Monthly Archives: September 2021

UAE: Can long Covid patients still spread the infection? – Khaleej Times

Posted: September 26, 2021 at 5:10 am

Some patients who have recovered from Covid could be suffering from lingering symptoms but unlike those with an active infection, they are not contagious, UAE doctors have said.

The condition, called long Covid, may include symptoms like chest pain, fatigue, stress and anxiety, body ache, cough, sore throat and breathing difficulties, among others.

Studies have shown that these Covid-19 aftereffects are likely to stay in the body for many months, said professor Adrian Kennedy, chief wellness officer for Arabian Wellness and Lifestyle Management at RAK Hospital.

Emerging evidence indicates that majority of people who had been hospitalised because of Covid-19 experience symptoms, like fatigue and shortness of breath, months after being discharged from the healthcare facility, Kennedy said.

In Dubai, special clinics have been set up for these long Covid patients.

Short on evidence, dubious therapies turn to the tongue – Salon

Posted: at 5:10 am

When Kimberly Sheldon was 47, she says made the biggest mistake of her life. That was in 2018, when she says that a dentist explained to her that cutting the tissue under her tongue would help her jaw pain, gum recession, and occasional headaches. Her issues, he said, could be due to the fact that the back of her tongue couldn't reach the roof of her mouth. With a quick laser slice, a $600 charge, and some instruction on tongue exercises, he seemed confident that she would feel better soon after.

But, according to her account, the dentist didn't explain the possible risks, which include nerve damage and scarring that can restrict the tongue. Sheldon only found out about the issues after she experienced them. Since then, she says, the effects have torn her life apart.

The idea that tongue position can contribute to health problems is not well-supported by research, but it's edging towards the mainstream. Millions of people are watching YouTube videos about how the tongue allegedly influences the face and jaw, and books, videos, websites, and social media posts say that improper tongue position can contribute to a host of health issues dental problems, sleep apnea, headaches, neck and back pain, and more. These ideas are especially becoming popular in dentistry echoed by Colgate and a dental hygienists' magazine. Some even claim that changing the tongue position can make people more attractive.

Two proposed solutions to help with an allegedly poor tongue posture are becoming more popular, which may be done together or separately (in Sheldon's case, her dentist recommended both). The first is myofunctional therapy, a series of exercises to strengthen the tongue so that it can rest on the roof of the mouth. Celebrities, including Kourtney Kardashian, are promoting this therapy. The second is surgery on what some practitioners call a tongue-tie a condition in which the tissue under the tongue, called the frenulum, is supposedly restricted.

Some tongue-ties are undisputed diagnoses generally in very young children. In infancy, a type of tongue-tie where the frenulum attaches all the way to the front of the tongue and severely restricts its movement has been treated for hundreds of years. More controversial are hidden, or posterior, tongue-ties, which, as Undark previously reported, are increasingly diagnosed and cut in children. Adult tongue-tie diagnoses also lack rigorous evidence.

Despite the limited evidence, myofunctional therapy and tongue-tie surgeries are increasingly promoted as a treatment for the many ailments attributed to poor tongue posture in adults. Especially concerning, some experts say, is the claim that the therapy is an alternative treatment for sleep apnea, despite a lack of evidence and with possible risks to patients.

Many doctors, however, caution against the idea that changing tongue posture is a panacea. "I think people want to believe that myofunctional therapy is helpful," Eric Kezirian, a professor and physician of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at the University of Southern California, wrote in an email. "The problem is that the history of health care is littered with thousands upon thousands of treatments that were not helpful, or were in many cases harmful, in spite of people's best intentions." (An otolaryngologist is also called an ear, nose, and throat doctor, or ENT.)

To be sure, some patients say that tongue surgery and therapy has been life changing. In an invite-only Facebook group for tongue-tied adults, which has more than 15,000 members, some advocates report improvements in everything from facial composition to migraines, neck tension, anxiety, and even bowel movements. But not everyone has a positive experience. After the numbing wore off from Sheldon's procedure, she says the pain was horrific; her tongue was pulled backwards and pinned down, gagging her. Her dentist recommended more tongue exercises, she says. It didn't help. After months without improvement, Sheldon said a member of the Facebook group referred her to an oral surgeon four hours away, who also set her up with a myofunctional therapist.

