(Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Job performance has long been understood to be the primary equalizing factor affecting promotions for men and women in the workplace, but research shows, women don't gain as much from the same performance improvements as men do. New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research shows training plays an important part in promotions for women in the field of information technology.

(Carnegie Mellon University) Intelligent tutoring systems have been shown to be effective in helping to teach certain subjects, such as algebra or grammar, but creating these computerized systems is difficult and laborious. Now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have shown they can rapidly build them by, in effect, teaching the computer to teach.

(Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center) A study conducted at LSU Health New Orleans has shown for the first time that chronic exposure to inhaled nicotine alone increases blood pressure in both the body's general circulation and in the lungs that can lead to pulmonary hypertension. The study also found that nicotine-induced pulmonary hypertension is accompanied by changes in the size, shape and function (remodeling) of the blood vessels in the lung and the right lower chamber of the heart.

(University of Bath) For the first time, labs around the world can 3D print their own precision microscopes, thanks to an open-source design created at Bath.

(American Chemical Society) The COVID-19 pandemic has scientists considering a few less-conventional options while vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are being developed. One option might be the oral polio vaccine. We chatted with one of the researchers proposing the idea -- Robert Gallo, M.D. -- to understand why a vaccine that hasn't been used in the U.S. for two decades might provide short-term protection against this new coronavirus: https://youtu.be/Wqw4aX4c33c.

(University of Cambridge) Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks, particularly during lockdown. A new study of children under the age of two has found that parents who take a more flexible approach to their child's learning can - for children who were easy babies - minimise behavioural problems during toddlerhood.

(Elsevier) Children looking for health information online could end up more prone to obesity. A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, shows a lack of digital health literacy can lead children to misinterpret portions, adopt recommendations intended for adults, or take guidance from noncredible sources.

Hong Kong Observatory Director Cheng Cho-ming today said he expects four to seven tropical cyclones to hit Hong Kong this year.

Presenting the weather outlook at a press briefing in the afternoon, Mr Cheng also said the overall mean temperature for the year will be higher than normal.

“The way that we produce our temperature forecast is based on a couple of things. One is based on the worldwide climate model - what they forecast for this year - and also based on some objective indicators.

“Based on all these indicators we expect that the overall mean temperature this year will be above normal, and very likely, will have a high chance of reaching the top 10 positions.”

Reviewing last year’s weather, Mr Cheng noted Hong Kong experienced its second warmest winter since records began, with a mean temperature of 18.7 degrees Celsius.

There was only one day when the temperature fell below 12 degrees Celsius.

Additionally, Mr Cheng said the new Hong Kong Hiking Trail Weather Service webpage has been launched to provide weather information services to people taking part in outdoor activities.

He added the Observatory also collaborated with the Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department to provide weather information at popular hiking hotspots via QR codes.

The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department (AFCD) and the Leisure & Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced today that some of their facilities will be closed in light of the latest developments of COVID-19.

Country park barbecue sites and campsites of the AFCD will be closed from 6pm on March 28 for 14 days. There are 163 barbecue sites and 41 campsites under the management of the AFCD.

During the closure of these facilities, barbecue or camping activities in country parks will not be allowed and AFCD staff will step up patrols of the sites concerned and take appropriate action against any violation of relevant regulations.

Call 1823 for enquiries and visit the Enjoy Hiking website for updates on country park facilities.

As for LCSD facilities, its free outdoor leisure facilities will be closed from 6pm on March 28.

Other venues and facilities with services already suspended will continue to be closed until further notice.

All booking applications for the department's recreation and sports facilities, wedding venues, amphitheatres and non-fee charging leisure venues for non-designated use are also suspended.

Meanwhile, the Housing Authority will close its outdoor sports and recreational facilities from 6pm tomorrow until further notice.

The Government today said the first batch of subsidies amounting to $5.6 million under two relief measures for recyclers has been disbursed, while $5.6 million in subsidies had been approved under a management sector support scheme.

The two Recycling Fund measures aim to help the recycling industry cope with the current economic situation and recent operational difficulties arising from the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Advisory Committee on Recycling Fund announced in mid-March to reserve $100 million to launch the One-off Recycling Industry Anti-epidemic Scheme.

The scheme provides timely financial support to help with recyclers’ operational costs for six months. The funding limit for each recycler is $20,000 per month from January 1 to June 30, or $120,000 in total maximum subsidy.

The committee has also allocated additional funds to extend the earlier-launched One-off Rental Support Scheme for another six months, providing a total funding of $200 million to fight the virus and help the recycling industry ride out the difficult times.

