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The objective of this paper is to better understand the evolution and institutional roots of Hong Kong's growing economic inequality and political cleavages. By combining multiple sources of data (household surveys, fiscal data, wealth rankings, national accounts) and methodological innovations, two main findings are obtained. First, he evidence suggests a very large rise in income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong over the last four decades. Second, based on the latest opinion poll data, business elites, who carry disproportionate weight in Hong Kong's Legislative Council, are found to be more likely to vote for the pro-establishment camp (presumably to ensure that policies are passed that protect their political and economic interests). This paper argues that the unique alliance of government and business elites in a partially democratic political system is the plausible institutional root of Hong Kong's rising inequality and political cleavages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a short commentary on Professor Stott's paper, Patterns of 'disorder' during the 2019 protests in Hong Kong: policing, social identity, intergroup dynamics and radicalisation. The commentary seeks to explore the paper from the perspective of how it can contribute to the public-order policing field, as opposed to a commentary on the policing of protest in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil is commonly collected from an outdoor crime scene, and thus it is helpful in linking a suspect and a victim to a crime scene. The chemical profiles of soils can be acquired via chemical instruments such as Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC). However, the UPLC chromatogram often interferes with an unstable baseline. In this paper, we compared the performance of five baseline correction (BC) algorithms, i.e. asymmetric least squares (AsLS), fill peak, iterative restricted least squares, median window (MW), and modified polynomial fitting, in discriminating 30 chromatograms of brownish soils by five locations of origin, i.e. PP, HK, KU, BL, and KB. The performances of the preprocessed sub-datasets were first visually inspected through the mean chromatograms and then further explored via scores plots of principal component analysis (PCA). Eventually, the predictive performances of the partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models estimated from 1 000 pairs of training and testing samples (i.e. prepared via iterative random resampling split at 75:25) were studied to identify the best BC method. Mean raw chromatograms of the 10 soil samples were different from each other, with evident fluctuated baselines. AsLS and MW corrected chromatograms demonstrated the most significant improvement compared with the raw counterpart. Meanwhile, the scores plot of PCA revealed that most of the sub-datasets produced three separate clusters. Then, the sub-datasets were modelled via the PLS-DA technique. MW emerged as the excellent BC method based on the mean prediction accuracy estimated using 1 000 pairs of training and testing samples. In conclusion, MW outperformed the other BC methods in correcting the UPLC data of soil. Key points UPLC data of soil interfere with baseline drifts. BC can improve the quality of the pixel-level UPLC data. MW emerges as the most desired algorithm in improving the quality of UPLC data of soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the stock market effects of the arrival of the three rounds of "stimulus checks" to U.S. taxpayers and the single round of direct payments to Hong Kong citizens. The first two rounds of U.S. checks appear to have increased retail buying and share prices of retail-dominated portfolios. The Hong Kong payments increased overall turnover and share prices on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We cannot rule out that these price effects were permanent. The findings raise novel questions about the role of fiscal stimulus in the stock market. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the distribution and accountability of planning powers in the urban planning regime of the Hong Kong SAR. This paper identifies the power holders who are charged with steering urban planning, with a view to demonstrating that despite the existence of a multi-actor and consultative process, there is a still a concentration of power on planning matters in particular organs of the executive branch of government. It is not unusual for planning powers to be concentrated in the executive branch of government: however, in the Hong Kong context it is the particular concentration of powers in a small circle of power holders within the executive branch that might need reform. The discussion concludes with sketching out possible ways of dispersing power, within and outside the executive branch, to enhance the legitimacy of the planning regime, without compromising its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the tactical changes made by the asylum seeker community in Hong Kong in negotiating local refugee assistance policies and practices. The analysis presented in this paper is grounded in my ethnographic fieldwork with an asylum seeker-led organization and supplemented by archival study and informal interviews. In recent years, the asylum seeker community has adopted a pragmatic approach to advocacy, increasingly asking the local community for support in providing humanitarian aid rather than calling for changes to the assistance system, a tactic that this group used in the past. I argue that these tactical changes cannot be separated from the social and political contexts of Hong Kong. The presence of stimulating events, particularly those involving local and global refugee and migrant communities, the space available for voicing dissent, and the level of institutional responsiveness, all affect how the asylum seeker community in Hong Kong participates in policy discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of studies have explored the ways how teachers contingently respond to students' unexpected responses or a lack of student responses in second language classrooms. From a sociocultural perspective, teacher contingency involves a departure from the lesson plan in local response to the unexpected or unforeseeable actions in the classroom interactions (van Lier, 2001). This study adopts translanguaging as an analytical perspective in order to examine how a teacher employs various resources to contingently respond to students' initiatives and reformulate his utterances in order to prompt student participation. The data are based on a larger linguistic ethnographic project in a Hong Kong English-Medium-Instruction secondary history classroom. This paper reconceptualizes the notion of teacher contingency and argues that the process of how the teacher contingently responds to the unexpected outcomes that arise in real-time interactions is a process of translanguaging. Such