The new surgeon said her problems were obvious: The first dentist missed a bit of tissue or ligament, and he would fix it with a second procedure. But after that second laser cut, Sheldon had a persistent painful burning sensation at the base of her tongue, and the tip and the underside became permanently numb some of the nerves were damaged, she recalls being told. She couldn't swallow solid foods, she says, and her weight dropped from 140 pounds to 106. Eventually, she was hospitalized due to difficulty swallowing, and got occupational therapy to help. Now, she sees a doctor every three months for related chronic pain.

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When the frenulum is cut, it could damage nerves, salivary glands, and ducts that lead to salivary glands, says Soroush Zaghi, an otolaryngologist and sleep surgeon, as well as the medical director of The Breathe Institute in California, where Kardashian is a patient. There's also a risk of scarring, which Zaghi says is the most common adverse outcome. Scar tissue can cause the tongue to contract and reduce tongue mobility.

Nonetheless, Zaghi advocates for a surgery that cuts through the frenulum and sometimes into the muscle. He calls the procedure a frenuloplasty, during which he cuts until the patient is able to lift their tongue so the tip is just behind the front teeth when their mouth is fully open, and the back of their tongue can reach the roof of the mouth. (Sheldon's laser surgery was a different approach, and there is no consensus or evidence to indicate if one technique is better.)

A tongue-tie, Zaghi asserts, can contribute to improper facial development in children, plus mouth breathing, sleep apnea, and more. However, Cristina Baldassari, an otolaryngologist and sleep medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, wrote in an email that there are no high quality research studies that demonstrate that tongue-tie causes any of these issues. The few studies that do exist have include small numbers of patients, or lack a control group.

Zaghi and others also promote myofunctional therapy, sometimes in conjunction with frenuloplasty, as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. But Baldassari says there isn't sufficient evidence to support myofunctional therapy as a sleep apnea treatment, either. The few small studies that have been done did not show that the therapy alone could decrease moderate to severe sleep apnea. Baldassari says she worries that real harm could come to sleep apnea patients with a severe disorder if they eschew conventional medical treatment for tongue therapy, because there are risks for medical complications like stroke and heart attack if the disease goes untreated.

Cutting the frenulum could even make sleep worse, Baldassari says. Slicing through the tether could cause the tongue to fall back into the throat, obstructing the airway during sleep. This concern was echoed by Karthik Balakrishnan, a professor and physician of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at Stanford University, though he pointed out there's no research on the subject to know for sure. And even Zaghi says some people are better off with an intact frenulum, including those who don't have enough space to accommodate their tongue high in their mouth, and those with low tongue muscle tone (though Zaghi cannot point to a method for providers to objectively assess these things, he says he's working on it).

Baldassari points out that researchers know the tongue is involved in sleep apnea devices that send electrical signals to the tongue, which cause it to move outward during inhalation during sleep, are effective at enlarging the airway. But, she says, if this tongue stimulation is strengthening the tongue, like myofunctional therapy proposes to do, it doesn't have a lasting effect; if doctors turn the device off after a year, patients still have sleep apnea.

Yet Baldassari doesn't mind if someone with mild sleep apnea or other conditions like neck tension, anxiety, bad posture, allergies, or teeth grinding, want to try myofunctional therapy, despite the lack of research, because she says there's little risk. Still, she added in an email, "it likely will be a waste of time and money."

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In addition to the lack of strong evidence, both the tongue therapies and surgeries don't have strong professional standards. Neither has a standardized protocol, so the process varies from one practitioner to another. And while tongue-tie surgeries are performed by licensed doctors or dentists, myofunctional therapists have no system of licensure. Sarah Hornsby, a myofunctional therapist a sizable YouTube following and therapy co-director at The Breathe Institute, who offers a training program through the institute, acknowledges that this lack of standardization is one reason the medical community is skeptical of the therapy and says it is something therapists are working towards.

Though Zaghi has published a method for assessing tongue-ties, he argues that at least some standards for myofunctional therapy are unnecessary. For instance, he says that myofunctional therapy shouldn't all be based on one person's protocols he compared it to an exercise regimen, pointing out that there are benefits whether someone does yoga, pilates, weightlifting, or running.

Other experts disagree. If an exercise is used as a medical treatment, it needs to be researched that shows it's effective, says Kezirian. "Myofunctional therapy has nothing like this," he wrote in an email. (Kezirian holds a patent for a device to correct obstructive sleep apnea, as well as for head and neck exercises done with an apparatus to improve sleep disordered breathing, though he is not currently selling either product.) Not only do variations in practices make it difficult for researchers to evaluate whether it works, Baldassari wrote that "if there is a lack of standardization, there is no way to ensure that patients are getting adequate therapy."