The rental support scheme, which benefits street-corner recycling shops and recycling sites, originally ran from October to March. It has been extended for six months until September this year, totalling 12 months.

The monthly rental subsidy for each recycler is capped at $25,000, setting the maximum total rental subsidy at $300,000.

Separately, the Anti-epidemic Support Scheme for Property Management Sector has approved 205 applications involving around $5.6 million in subsidies to benefit more than 1,500 building blocks.

The relevant property management companies and owners’ organisations will receive notifications for subsidy disbursement shortly.

The list of properties for which applications have been approved is available online.

Briefing sessions were held earlier to introduce the scheme to the property management sector and owners’ organisations.

The maximum monthly rental subsidy for each recycler under the One-off Rental Support Scheme will be increased from $25,000 to $37,500, the Environmental Protection Department announced today.

To help the recycling industry cope with the current economic situation and operational difficulties due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Recycling Fund has allocated $50 million in additional funds to raise the scheme’s subsidy level.

The fund has now earmarked up to $250 million in total funding to fight the virus and help the recycling industry ride out difficult times.

On April 15, the Advisory Committee on Recycling Fund agreed to strengthen support under the scheme by increasing the rental assistance from 50% to 75% for the subsidy period from April to September.

The maximum monthly rental subsidy for each recycler will be increased to $37,500, while the maximum total rental subsidy for the 12 months will be increased from $300,000 to $375,000.

The scheme was launched last year to benefit about 500 street-corner recycling shops and 400 recycling sites.

In the face of current economic difficulties, the fund announced in February an extension of the subsidy period from six months to 12 months, lasting until September.     

As of April 9, the scheme has approved 103 applications, involving subsidies of more than $20 million.

The application deadline for the scheme is September 30. Enquiries can be made to 2788 5658 or via email.

Vladimir Dragović and Irina Goryuchkina
Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 57 (2020), 293-299.
Abstract, references and article information

Carlos Gustavo T. Moreira, Maria José Pacifico and Sergio Romaña Ibarra
Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 57 (2018), 269-292.
Abstract, references and article information

The recent economic downturn has dealt a severe blow to many employees. However, for Shiu Yin-ming and Poon Man-kit, the crisis has brought them skill-upgrading opportunities.

Miss Shiu has over 30 years’ experience in the retail industry. Her last job was a salesperson at a lighting store. Struck by the competition with online stores and a series of protests, the shop closed in October last year and left her unemployed.

“I have got no choice. Many people in Hong Kong have mortgage burdens. It is the most worrying part. And it is frightening to see my account balance drop,” she said.

Miss Shiu spent several months trying to get a job but failed.

“Of course I was frustrated. Perhaps the employers think that young people are more hard-working. It is difficult for middle-aged people like me to get a job. It hurt my confidence and I hesitated to keep going."

Seeing the demand in the healthcare industry, Miss Shiu decided to swap careers. She joined the Love Upgrading Special Scheme and enrolled in the Foundation Certificate in Care-related Support Worker Training.

The course covered basic pathology and healthcare skills. It also arranged recruitment from the Hospital Authority in class. Miss Shiu said the special course helped her to find a job and she will soon work at a nursing home.

“It is like an admission ticket. During an interview at a nursing home, the interviewer asked how I would change a nappy for an elderly person. I answered what I had learnt from the course. Moreover, as I have not participated in an interview after so many years of work, the interview skills that I have learnt from the course have geared me up,” she said.

Better prospects

Young newcomers to the job market are also affected by the economic downturn.

Mr Poon has been engaged in casual work in the catering industry. The 19-year-old said there used to be plenty of casual job opportunities on career websites, but that is no longer the case. He has been underemployed in recent months and feels his family just see him as someone who is not in education, employment, or training.

“The full-time waiters have not got much work to do, and each of them is assigned to be responsible for a few positions. So, the restaurant does not need extra casual manpower. My relatives look down on me like I am a neet,” he said.

Mr Poon has enrolled in the Foundation Certificate in Barista Training to gain experience in different positions in the industry.

"Many coffee shops and hotels need people to make latte art. I think the course will help me get a job more easily. I plan to further enroll in other courses relating to pastry-making," he added.

Skills upgrade

The Love Upgrading Special Scheme, launched in last October, provides free training to employees affected by the recent economic downturn to upgrade their skills. The courses are conducted in full-time or part-time mode and offer special allowances.

According to the Employees Retraining Board, as of the end of March, more than 12,200 people have applied for the scheme. About one-third of them are aged between 50 to 59.