a process requires the teacher in orchestrating the available linguistic and multimodal resources to construct pedagogical actions on the spot, instead of being planned in advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning techniques are playing an increasing role in astronomy to deal with the data avalanche. Here we describe an application for finding resolved planetary nebulae (PNe) in crowded, wide-field, narrow-band Hα survey imagery in the Galactic plane, to test and facilitate more objective, reproducible, efficient and reliable trawls for them. PNe are important for studying the late-stage stellar evolution of low-mass to intermediate-mass stars. However, the confirmed ∼3800 Galactic PNe fall far short of the numbers expected. Traditional visual searching for resolved PNe is time-consuming because of the large data size and areal coverage of modern astronomical surveys. The training and validation data set of our algorithm was built with the INT Photometric Hα Survey (IPHAS) and true PNe from the Hong Kong/AAO/Strasbourg Hα (HASH) data base. Our algorithm correctly identified 444 PNe in the validation set of 454 PNe, with only 16 explicable 'false' positives, achieving a precision rate of 96.5 per cent and a recall rate of 97.8 per cent. After transfer learning, it was then applied to the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic plane and bulge (VPHAS+), examining 979 out of 2284 survey fields, each covering 1° × 1°. It returned ∼20 000 detections, including 2637 known PNe and other kinds of catalogued non-PNe. A total of 815 new high-quality PNe candidates were found, 31 of which were selected as top-quality targets for optical spectroscopic follow-up. We found that 74 per cent of them are true, likely, and possible PNe. Representative preliminary confirmatory spectroscopy results are presented here to demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques, with full details to be given in our forthcoming paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most discussions on religious activism in Hong Kong focus on Christianity. Building on C. K. Yang's classic theory of diffused religion, this article first distinguishes Chinese religious institutions from less institutional religious practices and expressions and argues beyond this popular assumption and representation of Christianity by considering elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and Chinese folk religions in recent activism, revealing a more complex religious ecology. Second, this paper uncovers a longer historical trajectory whereby colonial forces attempted to co-opt Christianity to legitimize their power, which explains why assumptions concerning Christian domination exist in the first place. Furthermore, colonial policies, Cold War politics, and Chinese regimes have all co-opted institutional religious elites in Hong Kong for ideological purposes, resulting in institutional Chinese religions in Hong Kong, such as Buddhism and Daoism, being connected with the Chinese Communist Party, whereas the linkage between Christianity and liberty is reinforced. At the same time, without secularizing forces from Mainland China, religions in Hong Kong, including Christianity, institutional Chinese religions, and less institutional folk religions, have all diffused into secular institutions and with each other, contributing to the foundation of the Chinese community in the past and the pursuit of democracy, justice, and freedom today on a grassroots, non-institutional level. In this way, this article not only offers critical insight into the role of religion in Hong Kong activism and the often neglected history of religious co-optations under British colonialism and in the Cold War but also provides a theoretical contribution in terms of furthering our understanding of the relationship among religious institutions, state apparatuses, and diffused religion on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk management and empowerment have become key features of social work practice. Despite their increasing salience, relatively little is known about the perspectives of mental health social workers regarding how they navigate competing risk management approaches in modern practice that supports empowerment. The socio-cultural influences on risk management have also received insufficient attention in social work research. Focusing on these issues, this paper explored the perspectives of social workers in two geographically and culturally distinctive settings (i.e. Hong Kong and Sydney). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with frontline social workers and were analysed using thematic analysis. Similar views were expressed by participants in both settings regarding assessment of clients' readiness for risk-taking. Differences were identified in their practices of negotiating the perspectives of other key stakeholders and can be attributed to the influences of distinctive cultural and socio-political contexts. These insights may contribute to the development of more systematic, localised and practice-based risk assessment guidelines for mental health practitioners working towards the empowerment of clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Sanctions Ordinance is the primary legal basis of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) for implementing the United Nations Security Council's resolutions. However, there are concerns that the Ordinance is potentially violating the separation of powers in its delegation of regulation-making authority to the executive. There are also criticisms against the expediency of the Ordinance as a mechanism lot enforcing Security Council sanctions. Against this background, this paper attempts to examine the separation of powers doctrine, its place in HKSAR's constitutional system and its relevance to the Ordinance. On the issue of expediency, this paper focuses on the scope and speed of implementing the sanctions, and the human rights and criminal justice pro blems it involves. For comparative purposes, references are to be made to the law of the USA, Canada and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the proposed race anti-discrimination bill in Hong Kong, China which excludes mainland Chinese immigrants from protection. It states that the Hong Kong government addressed the calls for a Race Discrimination Bill to be introduced into the legislature in view of its passage. It says that the administration argues in consultation paper that mainland Chinese immigrants have the same ethnicity with most of the Han Chinese population.