Myofunctional therapy lacks standardized training programs, too. A myofunctional therapist is often a dental hygienist, as Hornsby was; other times, the therapist may be a dentist or speech language pathologist who has completed a short online training program. Most of these programs, which are not accredited by a professional organization, cost thousands of dollars. (Several organizations, including the International Association of Orofacial Myology, do offer certifications to those who complete their training.) Even tongue-tie revision surgery training for dentists can be done online, or through a two-day course with two hours of hands-on instruction, and Zaghi teaches his frenuloplasty method online since the pandemic began.

Despite the lack of training and standards, myofunctional therapists stand to earn more than they did as dental hygienists, with fees ranging from $80 to $250 per session; those who are also dentists or speech therapists can charge more. And dentists who revise adult tongue-ties can charge up to about $1,500 for the procedure. "I do not want to suggest ulterior motives," Kezirian wrote in an email, "but of course treatment is offered to patients that pay for services, often on their own because these treatments are not covered by medical insurance."

Sheldon has also noticed these financial incentives. She avoids the adult tongue-tie Facebook group these days because she says practitioners are also members, and stand to profit from the groups' messages. And when someone has an issue after a tongue-tie surgery, members tend to doubt whether that person did enough myofunctional therapy or found the right provider, instead of questioning the procedure itself.

Sheldon says she has struggled to forgive herself for agreeing to do something that brought her chronic pain and health problems. But one thing brings her peace: Because of her experience, she sought a second opinion when an orthodontist suggested that her son needed tongue-tie surgery in order for his teeth to be straightened. What happened to her, she says, saved her son from the possibility of a similar fate. Now, she adds, "I don't believe that we're supposed to be cutting people's frenulums."

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Christina Szalinski is a freelance science writer with a Ph.D. in cell biology based near Philadelphia.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

Shang-Chi VFX Teams Had to Build Macau Digitally Because of COVID Shutdowns – ComicBook.com

Posted: at 5:09 am

Like a few other projects under the Marvel Studios umbrella, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was temporarily halted as the world began to shut down in early 2020 as a result of the ongoing global pandemic. Because of that, the production had to take certain liberties to make sure the film was out on time. That includes building Macau from the ground up using computer-generated imagery despite the region being an actual, real-life metropolitan area.

Due to the various travel restrictions that quickly began to form, Marvel Studios and the team at RodeoFX put their heads together on what to do. Under normal circumstances, the film's second unit would travel to Macau and film blank plates the studio's visual effects vendors would then alter for the movie. Since time was of the essence, Ara Khanikian and his team at Rodeo opted to go the "from-scratch" route.

Luckily for the team, the second unit had shot some scouting footage by the time travel shutdowns were in place they were able to reference. Between that and extensive use of Google Maps, Khanikian and his team were able to perfectly recreate a city usually home to 650,000-some residents.

The team started at the primary skyscraper, a fictional building, used in the movie. From there, RodeoFX fleshed out the city. Those buildings closest to the skyscraper got a premium treatment, with accurate modeling, textures, and the works because those were the buildings that'd actually make the cut in the film.The further you got out from the building, the less detailed the building models became.

"We wanted to avoid building every single building accurately, because that would have been just insane in terms of the amount of work," Khanikian tells ComicBook.com ."So we were looking at it going, 'Okay, well, you know what, behind our hero skyscraper is an area that looks a lot like the slums,' so we kind of analyze how they look and they have a repeating pattern the way that they're built and then we would build a little city block of slums and then just duplicate them with a lot of variation of height and textures and this and that."

Regardless, the team always wanted to be as accurate as possible, no matter the cost.

"We wanted it to make sure that it stands on its own, no matter what the shot is. So that in all of these shots, we can just plug and play Macau and just render it out with the proper camera and then concentrate on just matching the lighting with the scaffolding, the building, the skyscraper, all of that, dialing that work in terms of lighting and CG and leaving Macau, just letting it be, basically, and only fine tune it if we needed to in a shot," he adds.

Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Ringsis directed byDestin Daniel Crettonand produced byKevin FeigeandJonathan Schwartz, with Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, which is now in theaters.

