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RESEARCH
have not been studied before, but are important and urgently needed for their application to human biology in the areas of public health, medicine, and education. Ecological investigations in the year included socio-economic effects on growth and development, and climatic effects on conception, birth weight, and menarche. The Department was also contractor for one year (August 1963 – August 1964) of a large grant from the US Department of Agriculture for a research programme on the effects of diet supplements on child growth in the 'Children's Garden' at Wu Kwai Sha, New Territories.
In the Department of Biochemistry research was carried out on the effects of morphine and other drugs on the hormonal control of metabolism; the medical application of locally-found plant alkaloids and the cellular mechanisms involved; comparative aspects of metabolism in relation to biochemical evolution; and biochemical ceiteria of the aging process. In the Department of Pathology, work continued on diseases of the liver and biliary passages common here such as fluke infection and cholangeitis. Research projects in the Department of Physiology included the adaptation to changes in environmental temperature, metabolic changes in thiamine deficiency, toxic action of fish poison, and heroin addiction.
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology completed studies on the morphology of the Chinese female pelvis (results showing that the majority of the Chinese female pelves are favourable in shape and adequate in size) and on neonatal jaundice in the Chinese, many of such cases being found to be due to ABO isoimmunization and glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency.
In the Department of Civil Engineering work was centred on the design and construction of high buildings. At the request of the Government an investigation and survey was begun to determine the cause of serious settlement of several buildings in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon, and the extent of damage resulting from this settlement. An experimental investigation on concrete mix design using local aggregates was successfully completed.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering undertook for the Government a series of hydraulic calibration tests on scale models of the spillways of Aberdeen Lower, Kowloon Byewash and Tai