Vocational Training Council
VTC Institutional Repository (Vocational Training Council)Not a member yet
3146 research outputs found
Sort by
Importance of hospital facilities management performance indicators: Building practitioners’ perspectives
Get PDFHospitals are critical infrastructure assets and the strategic management of facilities within these buildings are quintessentially important to society who rely upon effective healthcare services. Despite their importance to the optimised functioning of hospital facilities, standardized performance evaluation measures such as key performance indicators (KPIs) have hitherto received scant academic attention. Understanding the views of practitioners working on the different lifecycle stages of a building will help to establish pragmatic KPIs for hospital facilities management (FM). Hence, a multi-stage study was undertaken, within which interpretivism and inductive reasoning was utilised to conduct a systematic review of extant literature on hospital FM and KPIs. In parallel, the initial stage of work shortlisted 18 KPIs, in four categories (physical, safety, environmental and financial), as essential for hospital FM performance evaluation. Using these indicators, a questionnaire survey was developed and disseminated to building practitioners in the hospital sector of Hong Kong. Data gathered was then analysed using both summary and inferential statistics. The analyses reveal that the practitioners generally regarded the physical and financial indicators as more important. When compared between the perspectives of the design/construction practitioners and the FM group, significant differences were found with three particular KPIs: availability of fire services system, energy utilization index and carbon emissions per building area. The paper concludes with direction for future research that seeks to analytically determine the importance weighting of each performance indicator identified, which is requisite for establishing a credible hospital FM performance evaluation scheme
Webcam travel: A preliminary examination of psychological well-being
Get PDFTravel has been identified as a significant contributor to psychological well-being. The recent COVID-19 global pandemic disrupted travel patterns and behaviours, thereby negatively affecting the psychological health and well-being of those involved. With accelerating technology use, multiple forms of virtual tourism have emerged as alternatives to physical travel, including travel via webcam. Webcam travel has received limited scholarly attention, despite the unique capacity of global place-based webcams to offer cost-free, real-time viewing of places and destinations. Similarly, there has been limited research on how participation in webcam travel influences psychological well-being. This research note examines how the digital experience accelerates the hedonic and eudaimonic psychological well-being of webcam viewers by proposing a new model – Webcam Travel DREAMA (detachment-recovery, engagement, affiliation, meaning and achievement) model. The findings provide a better understanding of webcam travel and psychological well-being, establishing potential directions for future researchers
Learning motivation and psychological empowerment of socioeconomically disadvantaged learners – an empirical study on inclusive project-based learning during Covid-19
Get PDFExtending the theoretical frameworks of empowerment, design thinking, and Biggs’ Presage-Process-Product (3P) model to multidisciplinary inclusive education, this study examines the relationship between the learning outcomes of inclusive projectbased learning (PBL) and its impact on young learners’ psychological empowerment (PE), learning motivation (LE) and sense of alienation (AL). Quantitative research results demonstrate that participatory PBL can contribute to inclusive education and empower the socioeconomic disadvantaged community in the process. The target group – young learners aged 6–12 years old living in sub-divided flats – perceived their learning more positively and showed a reduced sense of psychological alienation after the engagement in participatory design on their home learning environment. Ninety per cent of participants agreed that the participatory programme has improved the living and learning environment; 87.8% of them assented that their overall efficiency of studying and learning has improved. The findings confirmed that participatory design experiences have significant positive impacts on participants’ PE and LE, whilst alleviating AL. This research adds knowledge to literature related to holistic competency development, PBL, and design thinking in inclusive education
Recipe for Success 成功秘方
Get PDFContinuing professional development not only can advance an individual’s career but also support a culture of innovation and excellence in an industry and community as a whole.
持續專業進修不僅有助發展個人事業，還能積極推動整個行業以至社會的創新發展
Theme - Fungi Stakes a Claim in the Luxury Market
Get PDFWhen your company\u27s first alternative leather product is released in partnership with iconic leatherware brand Hermès, it is an indication that fungi has serious credentials in the luxury fashion industry. Success has been decades in the making, but the people at MycoWorks are convinced they have developed a technology that will push the envelope of sustainable fashion
Beyond Design
Get PDFMartine Bedin recollects her Memphis days, where furniture existed beyond functions, and designs transcended borders
Improving the Apparel Virtual Size Fitting Prediction under Psychographic Characteristics and 3D Body Measurements Using Artificial Neural Network
Get PDF3D virtual simulation prototyping software combined with computer-aided manufacturing systems are widely used and are becoming essential in the fashion industry in the earlier stages of the product development process for apparel design. These technologies streamline the garment product fitting procedures, as well as improve the supply chain environmentally, socially, and economically by eliminating large volumes of redundant samples. Issues of non-standardized selection on garment sizing, ease allowance, and size of 3D avatar for creating 3D garments have been addressed by many researchers. Understanding the relationship between body dimensions, ease allowance, and apparel sizes before adopting virtual garment simulation is fundamental for satisfying high customer demands in the apparel industry. However, designers find difficulties providing the appropriate garment fit for customers without fully understanding the motivation and emotions of customers’ fitting preferences in a virtual world. The main purpose of this study is to investigate apparel sizes for virtual fitting, particularly looking at garment ease with consideration of body dimensions and the psychographic characteristics of subjects. In order to develop a virtual garment fitting prediction model, an artificial neural network (ANN) was applied. We recruited 50 subjects between the ages of 18 and 35 years old to conduct 3D body scans and a questionnaire survey for physical and psychological segmentation, as well as fitting preferences evaluation through co-design operations on virtual garment simulation using a commercial software called Optitex. The results from the study demonstrate that ANN is effective in modeling the non-linear relationship between pattern measurements, psychological characteristics, and body measurements. This new approach and the proposed method of virtual garment fitting model prediction on garment sizes using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is significant in prediction accuracy. The project also achieves the concept of mass customization and customer orientation and generates new size-fitting data that can bring a new level of end-user satisfaction