What did you think of Shang-Chi's MCU debut? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or byhitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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Xi Jinping’s crackdown spreads to Macau and Hong Kong – MoneyWeek

Posted: at 5:09 am

Recent crackdowns have proven that few sectors are safe from Beijings control, says the FTs Lex column. No industry looks as vulnerable as Macaus gambling market. Shares in the territorys casino operators fell sharply amid a regulatory review that may end up cutting the number of casino licences in the worlds largest gambling hub. Should the new laws limit the number of licences below six, some operators could go out of business when all current permits expire in June 2022.

Even if that doesnt happen, it is clear that Macau will be more demanding than in past years, says Katrina Hamlin on Breakingviews. Operators may face unprecedented micromanagement, including state representatives scrutinising daily operations, and stricter oversight for junkets, which organise visits and credits for high rollers. Theres even a suggestion that firms may require government approvals to pay dividends.

The message for markets extends beyond Macau, says Shuli Ren in Bloomberg: China is serious about its common prosperity campaign. Hence shares in Hong Kongs four biggest property developers also tumbled after reports that Beijing has asked the territorys real-estate billionaires to resolve the citys housing crisis. The high cost of property in Hong Kong is often blamed for fuelling the widespread political protests in 2019. Investors now fear developers could be forced to donate some of their large land banks to the government.

Deflating Hong Kongs real-estate bubble wont just mean squeezing the tycoons it will also require a big shake up in tax policy, adds Jacky Wong in The Wall Street Journal. The territory earns twice as much from land sales as income tax, which is partly why tax rates have stayed so low until now. Hong Kongs housing market has produced immense wealth for some... Leaner times could be ahead.

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COVID-19: 230,000 tested as of 9am, no new positive results – Macau Business

Posted: at 5:09 am

As of 9am on Sunday (September 26), 230 thousand people have been tested for COVID-19 over the last two days. A total of 172,279 thousand joined the NAT mass testing programme which started on Saturday at 3pm, while another 58,901 have already been tested on their own since 3pm on September 24 (Friday).

In total so far 129 thousand specimens have already been analysed and all tested negative, according to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre. as cited by TDM Radio Macau (Chinese channel).

The 230 thousand figure accounts for slightly more than one third of the local population.

All citizens are asked to undergo the nucleic acid test (NAT) in the designated 52 testing stations set up across the SAR which will be operating round-the-clock until September 28, 3pm. These include 31 general NAT stations, seven caring stations and 14 self-paid units.

Those who hold certificate of a negative NAT carried out in the 24 hours prior to the beginning of the mass testing campaign (September 25, 3pm) are exempted from taking a new test.

The mass nucleic acid testing campaign runs until 3pm on Tuesday (September 28).

The Civil Protection Operations Centre urges those who havent done nucleic acid test should enter the system:https://eservice.ssm.gov.mo/allpeoplernatestbook/to make a booking as soon as possible, to avoid clustering together on the 3rd day, leading to long waiting time.

The estimated waiting time at each NAT station can checked athttps://eservice.ssm.gov.mo/aptmon/aptmon/en

The move comes after two new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday night and on Saturday morning respectively. Cases number 65 and 66 are ofof security guards working at Golden Crown China Hotel. These cases are related to a previous one confirmed on Friday, of a 31-year-old male resident of Turkish nationality who tested positive for COVID-19 in a nucleic acid test carried out Thursday night and had arrived in Macau, via Singapore, from Turkey, on September 18th.

The Macau SAR is under state of immediate prevention since 12am, Saturday (September 25).

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Special Report GBA and the case for legal synchronization – Macau Business

Posted: at 5:09 am

Experts call for the creation of a mechanism of legal cooperation in environmental governance and collaborative environmental governance in the Greater Bay Area

MB September 2021 Special Report | GreenMacau

On the other hand, the O3 pollution in this region has been worsening year by year, which is widely affecting the air quality and residents health in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The assessment is included in the 2020 Reporton theStateof the EnvironmentofMacau published by the Environmental Protection Bureau (DPSA, the acronym in Portuguese).

In face of this, DSPA recommends that studies be carried out on the emission and regulation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and continues to insist on constant inspection of gasoline vapour recovery at filling stations, but Macau alone can solve nothing.

And Macaus future direction will be shaped by the GBA development plan in all domains, the environment included.

The problem in this area, as in others, is how to reconcile three different legal systems, especially those in the Mainland and Macau with that of Hong Kong, all of them based on very different models.

