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The European Union implemented the End-of-Life Vehicle directive to deal with an estimated 6 million end-of-life vehicles each year. Existing literature describe the processes to deal with the waste at end-of-life of different products but there is a lack of information on the costing of these options. These costs remain a concern to automotive manufacturers. This paper therefore reports the end-of-life costs of vehicle components and also demonstrates how these costs can be predicted at the design stage. The proposed approach should help to decide whether the automotive parts are viable for remanufacture, refurbishment, recycling, or disposal from an economic perspective. Two different automotive parts have been selected as case studies to validate the approach. Assumptions were made during the development of the technique and based on the results, the proposed approach could potentially provide vehicle manufacturers a method of estimating the cost of end-of-life recovery processes of vehicle components.

The global market for smart packaging is expected to reach $26.7bn by 2024. Smart packaging refers to packaging systems with embedded sensor technology used with foods, pharmaceuticals, and many other types of products. It is used to extend shelf life, monitor freshness, display information on quality, and improve product and customer safety. In addition, smart packaging offers new business opportunities based on digitization and thus fits into the broader realm of Industry 4.0. In this paper, the authors provide an introductory overview of smart packaging and discuss its underlying base technologies. This is followed by a presentation of potential benefits and emerging opportunities in the packaging sector, contrasted by a number of challenges that first have to be overcome for smart packaging to reach its full potential. Finally, conclusions are drawn and an outlook towards the future, critical research areas to work in, and potential lessons to be learned from associated areas are presented.

The student questionnaire (PIRLS-SQ 2011) of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) was designed to gather information from pupils on reading literacy development as to aspects of pupils’ self-lives, home, and school lives across countries/districts. In order to serve the purposes of research and international comparison, the questionnaire was translated into various languages. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the current study investigates the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the student questionnaire (PIRLS-SQCV 2011) and identifies its underlying factor structure among Chinese fourth-grade pupils in Hong Kong. A 10-factor structure model was identified and much resemblance could be drawn to the original PIRLS structure. While the similarity allows international comparisons of studies in different places following the PIRLS strategy, the findings of this study add to extant literature on the relationship between student factors and reading achievement.

Purpose– There has been rapid proliferation of Lesson Studies and Learning Studies over the world. Do they really help teachers’ professional development and student learning? The purpose of this paper is to review studies from 2000 to 2010 on Lesson Study and Learning Study to unravel their benefits on teachers and students.Design/methodology/approach– Relevant studies were screen and extracted on available electronic databases to evaluate outcome of Lesson Study and Learning Study. The results were based on nine studies which examined the achievement of Learning Study and Lesson Study.Findings– All reviews identified positive evidence supporting the benefits of Lesson Study and Learning Study as powerful tool to help teachers examine their practices and enhance student learning. Although all nine studies showed positive effects of Lesson Study and Learning Study on teaching, learning or both, different outcome measures were employed and the study designs varied in qualities.Originality/value– More well-controlled studies with consistent and validated outcome measures were recommended in the future to address the short- and long-term effects of Lesson Study on students, teachers, and school level. Efforts should be focussed on unveiling the relationship between what is taught and what is learned. Studies using these approaches with more vigorous procedures in randomization and blinding should be implemented.

Reading literacy of fourth-grade students in Hong Kong showed a remarkable improvement from 2001 to 2006 as shown by international PIRLS studies. This study identified various aspects of the teacher factor contributing to the significant improvement among students. A total of 4,712 students and 144 teachers from 144 schools were randomly selected using probability proportional-to-size technique to receive the Reading Assessment Test and complete the Teacher's Questionnaire, respectively. A number of items pertaining to teachers' instructional strategies and activities, opportunities for students to read various types of materials, practices on assessment, and professional preparation and perception, were found to be significantly correlated with the outcome of students' reading literacy. Stepwise regression procedure revealed four significant predictors for students' overall reading achievement. The most powerful predictor was the use of materials from other subjects as reading resources. Suggestions to improve quality of teaching of reading and further studies are made.

This research employed the Learning Study approach which refers to a blend of Japanese “lesson study” and design-based research to provide support to teachers to teach creatively in Chinese writing. It reports a serendipity finding that remarkable differences in the creativity scores among these classes were noted even though they had the same learning objectives with the same lesson plan. Examining how teachers structure writing activities in a unit is essential to the understanding of how creativity works in the context of classroom instruction. We suggested that these differences were associated with the effects of hierarchical and sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing. Possible ways of understanding creativity in a domain-specific training and disseminations of the findings are suggested.

Being literate is fundamental for learning most school subjects. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducts a regular cycle of studies of children's reading literacy and the factors associated with literacy acquisition in countries around the world. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) focuses on the reading attainment of children in their fourth year of schooling and the experiences at home and at school that help them learn how to read well. Designed specifically to measure trends in reading attainment, PIRLS is conducted every five years. The first PIRLS assessment took place in 2001, the second in 2006, and the next is planned for 2011. More than fifty of the countries and regions participating in PIRLS 2001 also took part in the 2006 study, Hong Kong being one such region. Involvement enabled education authorities in the countries and regions to monitor trends in reading attainment across the five-year period from 2001 to 2006. H...

