Summer School for Effective Leadership 2014

    The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups （HKFYG） partners with 2 world-class universities, The University of Hong Kong （HKU） and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology （HKUST） to offer you the best international summer schools in town! This year the Summer School for Effective Leadership （SSEL） is divided into the HKU Chapter—An Overture to Global Leadership, and HKUST Chapter—The Art of Public Speaking. Please find out more from the introduction below:

    HKU Chapter—An Overture to Global Leadership

    An Overture to Global Leadership, now in its seventh year, is cooperation between the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and the University of Hong Kong with the aims:

    1 To nurture youth leaders with solid fundamental knowledge and intensive leadership skills;

    2 To strengthen their critical thinking skills, interpersonal skills and problem solving abilities;

    3 To reinforce their willingness to serve the community;

    4 To further develop global perspective and promote intercultural awareness amongst participants.

    Date

    Between 18 July 2014 （Friday） and 26 July 2014 （Saturday）.

    Full attendance is mandatory for the 9-day-8-night programme. Shared-room accommodation in the University dormitory is required.

    Application Deadline

    Non-residents of Hong Kong: 6:00 p.m., Friday, 16 May 2014 （Hong Kong Time）

    Non-residents of Hong Kong may need to apply for a student visa, please visit the website: http://121.hkfyg.org.hk/ssel/hku/overview.html for further details.

    For application, please visit: http://121.hkfyg.org.hk/ssel/hku/application.php

    HKUST Chapter—The Art of Public Speaking

    The Art of Public Speaking is a new collaboration between the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with the aims:

    1 To enhance the leadership skills and public speaking skills of participants;

    2 To allow youth leaders and speakers to learn from one another, and encourage cultural exchanges;

    3 To demonstrate how public speaking skills can be used by leaders to communicate to the public;

    4 To allow outstanding student leaders to serve and understand the local community.

    Date

    Between 14 July 2014 （Monday） and 19 July 2014 （Saturday）

    Full attendance is mandatory for the 6-day-5-night programme. Shared-room accommodation in the University dormitory is required.

    Application Deadline

    Non-residents of Hong Kong: 6:00p.m., Friday, 9 May 2014 （Hong Kong Time）.

    Non-residents of Hong Kong may need to apply for a student visa, please visit the website: http://l21.hkfyg.org.hk/ssel/hkust/overview.html for further details.

    For application, please visit: http://l21.hkfyg.org.hk/ssel/hkust/application.php

    In the near future, we may be using our eyes to operate our smart-phones and tablets, even when it comes to playing popular games like Fruit Ninja.

    The Gaze Group has been developing eye-controlled computer technology for nearly 20years. But those devices have been firstly designed to help those with disabilities, and are very expensive.

    “After a while, we figured out that probably the best way is to go for a mass-market way,”says Gaze's Sune Alstrup Johansen. “Where everybody would have this available.”

    Johansen and some of his colleagues have formed a new company, the Eye Tribe, which is hoping to develop the technology on a mass commercial level.

    The technology works when combined with the computing device toward the user's face. After making sure of the user's eye movements, the technology is then able to easily find where a person's eyes are moving, and then allow the eyes to control a cursor (光标)

    “Our software can then determine the location of the eyes and know where you're looking on the screen to make sure what you're looking at, ”reads an explanation on the Eye Tribe site.

    There has been a gradual change toward hands-free technology in recent years, particularly in the gaming world. Recently Xbox released the Kinect device, which lets users control their Xbox and play certain games using only their hands, legs and voices. But still, most of these devices have been more of a gimmick than a practical way to use one's hands to control a mobile device. Johansen said a replaceable filter (滤光器) would be a cheap, convenient way for most consumers.

    And even as companies like The Eye Tribe work to create such a product for the average user, making the eye-controlled technology more accessible and less expensive will have similar benefits for physically disabled users.

    For more articles on modem science, please CLICK here.

    Feelings often run high where insects are concerned, with many people even sick when seeing them, let alone touch or swallow them. And yet insects present a huge nutritional opportunity as an increasing global population seeks more sources of food and feed.

    Insects have generally high levels of animal protein and key micronutrients with lower environmental footprints than traditional alternatives, and they can be raised on leftovers. But cultural, social and economic problems remain, reports an article published today in Nutrition Bulletin.

    “Insects present a nutritional opportunity, but it is unclear how their nutritional quality is influenced by what they are fed,” says Darja Dobermann, a researcher at the University of Nottingham. “In ideal conditions, insects have a smaller environmental impact than most traditional western forms of animal protein; less known is how to raise insect production while maintaining these environmental benefits.”