The coexistence of the three legal systems implies that the environmental protection laws of each region govern only the respective region, with no effect on the other regions, according to the most complete study on the subject, published in Macau by Feng Zehua and Zhan Pengwei.

The two Chinese academics add, Thus, regarding issues related to the governance of the land and hydrographic basins, joint governance of coastal and offshore territories and joint governance of the environmental atmosphere, due to the jurisdiction limits of the respective environmental protection laws it is not possible to efficiently achieve the expected objectives of joint governance.

Feng and Zhan list several examples: firstly, today the severe pollution of the waters surrounding Hong Kong and Macau have to do with daily industrial pollution from the nine cities in Guangdong that lie upstream, so the separate application of laws in these three regions undermines joint governance on environmental issues affecting the different cities.

The coexistence of three legal systems is a unique feature of the GBA, but it is also an obstacle that must be overcome in this type of cooperation, particularly with regard to environmental governance Feng Zehua and Zhan Pengwei

Second, the authors state that differences regarding the enforcement of laws governing ecological and environmental issues is one of the indicators of the social responsibility assumed by the governments of Hong Kong and Macau towards their citizens, but they emphasize in the case of the nine cities of Guangdong, under the direction of the Central Government, the focus is always placed on the promotion of economic development, ignoring the importance of protecting the environment, which results in different environmental protection measures being adopted by the Public Administration.

Furthermore, regarding differences in the legal sphere, according to Feng Zehua and Zhan Pengwei there are non-governmental organizations in Hong Kong and Macau that can bring legal action in the public interest in favour of environmental protection, while in the nine cities in Guangdong only prosecutors can bring lawsuits in the public administrative interest with regard to the environment, which affects the articulation between the laws of the three regions jointly governing the same issue.

In short, they conclude, the coexistence of three legal systems is a unique feature of the GBA, but it is also an obstacle that must be overcome in this type of cooperation, particularly with regard to environmental governance.

Both authors show concern over the problem how it will be possible to resolve the differences resulting from the inequalities of the legal positions of the cities included in the GBA in the short term, and therefore propose the creation of a mechanism of legal cooperation in the environmental governance of the GBA.

Another Mainland scholar proposes a solution with points of contact: collaborative environmental governance is the proposal of Ying Ren of the Green Development Law Research Centre, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

Mr Ren agrees with the legal problems existing in the field of environmental supervision and therefore puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to further improve the supporting mechanism of environmental supervision in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area under the environmental protection law.

According to Ying Ren, taking up environmental supervision must be the starting point to comprehensively improving the systematic guarantee of in-depth cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

Its core issues include two aspects. One is exploring the innovation of a collaborative governance system with environmental supervision as the starting point. The other is the dynamic balance between the right to development and the protection of environmental rights.

Cooperation has continued to be deepened

The DSPAs response to Macau Businesss question on coordination mechanisms within the GBA is laconic, stating only that, based on the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the cooperation in the field of ecological protection between Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau has continued to be deepened, and exchanges and cooperation in various aspects have been strengthened, joint prevention and treatment has been promoted, and they are working with a commitment to improving environmental quality at the regional level.

An example of this cooperation is the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, comprising 23 air monitoring stations located in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau designed to monitor six major air pollutants: SO2 (sulfur dioxide), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), O3 (ozone), RSP (Respirable Suspended Particulates), FSP (Fine Suspended Particulates) and CO (carbon monoxide).

The network publishes annual reports on the monitoring results and on long-term pollution trends of the PRD as well as quarterly statistical monitoring results.

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Special Report – It is very unlikely that Macau can be a sustainable, energy-efficient city in the short and medium term. – Macau Business

Posted: at 5:09 am

Environmental science expert Wai Ming To is sceptical on solar or wind energy being developed in Macau. He argues instead that the city can do slightly better is to adopt smart/intelligent building systems that optimize the use of electricity for air-conditioning, and air and water heating

MB September 2021 Special Report | GreenMacau

For the first time, a Macau-based scholar was included among the top 2 per cent of world scientists based on citation impact for the year 2019. Professor Wai Ming To of the Macau Polytechnic Institute has research interests encompassing environmental science, technology and management, energy analysis, total quality management and services management, among others. Macau Businessinterviewed Professor To, who declared it is very unlikely that Macau can be a sustainable, energy-efficient city in the short and medium term.

Limited space, high population density and an economy based on mass tourism will these factors prevent Macau from being a beautiful city of leisure, or is it still possible to make Macau the site of sustainable development?