This article responds to Stott et al.'s 'Patterns of disorder in the 2019 protests in Hong Kong'. In that paper, they offer a social psychological analysis of the Hong Kong events and, in so doing, draw upon the 'Elaborated Social Identity Model', and deploy it as the basis for understanding the escalating tensions and violence that occurred through 2019. This model has a number of positive features, not least that it foregrounds rationality and the organized and purposive nature of collective conduct while also paying careful attention to the wider context in which identity within large groups is formed and reformed. The aim in this article is simply to point to the importance of situating such an account within a wider historical sociology, in particular, considering the longer-term 'life-cycle' of riot and violent protest. Utilizing Sewell's notion of 'events', the article seeks to point to the ways in which such signal phenomena may be considered to have laid the foundations for at least elements of what occurred subsequently. Such an approach provides a basis within which the growth of Hong Kong's localism may be situated, as well as offering a longer-term context for understanding the rapidly shifting position occupied by Hong Kong's police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design and development of the Hong Kong Sign Language-Sentence Repetition Test (HKSL-SRT). It will be argued that the test offers evidence of discriminability, reliability, as well as practicality and can serve as an effective global measurement of individuals' proficiency in HKSL. The full version of the test consists of 40 signed sentences of increasing length and complexity. Specifically, we will evaluate the manual and non-manual components of these sentences to find out whether and to what extent they can differentiate three groups of deaf signers, namely, native signers, early learners and late learners. Statistical analyses show that the test scores based on a correct repetition of the manual signs of each sentence bear a significant negative correlation with signers' age of acquisition. Including the correct repetition of non-manuals in the scoring scheme can result in higher reliability and separation index of the test in the Rasch model. This paper will also discuss how psychometric measures of Rasch analysis, including the concept of fit and the rankings of items/persons in the Wright map, have been applied to the original list of the 40 sentence items for the development of a shortened test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: measures of physical capability may be predictive of subsequent health, but existing published studies have not been systematically reviewed. We hypothesised that weaker grip strength, slower walking speed and chair rising and shorter standing balance time, in community-dwelling populations, would be associated with higher subsequent risk of fracture, cognitive outcomes, cardiovascular disease, hospitalisation and institutionalisation.Methods: studies were identified through systematic searches of the electronic databases MEDLINE and EMBASE (to May 2009). Reference lists of eligible papers were also manually searched.Results: twenty-four papers had examined the associations between at least one physical capability measure and one of the outcomes. As the physical capability measures and outcomes had been assessed and categorised in different ways in different studies, and there were differences in the potential confounding factors taken into account, this made it impossible to pool results. There were more studies examining fractures than other outcomes, and grip strength and walking speed were the most commonly examined capability measures. Most studies found that weaker grip strength and slower walking speed were associated with increased risk of future fractures and cognitive decline, but residual confounding may explain results in some studies. Associations between physical capability levels and the other specified outcomes have not been tested widely.Conclusions: there is some evidence to suggest that objective measures of physical capability may be predictors of subsequent health in older community-dwelling populations. Most hypothesised associations have not been studied sufficiently to draw definitive conclusions suggesting the need for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Striving to be a full-fledged profession with statutorily delegated self-regulatory authority has been a goal of the social work profession in many countries since Abraham Flexner's (1915 'Is social work a profession?', Paper presented at the Forty-Second Annual Session of The National Conference of Charities and Correction, Baltimore, MD, pp. 581, 584–8, 590. denial of its professional status in the USA. A full self-regulation requires two gatekeeping mechanisms: professional education and registration. Whereas professional social work education has been in place in many parts of the world, the establishment of a mandatory registration system is still limited to a few countries. Although two mechanisms share the same mandate and function as self-regulation, they tend to be discussed separately in the literature. How they connect and work with each other is seldom explored. In this article, by examining the development of these two mechanisms in Canada, Hong Kong and South Korea, we present three different ways of how these mechanisms are connected and discuss observations of those connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In capture‐recapture experiments, individual covariates may be subject to missingness, especially when the number of captures is small. When the covariate information is missing at random, the inverse probability weighting method and the multiple imputation method are widely used to obtain point estimators of the abundance. These estimators are then used to construct Wald‐type confidence intervals. However, such intervals may have seriously inaccurate coverage probabilities. In this paper, we propose a maximum empirical likelihood (EL) estimation approach for the abundance in the presence of missing covariates. We show that the maximum EL estimator is asymptotically normal, and that the EL ratio statistic for the abundance has a chi‐square limiting distribution with one degree of freedom. Simulations indicate that the proposed estimator has a smaller mean square error than existing estimators, and the proposed EL ratio confidence interval usually has more accurate coverage probabilities than the existing Wald‐type confidence intervals. We illustrate the proposed method by analyzing data collected in Hong Kong for the yellow‐bellied prinia, a bird species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once feted, Hong Kong has recently become a centre of civil unrest. In this paper, we situate these emergent politics through a case study of corruption and everyday life in Kowloon Walled City, a mainland Chinese enclave in British Hong Kong, which developed notoriety as a freestanding grey economy. Drawing from oral testimonies of police officers, triad members and local residents, we excavate the lived experience of confinement within this contested space. These accounts reconstruct the Walled City as a 'quasi-carceral' site of enclosure, a zone of colonial exceptionalism and a hybrid cultural space. Through this case study, we historicize current debates in carceral geography, humanize