China's United Front Work in Civil Society: the Case of Hong Kong

This article unravels China’s united front work in dealing with civil society, using the case of Hong Kong after the political handover since 1997. While it has been widely analyzed by scholars that state corporatism characterizes the state-society relations in China, including the state’s relations with its autonomous regions, Hong Kong as a special administrative region, however, shows that the ruling strategies of China are very adaptive. Comparing with the rest of China where the united front work is partly characterized by a heavy-handed policy of assimilation, the united front work in the post-handover Hong Kong illustrates a more inclusionary version of state corporatism through five types of measures, namely, integration, cooptation, collaboration, containment, and denunciation. The strategies range from soft to hard tactics, and are adopted depending upon whether the central government regards its targets as friends, valuable potential cooptees or enemies. Nevertheless, the soft and hard tactics used in parallel in Hong Kong have resulted in further politicization and polarization of the civil society, and transformed the tension between the state and the local groups into clashes between different local groups, as seen in other autonomous regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang. Over the years, the agents for state corporatism have been ever expanding in Hong Kong. The ideologies propagated have now gone beyond consensus and harmony to also include patriotism and reinterpre-tation of other political ideas, including universal suffrage, conducive to cultivating obedience.postprin

To what extent is the Japanese government able to steer the nation's economy in the digital age?

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.The Japanese government-led post-war economic miracle is a well studied topic; consequently, Japan's approach to government-led economic development is one that many countries have tried to replicate. As the digital age questions some fundamentals of economic growth, it is critical to understand whether government-led industry development still works. This research addresses the question: to what extent is the Japanese government able to steer the nation's economy in the digital age? Theoretically, the thesis makes use of an approach influenced by Benson's (1975) Inter-organizational Network (ION) approach, resource dependency approaches (Pfeffer & Salancik 1978) and the sensemaking perspective (Weick 1995). The data was collected during three years fieldwork in Japan, combining documentary analysis with interviews with leading industry and government figures. Through making sense of interview-based data, a qualitative case study of the mobile telecommunications industry was constructed. I constructed scenarios that provided differing plausible views of government involvement. These scenarios focused on the role of government in influencing key resources necessary to the Japan mobile telecommunications industry, control of which might enable firms to achieve the attainment of an optimum market position. The purpose of these scenarios was to highlight different accounts of various key resources. The key resources that emerged through the data analysis are amakudari, technology standard and radio frequency spectrum. Various hypotheses have been advanced to account for the relation between government involvement and the development of the Japanese economy, ranging from the view of Porter, Takeuchi and Sakakibara (2000) that government intervention is a sign of market failure to the views of Johnson (1982) that government involvement is essential to Japanese economic development, with the more modulated views of Tsuru (1993) falling between these two extremes. However, these hypotheses do not address the dynamics of government involvement and industrial development, i.e. ION relationship, resource dependency and level of competition, that form the unique contribution that is the extension and innovation of this thesis. Further, the globalization and digitalization in the 21st century creates a need to take a fresh look at government's role in industrial development. The case study of the 3G digital economy provides an obvious and highly current testing ground for evaluating these different hypotheses. The findings show that the direction of the nation's 3G mobile industry was derived through communication and negotiated sensemaking between the Japanese government and industry stakeholders. The implication is that a healthy circuit of sensemaking between government and industry stakeholders could enhance industrial development. Key words: government involvement, resources, inter-organizational network, competition, industry development, amakudari, technology standard, radio frequency spectrum , narratives, sensemaking , scenarios, mobile telecommunication

Adrenal lipomatous tumours: a 30 year clinicopathological experience at a single institution

AIMS: Fatty tumours of the adrenal gland are uncommon and their features have received little attention in the literature. The aim of this study is to analyse the features of adrenal lipomatous tumours. METHODS: The histological features of primary adrenal tumours reported over a 30 year period (1970 to 1999) in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong were reviewed and the clinicopathological features of adrenal lipomatous tumours were analysed. RESULTS: Adrenal lipomatous tumours were noted in 20 patients (12 men, eight women), and they accounted for 4.8% of the primary adrenal tumours reported. The adrenal fatty tumours comprised 11 myelolipomas, three lipomas, three teratomas, two angiomyolipomas, and one liposarcoma. Calcification or bone was noted in one third (seven of 20) of the adrenal tumours. In some fatty tumours (myelolipoma and angiomyolipoma), the fatty component may be inconspicuous. This is the first report in the English literature of angiomyolipoma and liposarcoma of the adrenal gland. CONCLUSIONS: Different types of fatty tumours were noted in the adrenal gland. A high index of suspicion should be maintained with an aim of surgical treatment for selected patients with large and symptomatic adrenal lipomatous lesions. Histological confirmation is needed for diagnosis.published_or_final_versio

Frequency response of magnetoelectric 1–3-type composites

Author name used in this publication: K. H. LamAuthor name used in this publication: C. Y. LoAuthor name used in this publication: H. L. W. Chan2009-2010 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

The clinicopathological features and importance of p53, Rb, and mdm2 expression in phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas

Aims - Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas are uncommon. The aims of this study were to analyse the characteristics and the possible roles of p53, Rb, and mdm2 alterations in these tumours. Methods - The clinicopathological features of 65 patients (31 men, 34 women) with phaeochromocytomas or paragangliomas were analysed. The tumours were studied for the expression of p53, Rb, and mdm2 by immunohistochemical methods. Results - Thirty nine of the patients had phaeochromocytomas and 26 had paragangliomas. Bilateral tumours were noted in eight of the patients and malignant tumours were seen in 13. Paragangliomas were often small, non-functional, and presented incidentally, whereas phaeochromocytomas were usually large, functional, and symptomatic, p53 overexpression, loss of Rb expression, and mdm2 overexpression were seen in four, 43, and 37 of the patients, respectively. Three of the four patients with p53 overexpression had bilateral tumours. Loss of Rb expression was often found in phaeochromocytomas, whereas mdm2 overexpression was more frequently seen in paragangliomas. The 10 year survival rate of patients with malignant tumours was 45%. Two patients died of tumour metastases more than 10 years after resection of the primary tumours. Conclusions - Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas had distinctive clinical features and genetic alterations. The prognosis of patients with these tumours was related to the malignant potential, p53 overexpression, more common in bilateral phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas, could be a marker for this tumour subgroup.published_or_final_versio

A reflective account of two Hong Kong sub-degree college students engaged in independent learning of English as a second language

In this paper I report upon a qualitative investigation of independent language learning (ILL) by two Hong Kong sub-degree students who studied English as a second language. They are myself and one of my students. I start with a contextual discussion which facilitates understanding of the specific language environment in which the learning took place. Data was collected by means of an innovative set of tools, including memory bag, personal narrative and semi-structured interviews, as well as an innerview, a new research method developed from this study. Utilising thematic analysis, five main themes were identified, namely ILL motivation, ILL autonomy, ILL outcomes, relationship between ILL and formal curriculum and parental influence on ILL. Evidence from this study highlights the contribution of positive parental influence and the influence of the formal curriculum on effective ILL. Factors of successful ILL strategies include whether they are interactive, perceived as interesting, convenient and accessible, functional and inexpensive. However, ILL learners in this study encountered learning challenges, such as self-discipline, self-motivation and lack of expertise to choose appropriate learning and assessment strategies. I conclude that ILL increased the language proficiency of myself and the other participant, but it also, and perhaps more importantly, contributed to development of confidence in relation to learning a second language independently. As an English language teacher, learner and researcher, the findings of the study contribute to the potential for myself and other teachers to raise awareness of our lifelong ILL. Furthermore, a key finding from this study shows that more in-depth self-reflexive data can be generated by innerview than by personal narrative when constructing an autoethnographic account

Phthalocyanine based Schottky solar cells

Phthalocyanine (Pc) materials are commonly used in organic solar cells. Four different phthalocyanines, nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc), copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), iron phthalocyanine (FePc), and cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) have been investigated for organic solar cell applications. The devices consisted of indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate, Pc layer, and aluminum (Al) electrode. It has been found that ITO/CuPc/Al Schottky cell exhibits the best performance. To investigate the influence of the active layer thickness on the cell performance, cells with several different thicknesses were fabricated and optimal value was found. Schottky cell exhibits optimal performance with one ohmic and one barrier contact. However, it is suspected that ITO/CuPc contact is not ohmic. Therefore, we have investigated various ITO surface treatments for improving the performance of CuPc based Schottky solar cell. We have found that cell on ITO treated with HCl and UV-ozone exhibits the best performance. AM1 power conversion efficiency can be improved by 30% compared to cell made with untreated ITO substrate. To improve power conversion efficiency, double or multilayer structure are required, and it is expected that suitable ITO treatments for those devices will further improve their performance by improving the contact between ITO and phthalocyanine layer.published_or_final_versio

Extra processors versus future information in optimal deadline scheduling

This paper is concerned with the extra-resource analysis of online scheduling algorithms. In particular, it studies how to make use of multiple processors to counteract the lack of future information in online deadline scheduling. Our results extend the previous work that are primarily based on using a faster processor to obtain a performance guarantee. The challenge arises from the fact that jobs are sequential in nature and cannot be executed on more than one processor at the same time. Thus, a faster processor can speed up a job while multiple unit-speed processors cannot help.postprin

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B in a Chinese patient

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B syndrome is rarely reported in Chinese patients. A 25-year-old Chinese male presented with full-blown clinical features of this syndrome, including bilateral phaeochromocytomas, medullary thyroid carcinoma, and characteristic phenotypic features. One-stage surgical treatment was performed and subsequent genetic analysis confirmed a point mutation at codon 918 in exon 16 of the RET proto-oncogene. The mutation was arising de novo as there was no corresponding mutation found in both this parents or younger sister. Data published to date suggest there is no difference in the genetic and pathophysiologic basis, nor clinical characteristics of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B in Chinese patients. As the disease can be lethal, early diagnosis by prompt recognition of the characteristic phenotypic features followed by surgical treatment should improve the outcome. Family screening is essential to identify at-risk family members for prophylactic treatment.published_or_final_versio

Competitive deadline scheduling via additional or faster processors

This paper studies on-line scheduling in a single-processor system that allows preemption. The aim is to maximize the total value of jobs completed by their deadlines. It is known that if the on-line scheduler is given a processor faster (say, two times faster) than the off-line scheduler, then there exists an on-line algorithm called SLACKER that can achieve an O(1) competitive ratio. In this paper, we show that using additional unit-speed processors instead of a faster processor is a possible but not cost effective way to achieve an O(1) competitive ratio. Specifically, we find that-θ(log k) unit-speed processors are required, where k is the importance ratio. Another contribution of this paper is an improved analysis of the competitiveness of SLACKER; this new analysis enables us to show that SLACKER, when extended to multi-processor systems, can still guarantee an O(1) competitive ratio.postprin