Wai Ming To The factors listed in your question limited space (Macaus land area is about 30 km2), high population density, and an economy based on mass tourism will definitely have an adverse effect on Macau as a beautiful city of leisure from residents and tourists perspectives. With its limited resources, Macau should focus on sustainable development, not sustained development whose focus is primarily on economic growth without acknowledging the existence of a finite carrying capacity a limit on what Macau can bear. In fact, a local higher education institution estimated that Macaus optimal tourism carrying capacity is less than 110,000 person-times per day, or 40.1 million person-times per year. It was reported that among 104 days surveyed in 2017, the number of visitors per day exceeded the optimal daily rate on 21 of those days (around 20 percent of the days surveyed).

Do you believe Macaus biggest environmental problem to be the effects of excess municipal solid waste, or are there other more important issues?

WMT People, including residents and tourists, generate a huge amount of municipal solid waste. However, solid waste may not be obvious to most people as an environmental problem. Macaus environmental complaints were mostly against noise issues such as community noise (about 8000 cases in 2020) and air pollution such as oily fumes from commercial kitchens (about 260 cases in 2020). Community noise and air pollution directly affect residents well-being and constitute a nuisance.

People have been educated to practice reduce, reuse, recycle (the 3R principle) for years. Unfortunately, they have seldom put the principle into practice over the past twenty years

Is it because people dont take the solid waste problem seriously that it isnt alleviated? Is there a lack of collective awareness?

WMT Municipal solid waste is primarily transferred to Macaus Incineration Plant for treatment. Most residents put their garbage into the waste collection units and forget about its impact on the environment. People have been educated to practice reduce, reuse, recycle (the 3R principle) for years. Unfortunately, they have seldom put the principle into practice over the past twenty years, when Macaus economy was good and people had more and more money to spend. That is a lack of collective conscience, as you said.

Now lets talk about renewable energies: do you think Macau will be able (in the medium term) to be a sustainable, energy-efficient city?

WMT Macau is a small city and has many high-rise buildings. Thus, solar energy is not efficient due to the shadowing effect of adjacent buildings and the small ratio of rooftop area to total floor area. Additionally, Macau does not have an onshore/offshore wind farm that can produce a steady supply of electricity. The only way Macau can do slightly better is to adopt smart/intelligent building systems that optimize the use of electricity for air-conditioning, and air and water heating. This means it is very unlikely that Macau can be a sustainable, energy-efficient city in the short and medium term.

Solar energy is not efficient due to the shadowing effect of adjacent buildings and the small ratio of rooftop area to total floor area

The Central Government allocated 85 square kilometres of territorial waters to Macau in 2015. Does that present an opportunity to build offshore wind farms?

WMT Building an offshore wind farm requires substantial investment on the part of the Macau Government and the Macau Power Company (i.e. CEM). Additionally, a team of experts would need to be appointed to assess whether an offshore wind farm is feasible within the 85 km2of territorial waters given to Macau by the Central Government.

Do you think the most decisive role (for the changing of habits) belongs to the Government or to the citizens? Is there enough awareness of these issues in Macau?

WMT The Macau Government plays a more important role in promoting environmental awareness. The Macau Government should work closely with educational institutions (from kindergartens to tertiary institutions) to improve environmental awareness among the next generations.

Among the top 2 per cent of world scientists

Wai Ming To is a Professor of Management in the School of Business at the Macau Polytechnic Institute. He received his PhD from Imperial College London and serves as an expert in the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Peoples Republic of China.

Professor To is among the best scientists in the world, according to a list, published by a research team from Stanford University (USA), of the top 2 per cent of the worlds most-cited scientists in various disciplines.

I was surprised to learn that I was included as one of the worlds top 2 per cent scientists based on citation impact in the year of 2019, he answers Macau Business. Nevertheless, it did not change my attitude towards doing research. I just want to collaborate with my fellow researchers to improve our understanding of how people feel, perceive and behave in organizations and different hospitality settings and how big the impacts we produce on the environmental, social and economic systems are.