recent interventions in urban scholarship and analyse the shifting politics at the frontier of Chinese expansionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal (ST) system alone, the hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system has many advantages such as simultaneous production of electrical and thermal energies, efficient utilization on solar energy, space reduction and so on. However, there is limited data on both the energy and exergy performance comparisons of these three solar systems, especially for annual performance data. This paper aims to present a comparative study on the performances of the PV, ST and PV/T systems by a series of full-day experiments. Energy and exergy performances of these three solar utilization systems were all calculated and analyzed. Moreover, two typical evaluation methods, i.e. semi-empirical system efficiency model method and input–output method, were also used for evaluating the performances of these systems. Finally, based on the input–output method, the annual performances of the PV, ST and PV/T systems under typical meteorological conditions of Hong Kong region were predicted. The results show that the ST system has the highest total energy gain and energy efficiency and the PV system has the highest total exergy gain and exergy efficiency of these three systems. However, by a comprehensive consideration on the energy and exergy performances, the PV/T system has the best overall performance of these three solar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Caregiving work in 'residential care homes for the elderly' (RCHEs) has long been devalued as 'dirty work', which contributes to RCHE's acute shortages of health care staff in Hong Kong. This study aims to unearth the voice of the RCHEs workers by delineating their insider perspectives of RCHE work. Method Adopting the Photovoice method, a participatory methodology, 30 RCHEs care workers (i.e. Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, Health Workers, and Personal Care Workers) were invited to take photos that showcase their perspectives of doing aged care work. Two in-depth interviews were conducted with each research participant before and after the photo-taking procedure. Thematic analysis is then conducted to analyse the visual and verbal data. Results Findings show that RCHEs care workers perceive and revitalize the nature and meaning of their work in four ways: conducting 'dirty tasks' to help the elderly; valuing and engaging in long-term relationships; learning in work; and cultural meaning of working with the elderly. Contrary to public devaluation, RCHE care workers normalize the delivery of 'dirty tasks' (i.e. handling human excreta and wounds) as being helpful to both the elderly and the family members. Besides the routine caring tasks on paper, care workers highlight that they spend a lot of unrecognized labor to build rapport and provide emotional support to the elderly and their family members in their work. They also report that learning and self-development are an important part of residential care work, both in terms of professional knowledge and personal growth. Taking care of the elderly also conveys positive cultural meanings in Chinese society. Conclusion Policy, professional and educational initiatives of geriatric care primarily emphasize the delivery of clinical tasks (caring for), while undermining the emotional and relational aspects of aged care work. The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. (UGC/FDS16/M12/20). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, the majority of Hong Kong young adults who graduate from secondary school progress onto tertiary education. Poor eating patterns among young adults could lead to long-term health implications associated with overweight and obesity. Using the socio-ecological model as a theoretical framework, this paper reviews the current food-related policies in Hong Kong and proposes a comprehensive policy approach relevant to a variety of organizational contexts that has the potential to support positive eating patterns among young adults by enhancing the local food environment. Hong Kong has an unusual food supply in that more than 95% of food is imported, making it vulnerable to food insecurity. Education interventions commonly conducted in Hong Kong are unlikely to be helpful because young adults acquire nutrition-related knowledge when they attend secondary school. There is a need to change the food environment in Hong Kong so that young adults can easily translate their nutrition knowledge into making healthy food choices. Policy approaches might be among the most effective strategies for bringing positive changes in eating patterns because they have the potential to directly influence the food environment and context where an individual lives. A comprehensive suite of approaches that fill the policy gaps, remove barriers of healthy food consumption and create more healthy food choices is required to improve diet and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to apply the idea of cosmopolitan democracy to the question of national identity in a comparative context in the European Union and East Asia. The application of the idea of cosmopolitan democracy to East Asia is constrained by a number of factors, and hence cannot be understood as a universal concept, but rather as a contingent regional phenomenon that is dependent on certain conditions. The paper concludes that East Asia will find its own approach to the question of national identity and that this has been demonstrated to some extent by China's handling of Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explored how social workers located in Sydney and Hong Kong conceptualised client empowerment. Further, it investigated these professionals' perceived facilitators and barriers to their empowerment practices, based on an ecological framework. A cross-sectional online survey was used, where the original Empowerment Scale for clients with mental health issues was adapted to measure conceptualisation of client empowerment from social workers' perspectives. Eighty-three social workers serving people with mental health issues (MHIs) in Sydney and eighty in Hong Kong responded. A two-factor model was generated suggesting that practitioners tend to conceptualise client empowerment into two aspects: a relation-based dimension and a resource-oriented one. Compared with their Sydney counterparts, the Hong Kong practitioners considered resource-oriented empowerment as more integral to client empowerment (t (161) = 4.17, p  < 0.001). Several key factors were found to be independently associated with endorsement of the two-factor client-empowerment model by practitioners: perceived less support from medical specialists but more support from teams serving the same client, perceived benefits of social work training and, finally, beliefs in the importance of social workers' role in client empowerment. The study highlights the multiple dimensions of