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PAIR Newsletter ∙ Issue 8 ∙ December 2023 is now available online!

We are thrilled to announce the release of the 8th Issue of the PAIR Newsletter, offering you the latest updates on PAIR’s interdisciplinary research developments. Enjoy reading our “Feature Stories” covering the newly established Research Centre of Textiles for Future Fashion, as well as PAIR researchers’ endeavours in promoting holistic mental health support and combatting the myopia epidemic. Learn more about PAIR’s latest scientific discoveries and activities in “Knowledge Transfer”, “Research Achievements”, “People”, and “News & Events” sections! We welcome you to forward any useful articles and valuable links from our Newsletter to your friends and colleagues. Share PAIR impact stories to spread knowledge, spur innovation and drive interdisciplinary excellence! Happy reading! https://polyu.hk/RPnAv

RCSV research shows efficacy of RLRL therapy in controlling myopia

A research conducted by Prof. HE Mingguang, Director of the Research Centre for SHARP Vision (RCSV) and Chair Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology, has proved that repeated low-level red-light (RLRL) therapy can significantly slow down the progression of myopia in children, and even reverse short-sightedness. Myopia was considered as an irreversible process of axial growth. Research found that the axial elongation of children receiving RLRL therapy was 70% less than those wearing normal spectacles. Furthermore, multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that up to 40% of RLRL-treated children showed axial length shortening one month following the therapy.   Online coverage: Oriental Daily News - https://polyu.me/3sW7Q5h Hong Kong Economic Times - https://polyu.me/46xJJri (subscription required) am730 - https://polyu.me/40Z7w2d Sky Post - https://polyu.me/40WTbmR Ta Kung Pao - https://polyu.me/411c7kG Line Today - https://polyu.me/46xYCK7 Sing Tao Daily - https://polyu.me/47xvW5u Headline Daily - https://polyu.me/40WnEkW Eastweek - https://polyu.me/49UO1vI Sunday Kiss - https://polyu.me/49TuaNA

Renowned Chinese medicine scholar to deliver a distinguished lecture on the development of acupuncture

PAIR cordially invites you to join our Distinguished Lecture on 8 December 2023 (Friday) at 11:00am–12:30 p.m. (Hong Kong Time) on the PolyU campus and via Zoom. The lecture, titled “Acupuncture in the United States: From Exploration to Accessibility” will be delivered by Prof. LAO Lixing, Professor and President of the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine (VUIM), USA. Since the 1970s, acupuncture has rapidly developed and received acceptance by the public and mainstream healthcare system in the United States. Evidence-based acupuncture played a major role in acupuncture development. Despite challenges and difficulties in acupuncture clinical research, sufficient evidence demonstrated the efficacy, effectiveness, and safety of acupuncture. In the lecture, Prof. Lao will introduce his 30 years of experience in acupuncture research and share his witness in the United States from exploration in early years to the accessibility in the current healthcare system.  Prof. Lao will also share his opinion on the challenges and difficulties in acupuncture clinical research. Prior to his position at VUIM, Prof. Lao was a Professor and the Director of the School of Chinese Medicine of The University of Hong Kong, holding Vivian Taam Wong Endowed Professorship in Integrative Medicine during 2013–2019. He was elected Vice President of the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies (WFAS).  Graduated from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in 1983 and obtained a Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) in 1992.  Prof. Lao has been conducting research, practicing, and teaching acupuncture and TCM for 40 years.  He also published over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers.  He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief in the Journal of Integrative Medicine. Prof. Lao is also a Fellow of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research. Don’t miss the chance to learn from distinguished scholar! Find out more and register at: https://polyu.hk/iUAHX

Free vision test mobile app “WHOeyes” launched in China

A mobile app for free vision test “WHOeyes”, developed by Prof. HE Mingguang, Director of the Research Centre for SHARP Vision (RCSV) and Chair Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology, was officially launched in China on 25 November 2023.  WHOeyes is the first vision test mobile app endorsed by the World Health Organization. It was launched globally earlier on the World Sight Day (12 October 2023). WHOeyes can assess users’ visual acuity and provide advice for protecting vision. Users can simply look at the cameras of smartphones installed with WHOeyes and follow the system instructions, and the app will measure both distance and near vision of users. The app is now available in six languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.   Read more: https://www.who.int/news/item/12-10-2023-who-launches-the-whoeyes-app-on-world-sight-day Download from App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/whoeyes/id6463576815 Download from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.who.whoeyes   Online coverage: GD Today - https://polyu.me/3QWAFX9 East Money - https://polyu.me/3Ge9mCZ (Chinese only) NetEase - https://polyu.me/3RidC9J(Chinese only)

Delegation from Development Bureau and Civil Engineering and Development Department visit SCRI

A delegation led by Mr Ricky LAU, JP, Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) of Development Bureau and Mr Michael FONG, JP, Director of Civil Engineering and Development, visited the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) on 24 November 2023 for exploring potential research collaboration opportunities. During the visit, the delegation was introduced to some of SCRI’s research innovations including the 3D mobile mapping systems and the smart city platform.

