HKU Bulletin April 2010 (Vol. 11 No. 2)

34 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin 35 April 2010 Professor Lap-Chee Tsui Vice-Chancellor Professor Tsui is an internationally acclaimed scientist who, in 1989, identified the defective gene that triggers cystic fibrosis. This represented a major breakthrough in human genetics and he has gone on to make in- depth contributions to the human genome study, particularly in the characterization of chromosome 7, and the identification of additional disease genes. An alumnus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Tsui was geneticist-in-chief and head of the Genetics and Genomic Biology Programme of the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children, and held the HE Sellers Chair in Cystic Fibrosis and was University Professor at the University of Toronto before returning to his home city as the University of Hong Kong’s Vice-Chancellor, in 2002. Professor Tsui has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in recognition of his scientific achievement and important contributions to promoting the development of science and technology in China. During a long and illustrious career he has won numerous prestigious awards. .&.#&3 0' 5)& $)*/&4& "$"%&.: 0' 4$*&/$&4 5IF $IJOFTF "DBEFNZ PG 4DJFODFT $"4 JT B MFBEJOH BDBEFNJD JOTUJUVUJPO BOE B DPNQSFIFOTJWF SFTFBSDI BOE EFWFMPQNFOU DFOUSF JO UIF OBUVSBM TDJFODFT BOE IJHI UFDI JOOPWBUJPO 0OMZ UIPTF XIP IBWF DPOUSJCVUFE FOPSNPVTMZ UP $IJOBµT TDJFOUJ¾D QSPHSFTT BSF FMFDUFE UP UIF "DBEFNZ Professor Lap-Chee Tsui 3&4&"3$) 065165 13*;& *OEJWJEVBM SFTFBSDI PVUQVU CZ BO BVUIPS PS UFBN JT IPOPVSFE UISPVHI UIJT QSJ[F &BDI 'BDVMUZ JT BMMPXFE POF QSJ[F BOE UIF XJOOJOH FOUSJFT FBDI SFDFJWF Architecture Health and safety in Hong Kong’s apartment buildings vary considerably, mostly due to management systems rather than building design. This finding was reported in a joint study by the Department of Real Estate and Construction and the Department of Architecture, led by Dr Daniel Ho Chi-wing. ‘A Survey of the Health and Safety Conditions of Apartment Buildings in Hong Kong’ was published in Building and Environment . Arts The ways in which the East has been imagined and remembered in British literature is the subject of Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing by Professor Douglas Kerr. The book raises issues of identity and representation, power and knowledge, and how to portray other people. It offers original ideas and approaches of interest to specialists in literary studies, Asian studies and history. Business And Economics A study on customer relationship development in services shows customer-firm affection can be an emotion-laden conduit for developing customer loyalty. The results have implications for managers and were published in the study, ‘Strengthening Customer Loyalty through Intimacy and Passion: Roles of Customer-Firm Affection and Customer-Staff Relationships in Services’, in the Journal of Marketing Research , by a team led by Professor Bennett Yim Chi-kin. Dentistry A team led by Dr Chaminda Seneviratne has described a novel molecular mechanism that is likely to mediate the higher antifungal resistance in Candida biofilms. This work will benefit future researchers working on the emergence of microbial drug resistance and, in particular, antifungal resistance. ‘ Candida Albicans Biofilm Formation is Associated with Increased Anti-oxidative Capacities’ was published in Proteomics. Education ‘Energy Expenditure and Cardiovascular Responses to Seated and Active Gaming in Children’ has received substantial media attention and is likely to bring about a shift in the way that academics and the general public view the relationship between entertainment technology and exercise science. The study by Ms Robin Mellecker and Dr Alison McManus was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine . Engineering Interdisciplinary research between scholars in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has resulted in the solution to a real problem in the fields of tissue engineering and cell/ drug delivery. ‘A Microplate Compression Method for Elastic Modulus Measurement of Soft and Viscoelastic Collagen Microspheres’ by Dr Barbara Chan Pui, Mr Li Chun-hei, Mr Au Yeung Kwan-lok, Professor Sze Kam-yim, and Professor Alfonso Ngan Hing-wan was published in Annals of Biomedical Engineering . Law The first comprehensive legal analysis of the Security Council’s coercive disarmament and arms control measures involving weapons of mass destruction challenges a variety of widely held beliefs about disarmament and arms control law, and UN law. ‘Dionysian Disarmament: Security Council WMD Coercive Disarmament Measures and Their Legal Implications’, by Dr James David Fry, was published in Michigan Journal of International Law . Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine An international team has illustrated a new mechanism causing gene methylation that may contribute to various types of human genetic diseases. The results are expected to have a tremendous impact. They also reported a revolutionary finding that changes the way genetic diagnosis on hereditary disease is performed. ‘Heritable Somatic Methylation and Inactivation of MSH2 in Families with Lynch Syndrome due to Deletion of the 3’ Exons of TACSTD1 ’ by a team including Dr Chan Tsun-leung, Professor Yuen Siu-tsan and Professor Leung Suet-yi, was published in Nature Genetics . Science In this work, Professor Fung and Dr Hu set out to provide a practical guide to the analysis of DNA evidence. It is the only book emphasizing the computational aspects of forensic DNA. This is valuable for forensic chemists as they need to evaluate the strength of DNA evidence numerically. Statistical DNA Forensics: Theory, Methods and Computation by Professor Fung Wing-kam, and Dr Hu Yueqing was published by John Wiley & Sons. Social Sciences A new approach to teaching children about health risks resulted in ‘Folkbiology Meets Microbiology: A Study of Conceptual and Behavioral Change’, written by Professor Terry Au Kit-fong, Dr Carol Chan Kwai-kuen, Mr Chan Tsz-kit, Dr Mike Cheung Wai-leung, Mr Johnson Ho Yiu-shun, and Dr Grace Ip Wai- man, published in Cognitive Psychology . 5FBDIJOH "OE 3FTFBSDI "XBSET 5FBDIJOH "OE 3FTFBSDI "XBSET