client empowerment and a wide range of inter-professional and sociostructural factors enabling social workers' practices that support empowerment. Our paper highlights the role of professional empowerment as a stepping stone to enable their client-empowerment practices through policy support and inter-professional collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997, Hong Kong has had its own "mini-constitution" in the form of the Basic Law. To date, there has been little scrutiny of the relationship between the courts and the legislature and executive in terms of the court's impact on the subsequent actions of the latter two arms of government. It is unclear how the other branches of government have responded to judicial review proceedings, or what this tells us about the relative involvement of the three institutions in the evolution of constitutional meaning. This article looks at the interaction between the different institutions following judicial review proceedings relating to particular legislation. The article considers cases where courts issued a finding of constitutional invalidity of legislation or policy and what the legislature and administration did to rectify it. This paper considers what these responses say about the relationship between the different institutions. In evaluating these cases, we will consider, inter alia, the pathways signposted in the judgments for the better enforcement of constitutional norms by the executive and legislature as well as the actions of the executive and legislature in any subsequent law-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how community policing takes on its actual meanings in the specific circumstances of contemporary Hong Kong. Hong Kong people place tremendous stake on the rule of law, which has always become one of the acclaimed 'core values' distinguishing the post-handover Hong Kong from the rest of China. Against this social background, this paper argues that largely due to the non-democratic structuring of local governance, law is inadequate to maintain a locally given order, and then community policing vested with the necessary police discretion is very often adopted to accommodate the real needs in the local community. This argument is based on the inductive analysis by using a case study of the policing of a marketplace in Hong Kong. It has been found that the local governmental institution consistently calls for the police's strict enforcement of law in order to resolve the community problems generated by the routine operation of the marketplace. On the other hand, the police are actually working against such a call by discretionarily handling the extra-legal arrangements in the marketplace. Taken together, the current study reveals that one of the actual meanings of Hong Kong's community policing is defined by the contradictory juxtaposition situated between the official ideal and local reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever high-stakes assessment/curriculum reforms take place, new textbooks appear on the market. These textbooks inevitably play a significant mediating role in the implementation of any reform and on teaching and learning. This paper reports on a small-scale study which attempts to investigate the role of textbooks in the mediation of a high-stakes assessment reform: the introduction of school-based assessment (SBA) as part of the 2007 Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination in English Language. The introduction of SBA represented a major challenge for teachers accustomed to a system of external examinations and ‘teaching to the test’. The paper examines the extent to which SBA textbooks align with the SBA principles and rationales. It then investigates the extent to which teachers rely on textbooks to prepare their students for SBA and the kind of materials that teachers feel they need most in order to prepare their students for SBA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the construction of whiteness, masculinity, and expatriate citizenship in the changing landscape of postcolonial Hong Kong. The context of the Hong Kong Police Force and the career of a long-serving senior British officer are used to examine changes in the meanings of whiteness in the new national and organizational contexts which have followed the handover of the Region from the British to the Chinese in 1997. Analysis reveals the place the organization may play in the construction of white identities and privileges and how, in the intersection of organizational practices and policies with personal biography, whiteness may serve to resist broader initiatives for integration. Although in their global mobility white skilled migrants may suggest performances of new cosmopolitan forms of citizenship, this paper argues that shifts towards a postidentity politics of cultural hybridity and integration can seem slow to appear in transnational expatriate contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In view of the smuggling out of democratic leaders after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 and China's resumption of sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997, China applied a ‘united front’ tactic to recruit Hong Kong triad societies to the Communist camp. Consequently, triad leaders were able to set foot in China and bridge up with officials and state enterprises. Against this backdrop, this paper argues that when political dynamics is involved, both the traditional structural and social network approaches are insufficient to explain triad-organized crime. Therefore, social capital perspective is proposed. Using two case studies, it was discovered that the triad leaders converted the social capital they developed in mainland China into economic capital through illegitimate means in the stock market. The paper concludes by highlighting the similarities and differences between this triad-organized crime and other forms of Chinese organized crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Influenced by the consumerist sentiment in New Public Management, the last decades have witnessed a revival of the call for accountability to service users in the public service sector. As an act of accountability, social care and health care professionals are increasingly obliged to involve their service users in the service planning and monitoring process. Despite the popularity of this accountability and user involvement rhetoric, critics have, however, been skeptical of the prevailing user involvement initiatives as an effective measure of accountability to service users (Barnes and Wistow, 1994a, 1994b; Bowl, 1996; Peck et al., 2002; Rea, 2004). Based on a study of user involvement in the welfare sector of Hong Kong, this paper argues that the discourse of accountability to the service users can be a source of unrest for welfare professionals, in the manifestation of accountability as a power relationship. Their ensuing response is to accommodate the ensuing challenge arising from the demand