One of his primary research topics is the haze problem in Macau, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. We demonstrated that haze problems in these three cities follow an Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) a hypothetical, inverted-U-shaped relationship between an environmental change and a citys economic development. For example, Macaus haze hours per year first increased, from 3 hours in 1986 to a peak level at 766 hours in 2007, and then improved as Macaus economy continually evolved (only 57 hours in 2016). Additionally, my fellow researchers and I have collected Chinas fisheries data and have realized that China has done a great job keeping marine and inland capture fisheries at a relatively low level over the past two decades. Chinas fisheries are primarily based on aquaculture production. We are going to analyse all this data (on haze and the fisheries) carefully and publish the findings in international journals.

Wai Ming To also intends to explore a number of interesting topics in Macaus service sector with past and present colleagues. The topics include consumer perceptions of the ethics of retailers, the diningscape in restaurants, and the use of social media for work (particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic) in Macau.

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Special Report - It is very unlikely that Macau can be a sustainable, energy-efficient city in the short and medium term. - Macau Business

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Elon Musk and Grimes Split After Three Years Together

Posted: at 5:07 am

Elon Musk and Grimes are calling it quits ... they've broken up after 3 years of dating.

The SpaceX and Tesla honcho says he's "semi-separated" from Grimes ... though he says they are still on good terms and are co-parenting their 1-year-old son, the famously named, X A-Xii Musk.

Elon reportedly told Page Six he and the Canadian singer still love each other and they are all living under the same roof, albeit in different rooms.

The former couple made a public appearance together at the Met Gala earlier this month, as well as back in 2018. It's unclear what exactly led to the split.

It's possible their careers are getting in the way -- Elon's busy running tech empire, which requires lots of travel to Texas and Europe, and Grimes is working in L.A. as a judge on the new FOX show, "Alter Ego."

As we reported ... Grimes gave birth to their baby boy in May 2020.

Elon's adding to a list of famous exes ... which include his first wife, author Justine Wilson, 2 marriages to "Westworld" star Talulah Riley and Johnny Depp's ex, Amber Heard.

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Elon Musk And Grimes Split Up After 3 Years, 1 Child …

Posted: at 5:07 am

Tech mogul Elon Musk and singer Grimes have split after three years and one child together.

Musk told Page Six on Friday that he and Grimes, ne Claire Elise Boucher, are not a couple anymore, but remain on good terms and plan to continue to co-parent their 1-year-old child, the unusually named X A-12 Musk.

We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms, Musk told Page Six, saying that the breakup is largely based on logistics.

Its mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas and her work is primarily in LA, he said, adding, Shes staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.

The couple started dating in 2018 after they met online. It seems Musk was about to tweet a joke about the complications of artificial intelligence, only to discover Grimes had already made the joke, according to Page Six.

The relationship wasnt always smooth. For instance, the couple disagreed on how to pronounce their childs name.In addition,the Grimes mother criticized the billionairein May 2020 for blaring Mens Rights bullshit on Twitter right after her daughter gave birth.

Although Musk actively tweets on Twitter, neither he nor Grimes have posted anything about the break-up on social media.

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Elon Musk And Grimes Split Up After 3 Years, 1 Child ...

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Elon Musk and Grimes split to cavalcade of memes …

Posted: at 5:07 am

Space billionaire Elon Musk and singer Grimes have split up, Musk has announced, adding that they still love each other, see each other frequently, are on great terms, and will share care of their son. Cue social media meltdown.

The SpaceX tycoon and Tesla founder told entertainment-news website Page Six on Friday that, though the pair are semi-separated, they remain close indeed, he said, she was currently staying with him, and Baby X was in the adjacent room. Baby X would appear to be Daddys moniker for X A-Xii, the awkwardly named child the two welcomed into the world in May 2020.

Musk explained that his work was primarily in Texas or traveling overseas, while Grimes real name Claire Boucher was based in Los Angeles. The singer is reportedly filming a TV show for Fox called Alter Ego.

The end of the couples three-year relationship was a hot topic on social media, having been controversial and epic meme fodder since day one.

Some Grimes fans were pleased to see shed dropped the billionaire.

Musk fans also seemed relieved on his behalf that it was over.

The love between Elon Musk and Grimes burned bright and fast, just like the batteries on an exploding Tesla, one Twitter user mused.

Others suggested the pairing had been a sociological experiment

or the breakup a PR stunt.

More than a few felt bad for the child, who will forever drag around the name X A-Xii.

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Elon Musk and Grimes split to cavalcade of memes ...

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Elon Musk and Grimes Split After Three Years Together

Elon Musk And Grimes Split Up After 3 Years, 1 Child …

Elon Musk and Grimes split to cavalcade of memes …

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