven benefits of component-based development include faster time-to-market, streamlined development, and more reliable and flexible systems. OCF is the territory's first initiative to p r omo te so f twa re q u a l i ty and reusability to help Hong Kong and mainland China become a competitive force in the global software market. The partnership w i l l provide mainland Chinese developers with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to ensure quality in software development. It w i ll also provide American businesses with much needed programmers as it w i l l open doors to previously unavailable software development resources in China. F l a s h l i n e . c om I nc. and OCF announced in May that areas o f collaboration include component design projects, training and education, a software component marketplace, and quality assurance testing. Academics gather to Study I mp l i c a t i o n s of Asian Economic Crisis Academics in economics and related subjects from the world over gathered at the Regal R i ve r s i de Ho t el at the invitation of University on 27th and 28th May to reflect upon the global implications of the Asian economic crisis, to discuss critical issues, and to make plans for the future. The conference, entitled 'Global Transformation After the Asian Economic Crisis', was jointly organized by the University's Department o f De c i s i on Sciences and Managerial Economics, the Guanghua School of Management, and the China Centre of Economic Research of Peking University, and co-sponsored by the International Economics and Finance Society (Hong Kong Chapter). Topics covered at the symposium include China's economy after the crisis, Asian economies after the crisis, post- crisis transformation in overall thinking, investment and location, finance and currency, governance and policies, trade policies and allocative efficiency, and technology and system development. The keynote speeches were delivered by Senator Dr. 01am Chaipravat from Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand, and Prof. Thomas W. He r t el f r om Purdue University in the US. TUMOUR COURSE BROADCASTLIVE TO MAINLAND VIA TELEMEDICINE A p p r o x i ma t e ly 100 pa t ho l og i s t s, neurosurgeons, and neuroradiologists from both the private and public health sectors participated in a brain tumour course jointly organized by the Brain Disease Laboratory of the Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology and the Hong Kong Division of the International Academy of Pathology on 27th May at the Prince of Wales Hospital. The course was broadcast simultaneously to Tongji Medical University in Wuhan, and Shantou University, with whom the University has telemedical links. An equal number of academics in those regions attended the course. The first broadcast was supported by Hua Xia Foundation and the second, by the L i Ka Shing Foundation. Prof. Peter C. Burger of Johns Hopkins University, one of the key panelists for the new World Health Organization system of classification (2000) o f brain tumours, was the keynote speaker. He spoke on the new grading and diagnostic criteria for brain tumours according to the new system of classification. Lecture on Improving Schooling Outcome Measurement Internationally-renowned educator, Prof. Jon Douglas Willms (middle), professor and director of the Canadian Research I ns t i t u te for Social Po l i cy at the University of New Brunswick, delivered a public lecture entitled 'Performing Monitoring of Schooling Outcomes: What Should We Be Measuring and Why?' on 29th May under the Sir Edward Youde M e m o r i a l F u nd V i s i t i ng Professorship. In his lecture, Prof. Willms argued that while governments in most modem societies have established routine monitoring of the performance of their schools in the be l i ef that it wou ld motivate educators to provide a better education, the k i nd o f i n f o rma t i on collected in these monitoring exercises is in most cases inadequate. He also suggested ways that monitoring systems can be strengthened. Experts Warn of Emerging Issues in Women's Health Women aged 50 and above account for about 14 per cent of the Hong Kong population, and the percentage is expected to increase substantially with postwar babies entering into their mature years. Chung Ch i Co l l ege and the Programme in Ep i d em i o l o gy and Biostatistics of the University organized the Symposium on Emerging Issues of Women's Health on 26th May to look into the effects o f phys i ca l, psychological, and lifestyle conditions on women's health and identify measures to improve health in women after mid-life. Issues addressed included occupational health in women and women's roles as carers; measures proposed to improve health included controlling body weight and avoiding central obesity, increasing physical activity and intake of fruit and vegetables, maintaining mobility, and preventing depression. Conference on Methodology of Small Risk Studies Eminent scholars from Canada, Japan, and H o ng K o n g add r es sed the methodological issues related to studies o f risk factors that may be weakly associated with certain diseases but have significant public health impacts, such as studies of lifestyles, dietary intake, and physical activity. Entitled 'Methodological Issues in Epidemiological Studies of Small Risks', the event was held on 26th May at the Ho Sin-Hang Engineering Building. Opening remarks were made by Prof. Kenneth Young, acting vice-chancellor and dean of the Graduate School The conference was attended by some 200 postgraduate students, researchers, and health professionals. It was organized by the Postgraduate Programmes in Ep i demi o l ogy and Biostatistics of the University's Faculty o f Med i c i ne and sponsored by the Research Grants Council's Postgraduate Conference Grants.