for accountability to service users by manoeuvring the accountability discourse. It is the contention of this paper that the institutional inclusion of welfare service users into a discursive space is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the realization of a mandate of accountability to welfare service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a broad-based background to the major innovation-related organizations, policies and institutions that have shaped Hong Kong's innovative landscape over the past decade and a half and determined the trajectory of its innovation system. The examination reveals three key issues: First, the Asian Financial Crisis was the major catalyst for change in the development of Hong Kong's innovation system. Second, the ecology of Hong Kong's innovation system grew in an unprecedented manner following 1998. Finally, this growth in the elements of the system indicates promising directions in which to drive future in-depth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate and demonstrate the effectiveness of applications of available environment-friendly technologies in buildings in Hong Kong, a number of eco-building concepts are used on a small building in the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong including 4 kW photovoltaic-roof, roof rainwater collection system, grass roof design, sunroof for lighting, and double-glazing external walls for better insulation. This paper mainly reports the simulation and data monitoring results of the rainwater collection system and photovoltaic system. The supply and utilization of rainwater for different types of buildings were investigated. The findings such as the supply, the demand of flushing, feasibility, reliability and energy saving of using rainwater are also reported in this paper. The annual energy performance and green house gas emission reduction are presented for the solar PV roof installation. Data monitoring has shown that the performance of both the rainwater collection system and the solar PV system is good and meets the design expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper briefly discusses developments in the negotiations on agriculture in the WTO Doha Development Agenda Round from January 2000 to September 2005 and identifies the main elements to be considered when speculating on the outcome of the Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the Hong Kong approach to consent regarding the forgoing of life-sustaining treatment for incompetent elderly patients. It analyzes the contextualized approach in the Hong Kong process-based, consensus-building model, in contrast to other role-based models which emphasize the establishment of a system of formal laws and a clear locus of decisional authority. Without embracing relativism, the paper argues that the Hong Kong model offers an instructive example of how strategic ambiguities can both make good sense within particular cultural context and serve important moral goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markov models are commonly used in modelling many practical systems such as telecommunication systems, manufacturing systems and inventory systems. In this paper we propose a multivariate Markov chain model for modelling multiple categorical data sequences. We develop efficient estimation methods for the model parameters. We then apply the model and method to demand predictions for a soft-drink company in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a rendition of the care ethic in Confucian philosophy and to argue that social policy developments in Hong Kong society, including health care policy, have been significantly shaped and justified in terms of the ideal of care in the Confucian moral tradition. On the basis of this analysis, the paper raises a number of questions about a recent proposal for health care reform for Hong Kong put forth by the Harvard School of Public Health which argues for adopting the principle of equity as the overriding value for the moral foundation of Hong Kong's health care system. The paper examines how the over-emphasis on equity in the Harvard Report proposals can lead to the erosion of care and ultimately the eclipse of the vision of care in Hong Kong's health care system. It argues that the pursuit of equity, which is itself a valuable principle, should not displace the importance of the value of care or undermine the ideal of care and that health care decisions must be firmly embedded in local cultures and moral traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the consequences of a specific political, geographic, historical, and economic fact: the border between the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. This border, together with the differing political and economic systems which it separates, has had a major impact on the definition of crime problems, the substance of the criminal law, and criminal justice policy in Hong Kong. This paper traces recent developments in three areas of cross-border crime: smuggling, illegal immigration, and, perhaps less obviously, armed robbery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the lived experience of maltreatment in parent-child relationships in relation to Chinese children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-which emerged from a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong. Out of a clinical sample of forty-four families, 25 per cent of children reported parental abuse, 21 percent of parents had suffered from child-to-parent maltreatment and 11 percent of families had experienced both. Most of the self-disclosures came out naturally in the three phases of the multiple family groups conducted by the authors. The maltreatment experienced was physical in nature, except for four cases of psychological abuse. Maltreatment was the result of escalating parent-child conflicts, triggered in four circumstances: (i) supervision of homework; (ii) parental demand on their children to do something other than playing; (iii) parent's misunderstanding of the child's acting-out behaviours; and (iv) parent's verbal threat of removing the child from home. The narratives underscore the urgent need to develop a complex social work model in helping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect has been in operation for more than a year. It is predictable that with the implementation of this scheme, cross-border securities disputes between the Mainland and Hong Kong will be on the rise. In resolving these disputes, one of the most important problems is the determination of substantive law that should apply to them. This paper makes feasible proposals to harmonize the choice of law rules regarding cross-border securities disputes under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect with due reference made to the approaches adopted by the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with an Intermediary and the Uniform Commercial Code of the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Leung