English

Topics include energy, enthalpy, work and entropy; laws of thermodynamics and their applications; rates of reaction: their quantitative dependence on concentration and temperature; and the steady-state approximation and chemical mechanisms.

This course examines tourism as a lens to explore key issues of globalization and economic development and to demonstrate how tourism, a global phenomenon, influences local people’s lives. Course objectives are to 1) introduce key concepts relevant to tourism and globalization; 2) apply theoretical frameworks to the analysis of contemporary issues of the globalization of tourism, and the complex  relationships that link local, regional, national and international processes and patterns of tourism development; 3) explore the relationships between the forces of globalization, multinational tourism corporations, and the state and civil society; and 4) interrogate the economic, political and social ramifications of the systemic sources of power and inequality which are reflected in and sustained by international tourism. Finally, this course will also consider the future of tourism with regard to new sectors and trends such as ecotourism, adventure tourism, and the effects of social media and the Internet, along with what travel will look like in a post-COVID-19 world both in and beyond Hong Kong.

This course provides an introduction to the history of the Middle East from the late eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. It focuses on the main transformations the region experienced during the ages of imperialism and nationalism, including the foundations of Ottoman rule in the region and its long decline; the entrance of nationalism and its dramatic effects on the political identities of its inhabitants, as well as the formative period of the Arab Israeli conflict. It also discusses the struggle for independence of some of the nation-states in the region, as well as their challenges in its aftermath: the formation of national identity and competing identities to overcome.

This course focuses on the explanations for revolutions and other forms of political upheaval from a long-term historical perspective. Four different academic theories to explain the causes, developments, and consequences of revolutions, coups, and regime changes are investigated. Particularly there is a focus on social class, the actions of the state elites, ideology, and transitions to democracy. Different explanations to concrete historical and recent instances of political upheaval, from the eighteenth century right up to the Arab Spring in the world of today are applied. Through an individual research project, students apply these various explanations to investigate a concrete revolutionary case in the past or present.

The best possible introduction to philosophy as a subject is through engagement with Ancient Greek Philosophy. In this course, students look at some of Plato's writings about his friend and mentor Socrates, in particular those writings that bear on the trial and death of Socrates. These include Plato's APOLOGY, EUTHYPHRO, and CRITO, a series of short, lively dialogues that offer excellent introductions not only to Socrates, but to the practice of philosophy itself. Students also look back at the earliest Greek philosophers, such as Parmenides and Heraclitus, and forward to Aristotle and beyond. But the central focus of this course is on the figure of Socrates, and his impact on philosophy.

This course covers multiple linear regression and least squares methods; generalized linear models; survival regression models; nonlinear effects and basis expansions; parametric, semiparametric, and nonparametric likelihood methods; and aspects of practical regression analysis in R.

The course covers: Countability, measure spaces, σ-algebras, π-systems and uniqueness of extension. Construction of Lebesgue measure on R (proof non-examinable), Independence. The Borel-Cantelli lemmas, measurable functions and random variables, independence of random variables. Notions of probabilistic convergence. Construction of integral and expectation. Integration and limits. Density functions. Product measure and Fubini’s theorem. Laws of large numbers. Characteristic functions and weak convergence, Gaussian random variables. The central limit theorem. Conditional probability and expectation.

This course aims to improve students’ knowledge of East Asian societies and cultivate their ability to analyze social issues and phenomena in these societies through a comparative lens. By comparing the social phenomena in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and analyzing the causes of and patterns in these phenomena, students are encouraged to explore the distinctions between East Asian societies and cultures and theorize back to Western-centric social theories and concepts.

This course examines basic technical knowledge on electronic commerce and financial technology. It introduces different e-commerce models: B2C and B2B model and overview different enabling technologies e-Commerce and FinTech such as the location base technology, RFID, GPS, e-payment, server-side and channel security, Near Field Communication, QR Code, augmented reality and other latest technologies deploying in the industry. By the end of the course, the latest trend and the way forward of e-commerce and Fintech in Hong Kong and overseas will be discussed.

This course provides deepened insight into English grammar and the linguistic analysis of English. There is a focus on syntactic description, analysis and argumentation, and on the relationship between linguistic form and grammatical function. Particular attention is given to the forms and functions of the noun phrase and the verb phrase as well as to clause structure and information packaging.