Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education

BackgroundThe Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) is a widely adopted tool for assessing nutritional risk in patients. This study introduces a novel, non-invasive, efficient, and accurate screening approach to complement the traditional NRS2002 assessment, addressing its inherent limitations.MethodsA dataset comprising 672 tongue images from 470 tumor patients was collected. A new predictive analysis system for NRS2002 was developed by integrating two model branches. Machine learning was employed for risk prediction, and a ResNet50 neural network was utilized to extract high-dimensional features from tongue images. This architecture was enhanced with Shuttle Attention mechanism. The final predictions were derived through the fusion of both model branches.ResultsThe fusion of the two branches significantly improved the model’s ability to capture complex features. For both at-risk and risk-free cohorts, the system demonstrated optimal classification performance across three key metrics: AUC = 0.919, ACC = 0.927, and Recall = 0.888. In ablation studies, the SelectNet module improved ACC and AUC by 17.25 and 16.14%, respectively. Furthermore, the integration of the shuttle attention mechanism led to additional gains, with AUC and ACC increasing by 3.89 and 1.94%, respectively.ConclusionWe successfully developed and validated an NRS2002 nutritional risk prediction model based on tongue image characteristics. This tool has the potential to minimize human error, improve dynamic performance, and provide non-invasive, accurate nutritional risk screening. It represents a step forward in personalized medicine and holds substantial clinical value.

Living organisms, including human beings, spending time outdoors may be harmed by ultraviolet radiation. This research aimed to quantify the effects of vegetation, weather, and their interaction on UV-B irradiances (280-315nm) in outdoor recreational spaces. UV-B irradiances in a playground shaded by trees and a roof garden in Hong Kong were monitored from 9 October 2020 to 3 November 2020. A turf was used as a control site. UV-B values during the after-school hours (12:00-13:00h and 15:30-16:30h) of a kindergarten in sunny and cloudy weather were analysed using mixed-effects models. The results showed high UV-B levels on the control turf (3.23W/m2) and the roof garden (3.34W/m2) on sunny midday but significantly lower in the playground (2.41W/m2). Cloudy weather significantly decreased UV-B irradiances by 40%. The sparse and thin tree crowns in the playground implied equivalent UV-B protection factor values at 1.2-1.4, corresponding to a reduction in UV-B by 17-29%. Behaviourally, playtime could be postponed from midday to afternoon and shifted from sunny to cloudy days to avoid excessive UV-B exposure. This research highlighted the necessity of other sun protection measures despite protection from the tree canopy.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of technology-led event sustainability consumption values (TESCVs) on attendees’ perceptions of green event image, sustainable event loyalty, and subsequent behavioral outcomes. Results of the responses of 444 event participants indicated that technology-led co-creation value, technology-led green value, emotional and epistemic value, and social value positively impacted green event image. Further, the positive effect of sustainable event loyalty significantly predicted behavioral outcomes including word-of-mouth promotion, willingness to pay more, and revisit intention. The study also showed that while collectivism orientation had a minimal influence on these relations, environmental identity did not exhibit any moderation impact. These findings provide valuable insights and feasible strategies for event stakeholders aiming to enhance attendee engagement and long-term commitment.

ABSTRACTParents of children with special needs commonly encounter obstacles to effectively support their child's academic and social–emotional development. Despite the difficulties in parenting children with diverse types of exceptionalities, there has been scant research on psychological resources that can promote their mental health functioning. This research explores the direct and indirect (via perceived social support to different social partners and generalized self‐efficacy) associations of stress mindset with mental health problems and parental stress in 253 parents of children with special needs via a cross‐sectional design. A survey measuring stress mindset, perceived social support, generalized self‐efficacy, parental stress and mental health problems was administered. The results demonstrated that stress‐is‐enhancing mindset was linked to milder mental health problems and parental stress via its positive associations with generalized self‐efficacy and perceived social support. This research coheres with existing evidence on how stress‐is‐enhancing mindset in specific domains facilitates optimal psychological outcomes, especially in challenging family contexts.

Doctoral students and apprentices are much alike. Doctoral students are treated as junior academic scholars. They must follow and learn different knowledge and research skills from their senior academic scholars, mainly supervisors and other congenial faculty members within the department. During the process, reflectivity is one of their vital self-fulfilment tools to elucidate, contemplate, ruminate, and then internalize all the given prescriptions. By adopting communities of practice as a theoretical framework, this article has employed an auto-ethnographical approach aimed at reflecting the author’s lived research experiences as a doctoral student in Hong Kong. By revealing the journeys of accommodating reflexivity, this article argues that, apart from senior members within the communities of practice, cultivations of reflexivity are also feasible from beyond the communities. This article will contribute to levels like doctoral supervision and the fulfilment of doctoral students.