The applicants mainly come from the catering, retail, social and personal services industries.

The most popular course is the Foundation Certificate in Care-related Support Worker Training, followed by courses related to baker and pastry cook, barista and security training.

Employees Retraining Board Executive Director Byron Ng said the 66 courses under the scheme were specially selected.

“We want to help those employees in the hard-hit industries like tourism, catering, retail, hotel, construction, etc. Also, we want to provide courses in industries which demand heavy labour during this period, such as healthcare and innovative technology.”

The scheme does not impose any restrictions on the trainees’ industry and educational attainment.

“We hope to encourage all unemployed or underemployed employees, including those who are highly educated, and take these chances to upgrade their own skills so they can re-enter the market smoothly,” Mr Ng said.

He added that those who have completed a full-time vocational skills course will get a follow-up service that includes three months of employment.

The second phase of the scheme will be launched in July, and the monthly maximum allowance is expected to increase from $4,000 to $5,800.

The SAS Universal Viewer displays null values appropriately as blanks for XPT files. However, when you select Table ? Save As and save an XPT file as either an XML or CSV file, the SAS Universal Viewer con

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(Cleveland Clinic) A new Cleveland Clinic study demonstrates the importance of genetics evaluation and genetic testing for children, adolescents and young adults with solid tumor cancers. The study was published today in Nature Communications.

(Wiley) A recent Psycho-Oncology analysis of published studies found that few cancer survivors received financial information support from healthcare facilities during their initial treatment, even though cancer-related financial toxicity has multiple impacts on survivors' health and quality of life.

(American Association for Cancer Research) Combining intratumoral electroporation of interleukin-12 (IL-12) DNA (tavokinogene telseplasmid, or TAVO) with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) led to clinical responses in patients with immunologically quiescent advanced melanoma, according to results from a phase II trial.

(University of Virginia Health System) Focused ultrasound, the researchers hope, could revolutionize treatment for conditions from Alzheimer's to epilepsy to brain tumors -- and even help repair the devastating damage caused by stroke.

(Wiley) Heart failure and cancer are conditions with a number of shared characteristics. A new study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that in patients with heart failure, several known tumor markers can also be indicators of heart failure severity and progression.

(Luxembourg Institute of Health) Scientists at the Department of Infection and Immunity of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) revealed a novel mechanism through which the immune system controls autoimmunity and cancer. In the special focus of the researchers were regulatory T cells -- a type of white blood cells that act as a brake on the immune system.

(University of Houston) A University of Houston biomedical researcher is developing a new device to treat babies with blood disorders, because current technology is designed for adults. The ability to perform lifesaving leukapheresis safely and effectively in these most vulnerable pediatric patients will significantly increase their access to highly effective cell-based therapies.

Every summer, rainstorms occur in Hong Kong occasionally, leading to loss of property or even casualties.

(Dartmouth College) Expanded Dartmouth awards program gives prizes for 'spec fic' playwriting on what it means to be human in a computerized world.

(Anglia Ruskin University) A new study has found an association between low average levels of vitamin D and high numbers of COVID-19 cases and mortality rates across 20 European countries.

(University of Córdoba) The University of Cordoba participated in the first shaping of a hydrological model on a basin scale as a global model to advance in world hydrological predictions.

(University of Barcelona) The yellow-legged gull has a high ability to adapt to human activities and benefit from these as a food resource during all year. This is stated in a scientific article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution whose first author is the researcher Francisco Ramírez, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Using ORNL's now-decommissioned Titan supercomputer, a team of researchers estimated the combined consequences of many different extreme climate events at the county level, a unique approach that provided unprecedented regional and national climate projections that identified the areas most likely to face climate-related challenges.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau) University of Illinois classics professor Clara Bosak-Schroeder writes about how the ancient Greeks thought about natural resources and how it is relevant to responding to climate change today.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) A randomized, controlled clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment regimen of the investigational antiviral remdesivir plus the anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib for COVID-19 has begun. The trial is now enrolling hospitalized adults with COVID-19 in the United States. The trial is expected to open at approximately 100 US and international sites. Investigators currently anticipate enrolling more than 1,000 participants. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is sponsoring the trial.

(Moscow Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies) Researchers of the Moscow Diagnostics and Telemedicine Center collected a dataset that includes more than a thousand sets of chest CT scans of patients with imaging finding of COVID-19. As of today, it is the largest completely anonymized database of CT studies, which has no analogues in Russia or in the world. It is available for download and can be used for developing services based on artificial intelligence technologies.