Chun Kwong v. Secretary for the Civil Service, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal held that the government unlawfully discriminated against a gay civil servant by refusing to recognize his same-sex marriage—entered into abroad—when considering the granting of local spousal benefits and joint tax assessment. The year before, in QT v. Director of Immigration, the court had ruled against the government for denying the partner of a British lesbian a dependant visa on the basis of her sexual orientation. QT and Leung Chun Kwong are landmarks in the rapidly evolving jurisprudence on same-sex marriage in the territory. This article presents an analysis of the Hong Kong cases relating to gay rights and same-sex marriage. It contends that, even though the need to protect traditional marriage is cited as a reason against marriage equality in many jurisdictions, the claim is particularly problematic in Hong Kong, given the city's unique marriage history. It draws on the historian Eric Hobsbawm's notion of "the invention of tradition" to argue that the rhetoric of traditional marriage conjures up an imagined past that displaces a vast and varied set of long-standing marital practices. By exploring government reports and records pertaining to Chinese marriages in colonial Hong Kong, this article then examines these forgotten traditions and demonstrates their significance for understanding the marriage equality debate in the territory in our own time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Vitamin D inadequacy is globally prevalent among pregnant women; however, its impact on pregnancy remains inconclusive. Objective This study aims to explore the associations of maternal and umbilical cord serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels with pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. Method We used archived serum samples from the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) Study participants in the Hong Kong center and assayed maternal 25(OH)D levels at midgestation and umbilical cord 25(OH)D at birth using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectroscopy. Data regarding pregnancy and perinatal outcomes were extracted from the HAPO study dataset and the hospital computerized medical system. Results Only 247 (16.4%) mothers and 66 (5.0%) neonates met the criteria for vitamin D sufficiency (ie, 25(OH)D ≥ 75 nmol/L). The ratio of umbilical cord to maternal vitamin D levels was positively associated with maternal age and ambient solar radiation at the month of delivery, while negatively associated with maternal serum total 25(OH)D at midgestation (all P <.001). Umbilical cord serum 25(OH)D was independently associated with a lower primary cesarean section rate (OR 0.990, 95% CI 0.982-0.999; P =.032). There were no associations of maternal and umbilical cord 25(OH)D levels with other adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. Conclusion Placental vitamin D transfer was found to be higher with a lower maternal vitamin D level, older maternal age, and higher ambient solar radiation at the time of the delivery. The protective effect of sufficient vitamin D in a cesarean section will require further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a commentary and analysis on the half-century development of social work in Hong Kong, from its origins in the twin roots of Christian ideology accompanying British colonialism and Chinese family values, the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the Asian financial crisis and subsequent economic recession and major cuts in government funding for social welfare. We pointed out that the government had tried to co-opt social work for ideological ends. This aim was not achieved in the 1980s, but the government has succeeded in doing so by imposing the new financial control on the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) after 1997. We argue that the four major political challenges ahead for social workers in Hong Kong relate to social integration, urban maladies, social justice and indigenisation. We propose that a process of re-politicisation of social work by both agencies and practitioners, seeking to reclaim social workers' political and professional role, is necessary in order to ensure a more equitable distribution of community resources in Hong Kong to ensure that all citizens share in its prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Racial discrimination towards minority ethnic (ME) groups in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is argued to be endemic. This paper considers research studies focusing on this issue as extended to the Pakistani community, which appear to constitute in part a general xenophobia towards certain ME groups. In addition, the authors contribute findings from an ethnographic study of low-income Pakistani families in Hong Kong, offering narrated accounts from participants regarding the impact of racial discrimination on their lives, metaphorically signified in the idiomatic term Ah Cha to denote people of North Indian heritage. These data are supplemented by additional interview data from Hong Kong social workers. An analysis of the impact of racism upon Pakistani individuals and families is offered in relation to micro, meso and macro-level forms of discrimination. These in turn relate to interpersonal relationships, perceived community attitudes, social work responses, and relevant social policy and legislation. The discussion of the implications of racial discrimination in HKSAR, with a specific focus on its Pakistani community, is underpinned by theorisation of multiple oppressions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change may seriously affect the energy consumption of buildings by influencing their air conditioning loads, especially the ventilation loads which vary directly with the local weather conditions. Research on how the ventilation load responds to climate change is of great significance, especially in coastline subtropical regions like Hong Kong. This paper investigated the impacts of climate change on buildings' ventilation load and building energy use in Hong Kong with the hourly meteorological data from 1950 to 2007. Results have been well validated by the simulation of a typical local hotel building during this period. The results show that climate warming increases both sensible and latent parts of the cooling ventilation load. The latent part, which occupies ∼80% of the total ventilation load, increases at a higher rate, about twice of that of the sensible one. Furthermore, it is found that the urban heat island (UHI) effect causes a much higher growth rate of the ventilation load at night, which is about three times compared with that in the daytime. The latent part of the cooling ventilation load at night, which is found to be the most sensitive component to the climate change, plays a most significant role in the energy consumption increase. The possible measures were thus suggested to