Newsletter No. 386

No. 386, 4.11.2011 5 Apostrophe s At the Chinese University we award thousands of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees each year. The first degrees we award to graduates are Bachelor’s degrees in their academic subjects. The next higher degree is usually the Master’s degree. Note that the mention of these two academic degrees always takes an apostrophe s, as in the following examples: Philip has a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics. [ not bachelor degree or bachelors degree] And even if the word degree is left out: With a Master’s in German, she should have no difficulty in reading Rilke. [ not Master or Masters] Readers who frequently dine out may have noticed that many of the restaurant names also take an apostrophe s. Notable examples include Dan Ryan’s and Hugo’s . Our first date was at Jimmy’s, the neighbourhood diner at the corner of 53rd & Chestnut. Even the global fast-food chain McDonald’s is no exception. Billy had his birthday parties at the McDonald’s each year until he was twelve! When an academic degree or a famous eatery is in issue, it always pays to check if its name is hooked with a little s at the end. Editor www.cuhk.edu.hk/iso/en/features/style-speaks/index.html In Plain View 胡應劭教授於香港大學取得動物學博士學位,及後往美國加州大學柏克萊分校 接受博士後訓練。1977年他加入中大生物系擔任講師,並兩度出任生物系系主任 (1994至96年,2004至10年),現為生命科學學院教授。胡教授研究魚類生理 學達三十五年,主要範疇為魚類滲透壓調節以及內分泌調節機制。 Prof. Norman Y.S. Woo received his PhD in Zoology from the University of Hong Kong, and did his postdoctoral training in Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the then Biology Department of CUHK as lecturer in 1977, and became the department‘s chairman from 1994 to 1996 and from 2004 to 2010. He is currently a professor at the School of Life Sciences. He has been studying fish physiology for over 35 years, with thrusts being towards piscine osmoregulation and its endocrine control mechanisms. 胡應劭教授(中)和他的研究團隊 Prof. Norman Y.S. Woo (centre) and his research team trigger this mechanism. When the fish feel the change in salinity, their gills, kidneys and some other organs will make osmotic adjustments. These chemicals behave like hormones in humans. Generally speaking, fish use a third of their total energy to work this mechanism, so theoretically they survive best in brackish water, because it does away with the need to remove or replenish sodium. They can then channel the energy into other uses, most significantly turning food into protein, which results in faster growth and a stronger immune system. Professor Woo observes that all seawater fish have both of these osmotic adjustment functions though one is almost never used. Take coral fish for instance. Spending all their lives in high-salinity environments renders their sodium-replenish function idle, and by the theory of evolution, degenerate and disappear. According to Professor Woo’s deductions, the most plausible explanation is that osmotic specialization began in the Devonian Period some 300 million years ago. Seawater then was a lot less salty than it is now, so fish were able to adjust to living in fresh water. Through the ages, as the oceans’ salinity rose, sea fish developed another function which allows them to get rid of excess sodium, alongside the function they inherited from their ancestors. Professor Woo has awakened this function in sea fish that had been latent for tens of millions of years. He used sea bream in his study because it is available in large numbers locally and it’s hardy. He has completely mastered the technology of keeping salt water fish in fresh water. Does it have great potential for development and what is its commercial value? ‘I never thought of that. Commercial fish farming is a totally different matter. Salt water fish raised in fresh water tend to have a milder flavour, which may not appeal as much to Hong Kongers as real sea fish. But our aim is scientific research. We use different ways to think and observe, and uncover the mysteries of evolution. That is a biologist’s greatest pleasure.’ 任何社會都需要各種不同設施,提供服務,支援社會發展。但是, 當發電廠、醫院、監獄、火葬場、垃圾堆填區、化廢料處理站、賭 場等選址落在自家社區時,居民雖欲得其利,卻因「鄰避」心態 (NIMBY:Not in My BackYard)作祟,對興建有關設施未必歡 迎,甚或會演變成抗議示威,導致工程延誤,發展費用增加,甚至 工程取消。 本書由香港中文大學馮通教授和林健枝教授,以及澳洲詹姆斯庫 克大學Prof. S. Hayden Lesbirel合編,探討多個亞太地區如香 港、日本、中國大陸、台灣、越南、新加坡等處理不受歡迎的設施 選址所引起的衝突的手法,收錄了熟悉當地情況的學者的論述。 他們採用了理論、比較、政策為本等手法,分析個案中的環境爭 議、危機處理和公眾參與。編者的導言和總論則提綱挈領,提供 選址個案的背景。 現有研究設施選址的文獻多源於歐美經驗,這本文集所載的亞 太經驗有利於比較研究。此外,大部分現有文獻均假設社區和發 展者之間的矛盾才值得注視,又假定選址的問題在建造階段前便 會結束。文集不但挑戰這兩個假設,更強調毗鄰地區在選址爭議 中的重要性,以及必須考慮在建造後階段出現的矛盾和衝突。對 於全球各地的政策制定者、環境學家和學者,這些都是非常寶貴 和實用的資料。 All societies require a full array of facilities to provide services and support for societal development. But when power plants, hospitals, prisons, incinerators, chemical waste disposal and waste treatment facilities are located in the communities, they will become ‘unwanted’ and are increasingly being rejected. The ‘Not In My BackYard (NIMBY)’ dilemma often leads to protest and oppositions, and can result in project delays, increased development costs, and even cancellation of projects. This volume, co-edited by Prof. Fung Tung and Prof. Lam Kin-che of CUHK and Prof. S. Hayden Lesbirel of James Cook University, Australia, explores the management of conflicts arising from the siting of unwanted projects on a variety of Asia-Pacific locations, including Hong Kong, Japan, mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, and others. Contributions are drawn from several leading scholars intimately familiar with the locations under study, and employ theoretical, comparative, and policy-based approaches to analysis of environmental conflict, risk management, and public participation. The editors also provide introductory and concluding sections in which the siting issues under discussion are summarized and contextualized. The majority of facility siting literature originates from experience in North America and Europe. This book, by explicitly focusing on Asia-Pacific experience, makes a major contribution to the growing comparative siting literature. Much of the literature presumes the only conflicts that matter are those involved between host communities and developers, and assumes the siting issue ends during the preconstruction stage. This book challenges both assumptions and stresses the importance of neighbouring communities in siting conflicts and the need to consider postconstruction conflicts. The result is a collection that serves as an invaluable aid and source of information for policymakers, environmentalists, and scholars of the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere. Facility Siting in the Asia-Pacific Editors: Tung FUNG, S. Hayden LESBIREL, Kin-che LAM Publisher: Chinese University Press Year: 2011 書 訊 BOOKS

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDE2NjYz