    “Studies overall show that insects could make valuable economic and nutritional contributions to the food or fed systems, but there are no clear regulations in place to bring insects into such supply systems without them turning into a more expensive version of poultry（家禽）for food,” says Dobermann.

    The article highlights how insects have been a source of food for hundreds of years in more than 100 countries with over 2,000 species that can be eaten; in central Africa, up to 50% of dietary protein has come from insects, with their market value higher than many alternative sources of animal protein.

    Insects need to be large enough to make the effort of catching them worthwhile and easy to locate, preferably in predictably large quantities. They are consumed at various life stages, as raw, fried, boiled, roasted or ground food.

    Feifei, an 11-year-old boy from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, suffered from a sudden acute eye disease which has almost led to blindness. The disease was caused by excessive（过度的）eye fatigue（疲劳）during the winter vacation, during which he played computer games for continuous 10 days and nights.

    Many youngsters in China nowadays are increasingly addicted to computer games and other electronic products. This is followed by a series of health problems, with the most typical case being myopia, or nearsightedness.

    According to the latest research report released by the World Health Organization (WHO),the myopia rate among Chinese teenagers ranks first in the world—70 percent of high school and college students. The rate is nearly 40 percent in primary school students, while it is only 10 percent for their peers in the United States.

    There are at least 10 million people in China with severe myopia, and they are likely to get pathological（病理性的）myopia in middle age. Pathological myopia can't be treated with glasses or surgery, and it is one of the biggest factors that lead to blindness, Xu Xun, director of the ophthalmology（眼科学）department at Shanghai General Hospital, pointed out.

    Experts explain that two major factors lead to the high rate of myopia among Chinese people. One is high academic pressure, and the other one is excessive use of electronic devices over a long period of time .Genetics, on the other hand, are not the main reason, as only 20 percent of Chinese people had myopia in the 1960s.

    "Teenagers are now faced with severe academic pressure, which means they often study without natural light. This increases their risk of becoming nearsighted," Xu said.

    Experts suggest that youngsters maintain a proper balance between study and rest so as to protect their eyesight, and parents should play an active role in the process.

    Heat has been used to control hair for hundreds of years. But how much is too much? If you have ever opened a very hot oven, you know that heat can burn your eyebrows off your face very quickly. A scientist from Purdue University in Indiana is trying to find a scientific answer on how hot is too hot when it comes to your hair.

    Many women and some men are very particular about their hair. Some people who have naturally curly hair prefer to have it straightened. Others with straight hair want to have curls. Tahira Reid is one of those people. As an African-American woman, she is familiar with the challenges of maintaining (保养)curly hair.

    Tahira Reid and other researchers at Purdue University are studying how heat treatment interacts with different types of hair and how to prevent damage. Amy Marconnet is an assistant professor. She says the team is seeing how heat and temperature relate to their research.

    In a Purdue University's lab, team members designed a hair straightener tool —a flat iron with temperature control. They attached it to a robotic arm that moved over pieces of hair. They controlled the temperature while the device straightened hair.

    What did they find? Their study found that the heat weakens or breaks a protein called keratin, responsible for the hair's shape, and temporarily changes it. But nobody knows exactly what level can make the heat actually cause forever change. Researchers say early results are a bit inconclusive.

    It turns out that everyone's hair is different and there's no exact temperature where hair straightening becomes hair damage. Ms Reid says they will continue their research in the hope of finding what works best without damaging hair.

    It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do fess well in the education system. In an attempt to help the children of poor families, a nationwide program called "Headstart" was started in the US in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It Look children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help them succeed in school. But the results have been disappointing because the program began too late. Many children who entered it at three were already behind their peers in language and intelligence and the parents were not involved in the process. At the end of each day, "Headstart" children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment.

    To improve the results, another program was started in Missouri that concentrated on parents as the child's first teachers. This program was based on research showing that working with the family is the most effective way of helping children get the best possible start in life. The four-year study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and represented different socio-economic status, age and family structure. The program involved trained educators visiting and working with the parent or parents and the child. The program also gave the parents some guidance, and useful skills on child development.

    At three, the children involved in the "Missouri" program were evaluated with the children selected from the same socio-economic backgrounds and family situations. The results were obvious. The children in the program were more advanced in language development, problem solving and other intellectual skills than their peers. They performed equally well regardless of socio-economic backgrounds or family structure. The one factor that was found to affect the child's development was the poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.

    The "Missouri" program compares quite distinctly with the "Headstart" program. Without a similar focus of parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome education unfairness.