Ten PAIR academics recognised amongst world’s most highly cited researchers

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved the third highest number of the world’s most highly cited researchers in Hong Kong in the list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2023” by Clarivate Analytics. A total of 15 PolyU academics (including two former PolyU scholars) have been named on the list, and ten of them are PAIR members. This year, a total of 6,849 researchers from 67 countries and regions across a diverse range of research fields have received the designations. The list identifies the most influential scholars from around the world, determined by their production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year in the Web of Science citation index over the past decade. The named PAIR researchers are as follows: Name Title and Affiliated PAIR Constituent Research Unit Prof. Daniel S.P. LAU Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Management Committee Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. LI Gang Associate Director of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Management Committee Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Prof. LOH Kian Ping Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Prof. Geoffrey Q. P. SHEN Management Committee Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Member of Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) Prof. WANG Zuankai Member of Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports) Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Prof. WU Tao, Tom Member Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. YAN Feng Associate Director of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Member of Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports) Dr ZHANG Xiao Member of Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (RIAM) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. YAN Jinyue Jerry Management Committee Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Dr HUANG Bolong Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE)   Further reading: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/en/media/media-releases/2023/1121_15-polyu-academics-recognised-amongst-worlds-most-highly-cited-researchers/

PAIR welcomes new Research Institute Associate Directors

PAIR is pleased to announce the following Associate Directorship appointments in our constituent research units: Prof. ZHAO Xiaolin, Chair Professor of Civil Infrastructure of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed as Associate Director of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) with effect from 1 December 2023. Prof. Charles M. S. WONG, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment and Professor of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, and Prof. YU Tao, Associate Director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations and Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have been appointed as Associate Directors of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) with effect from 1 January 2024.

PAIR to organise distinguished lecture on high performance computing

PAIR cordially invites you to join our Distinguished Lecture on 6 December 2023 (Wednesday) at 10:15am–11:45am (Hong Kong Time) on PolyU campus and via Zoom. The lecture, titled “An Overview of High Performance Computing and Future Requirements” will be delivered by 2021 A. M. Turing Award Laureate Prof. Jack DONGARRA, University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee, USA. You can review the lecture online now! In the lecture, Prof. Dongarra will discuss how high performance computing has changed over the last ten years and its future trends. These changes have had and will continue to impact our numerical scientific software significantly. A new generation of software libraries and algorithms are needed for the effective and reliable use of (wide area) dynamic, distributed, and parallel environments. Some of the software and algorithm challenges have already been encountered, such as the management of communication and memory hierarchies through a combination of compile-time and run-time techniques, but the increased scale of computation, depth of memory hierarchies, range of latencies, and increased run-time environment variability will make these problems much harder. Prof. Dongarra specialises in numerical algorithms in linear algebra, parallel computing, the use of advanced computer architectures, programming methodology and tools for parallel computers. He holds appointments at the University of Manchester, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee, where he founded the Innovative Computing Laboratory. In 2019 he received the ACM/SIAM Computational Science and Engineering Prize. In 2020 he received the IEEE-CS Computer Pioneer Award. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and SIAM; a foreign member of the British Royal Society and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Most recently, he received the 2021 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his pioneering contributions to numerical algorithms and software that have driven decades of extraordinary progress in computing performance and applications. Prof. Dongarra is also a Distinguished Fellow of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research. Review the lecture online!

SCRI MC Member receives best paper award at international conference

Congratulation to Prof. LU Haitian, Management Committee Member of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI), for receiving the Best Paper Award for his paper titled “Extracting Scenarios from Autonomous-Vehicle-Involved Crashes” at the 18th International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering held in Fuzhou, China on 17–19 November 2023.

MHRC study reveals that apelin mediates the antidepressant effects of physical exercise

Dr Sonata YAU, Member of the Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC) and Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, presented at the annual meeting of The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2023 in Washington DC, United States.  The abstract entitled “Potential role of apelin in mediating the antidepressant effects of physical exercise” was selected by the Society of Neuroscience for press conference this year.  Out of over 12,500 abstracts submitted to the meeting, less than 50 are being offered this prestigious opportunity of speaking directly to the media. The study revealed that apelin, a muscle-secreted peptide, is important for mediating the antidepressant effects of physical exercise. Sarcopenia, a muscle ageing condition, is strongly correlated with geriatric depression, but the exact muscle-brain crosstalk isn’t well understood. Previous research has shown that apelin is linked to sarcopenia, and is also associated with hippocampal neuroplasticity and antidepressant effects. Using a mouse model of chronic unpredictable stress, Dr Yau and her research team showed that stressed mice exhibited decreased apelin expression levels in the hippocampus, which could be restored by 4-week physical running. Knockout of apelin specifically in skeletal muscle reduced the antidepressant effects of exercise, whereas overexpression of muscle apelin elicited antidepressant effects. The research deepens our understanding of the potential role of apelin in mediating the crosstalk of the muscle-brain axis, and holds important implications for understanding stress-related disorders.