The literature suggests that stigmatizing attitudes in the community will affect lives and recovery of people with mental illness. This is particularly serious and obvious in Chinese societies where mental illness is often associated with shame and stigma. As Hong Kong and China have undergone rapid changes in terms of social and economic development, this study aimed at providing the most up-to-date empirical information regarding mental illness stigma and its impact on individuals with mental illness. A 31-item Questionnaire on Mental Illness was developed to measure public attitudes towards mental illness, with special reference to issues that affected the burden on family members of mental health consumers. The questionnaire together with the Level of Contact Sub-scale (Holmes et al., 1999) was distributed to primary and secondary students for their friends and relatives aged 16 or above to complete. A total of 1,007 validly completed questionnaires were returned constituting a response rate of 74%. An exploratory factor analysis identified eight factors which accounted for 50.6% of the total variance: hostility, aberrant, openness, resources, acceptance, rights, misgivings, and accommodation. The data showed that there were rather severe stigmatizing attitudes in the community, such as beliefs about parents causing the illness, strong opposition to setting up psychiatric community facilities near their residence, and limited employment opportunities for people with mental illness, which also increased both the subjective and objective burdens on clients' relatives by denying them social and practical support. Correlations between previous contacts and attitudes are significant. Implications to further research and social policy are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 383–396, 2003.

Although creativity has been valued in ancient and contemporary Chinese literature, the degree to which creativity is valued and incorporated into teaching by Chinese language teachers is not known. This information is important given that creativity has been increasingly recognized in the education literature as a component of effective writing. The purpose of this study was to compare the views of Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong about creativity and the acquisition of creative writing skills by primary school children, and their teaching practices. A total of 449 Chinese language teachers, employed at primary schools throughout Hong Kong completed a survey questionnaire. The 14-item questionnaire focused on teachers' views of creativity, their perceptions of how to develop students' creativity, their awareness of creative writing strategies, and teaching practices related to creative writing. With respect to the definition of creativity, teachers identified imagination foremost, followed by inspiration, and original ideas. Teachers identified developing students' confidence, and providing an open atmosphere as essential means of fostering creativity. Despite the apparent value of creativity expressed by the teachers and their familiarity with methods for enhancing creativity, the majority reported using traditional methods of teaching writing. Strategies are recommended for reconciling this discrepancy, and promoting creative writing skills by primary school teachers in Hong Kong and other Chinese speaking societies.

The calculation and optimization of product manufacturability during the preliminary stages of design are critical to achieving reduced time to market, high quality and low cost. An aggregate planning method, which translates early product characteristics into manufacturing requirements, forms the basis of a new intelligent support system for which the manufacturing evaluation, optimization and reporting functions are described in this paper. The system 'intelligently explores' the many alternative processing technologies and equipment choices available, seeking solutions that best satisfy a multi-criteria objective function encapsulating quality, cost, delivery and knowledge criteria. The addition of knowledge factors means that both quantitative and qualitative factors can be used to rank alternatives. Importantly, the system prioritizes each element according to its potential for improvement. The designer is thus presented with the opportunity to redefine the design elements or process specifications, which would yield the greatest improvements in production.

Secondary school students have been experiencing stress related to examination and academic performance in Hong Kong: the Special Administrative Region of the Chinese Mainland. The article reports a case study which applied the student empowerment model originated from western societies and the ‘Qing’ concept of Chinese philosophy to formulate a student Quality Student Leadership (QSL) programme in a secondary school. The programme aimed to reduce the stress of the students and at the same time improve their initiative, leadership, and also the relationship between the students and with the parents and teachers. The results showed that the programme was effective in achieving its objectives.

The 13-item Chinese Creative Writing Scale was expanded and modified from the Carlson Originality Scale to assess creativity elements in compositions of primary school students in Hong Kong. The content validity was endorsed by a small expert panel. Results show that the scale has excellent interrater reliability (.90 to .98), and moderate to good internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis shows that the three factors (flexibility, originality, and fluency) accounted for 59.1% of the variability, which is consistent with the design of the scale. The scale can also be used as an outcome measure for assessing the effectiveness of strategies which aim at enhancing creativity of students. With minor modifications, the scale can also be applied in mainland China, Taiwan, and Chinese societies elsewhere in the world.

As education and rehabilitation researchers but laymen as parents of a gifted child, the authors put forward the “MOTHER” approach, a simplified version of Silverman's model (1993), and suggest strategies that may be used by parents of gifted children to guide their talented and gifted children. The intervention strategies include mentorship, opportunities, integrity, high state of moral development, emotional intelligence development, and responsibility. Illustrations of these strategies were made with reference to their own 7 year old son. Integration of the model with Chinese philosophy is also discussed.

This study translated and validated the Chinese Version of the Self-stigma of Mental Illness Scale (CSSMIS), which may be used to measure self-stigma of mental health consumers in China. We also examined its correlation with self-esteem, self-efficacy and psychosocial treatment compliance. A cross-sectional observational study was implemented. Some 51 males and 57 females who suffered from severe mental illness were recruited from psychiatric settings in Hong Kong. They were required to complete the Chinese Version of the Self-stigma of Mental Illness Scale, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and the Self-efficacy Scale. Their level of compliance during psychosocial treatment and their demographic information were recorded by their case managers. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two homologous factors for the four subscales of the CSSMIS. Factor 1 was related to the negative beliefs and consequences of having mental disorders, whereas Factor 2 was related to positive beliefs. The perceived stigma subscale and the three self-stigma subscales were strongly inter-correlated. Significant correlations were also found between almost all subscales of the CSSMIS and the remaining scales. The psychometric properties of the CSSMIS are statistically acceptable. The results also suggest that stigma played a detrimental role in undermining self-esteem, self-efficacy and psychosocial treatment compliance. Implications for recovery of mental health consumers are discussed.