avoid negative changes of the ventilation load. Besides, reducing the UHI effect by better urban planning also significantly benefits the local buildings with a long air-conditioning operation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: research in care home settings is often negatively focused, portraying life as sterile and devoid of meaningful experiences. Care homes have the potential to influence people's lives socially, physically and psychologically. It is important to understand what factors contribute to this.Objective: to conduct a systematic qualitative review of care home life and provide practical recommendations to enhance residents' quality of life.Methods: the following databases were searched: PsycINFO, Medline, Web of Science, EMBASE, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. References from appropriate journals and individual articles were checked. Papers that fitted our selection criteria were selected. Two independent reviewers assessed methodological study quality. Thematic analysis and meta-ethnographic methods were adapted to synthesise findings.Results: thirty-one studies were identified. People in care homes voiced concerns about lack of autonomy and difficulty in forming appropriate relationships with others. Four key themes were identified: (i) acceptance and adaptation, (ii) connectedness with others, (iii) a homelike environment, (iv) caring practices.Conclusion: positive experiences in care homes can occur and are important for residents' quality of life. The review supports literature highlighting the need for relationship-centred approaches to care and emphasises the importance of understanding the resident's attitude towards living in care homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong provides a unique case study on the roles and functions of the judiciary within an authoritarian or semi-authoritarian sovereign. Under the unique constitutional arrangement in Hong Kong, a liberal common law judiciary in a highly sophisticated modern metropolis is encapsulated within a Socialist-Leninist sovereign regime that ideologically rejects separation of powers, independence of the judiciary and values of individual liberalism. Notwithstanding the sharp ideological differences and the greatly asymmetrical distribution of social, economic and political powers in this One Country, Two Systems constitutional model, it is argued that the relationship between the courts and the authoritarian sovereign power is and has been complex and dynamic. The Hong Kong courts have been able to create their institutional space by establishing an impressive liberal constitutional common law, but that constitutional space is shrinking as the over-zealous sovereign is increasingly assertive of its views on matters that it perceives to be affecting state interests. By examining a series of controversial decisions, this paper argues that there are reasons that the courts could, with creativity and sensitivity, maintain a delicate and balanced relationship with the sovereign without succumbing to the political pressure, but that the greatest threat of independence of the judiciary comes from within the judiciary in internalizing the values of the socialist state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent phase of economic globalization has constituted a social context of deteriorating opportunity and increasing risk for disadvantaged communities in Hong Kong. While different studies have shown the ‘revitalization’ of the significance of the community in general and community work service in particular in most developed countries to further the interests of disadvantaged groups, the survival of the community development service in Hong Kong has been threatened by the government's intention to cut it. New initiatives, however, were started by the government to tap resources from the community to provide help to individuals and families in need without utilizing the existing community development programme that emphasizes community empowerment. This paper first examines the relationship between the global impact and the community work service in the developed countries. It then analyses the changing role of the service consequential upon the actions of the Hong Kong government in mediating the global impact. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the views of Hong Kong community leaders on the underlying issues that affect family health, happiness and harmony (3Hs) in Hong Kong. Using a community reconnaissance method, a series of individual in-depth interviews with 26 leaders that represent neighbourhoods of diverse socio-economic status (SES) from June to August 2008 were conducted. Participants considered that changing family structure, economic situation and strong work ethic are the most salient factors that affect family 3Hs. The deprived comprehensive social security assistance recipients, single-parent families and migrant women were considered to be the most vulnerable groups to breakdown in family 3Hs and particularly, they lack family resources. Families from different SES have to overcome different challenges in order to achieve and sustain family 3Hs. Leaders from low SES neighbourhood were concerned more about providing tangible help such as child care facilities to improve family resources, whereas leaders from high SES neighbourhood focused more on preventive interventions such as education on relationship skills to achieve better family well-being. The findings offer insights in designing effective social marketing education campaigns and family-friendly workplace policy to promote social harmony through the maintenance of 3Hs families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the strategies that should be employed when processing legal terminology in a bilingual legal dictionary. The viability of a bilingual law system depends on the consistent use of standardized Chinese terms in courts and their ease of use by general users. Semantic equivalence of a term, however, is not achieved through a literal translation of an English term, and how a term is defined in both statute law and case law must also be taken into consideration. This paper argues that instead of targeting only legal practitioners, the bilingual system of Hong Kong should also aim at educating the public in the general concepts of law and in the use of Chinese legal terminology. A case study demonstrating how to process a legal expression—‘assault occasioning actual bodily harm’—is presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a conceptual framework of knowledge management (KM) in social work developed in an earlier paper (Leung, 2007), the author conducted a single-case study of a social service organization practising KM in Hong Kong. This article provides a follow-up discussion of the framework. Findings of the study are used to extend the framework so that it can be applied more comprehensively to further research on KM in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]