488 research outputs found
Hong Kong as a financial centre of greater China
During the past three decades, Hong Kong has emerged as one of the leading international financial centres (IFCs) of the world. Since China began its economic reform and open-door policies in 1979, and since cross-strait economic contacts began to improve in the mid-1980s, Hong Kong\u27s role has also become more varied and multi-faceted. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Hong Kong as an IFC of Greater China (which comprises Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau). The territory\u27s prospects as an IFC after its retrocession to China on July 1, 1997 will also be discussed
'Parasitic invasions' or sources of good governance: constraining foreign competition in Hong Kong banking, 1956-81
This paper investigates the operation and impact of the moratorium on new banking licences imposed in Hong Kong in 1965 and the claims that foreign banks destabilised the banking system and drained resources from the colony. First it examines foreign banks' attempts to circumvent the moratorium through claims of special circumstances and buying interests in local banks, and secondly it examines the efforts of incumbents to extend barriers to non-bank financial institutions and to branches of foreign banks. The general conclusions are that while the moratorium was aimed at increasing the stability of the banking system, it had the effect of decreasing the regulatory breadth of the government, and reducing incentives for mergers and acquisitions that might have improved governance
Angular Diameters of the G Subdwarf Cassiopeiae A and the K Dwarfs Draconis and HR 511 from Interferometric Measurements with the CHARA Array
Using the longest baselines of the CHARA Array, we have measured the angular
diameter of the G5 V subdwarf Cas A, the first such determination for a
halo population star. We compare this result to new diameters for the higher
metallicity K0 V stars, Dra and HR 511, and find that the metal-poor
star, Cas A, has an effective temperature ( K),
radius (), and absolute luminosity
() comparable to the other two stars with later
spectral types. We show that stellar models show a discrepancy in the predicted
temperature and radius for Cas A, and we discuss these results and how
they provide a key to understanding the fundamental relationships for stars
with low metallicity.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
On the cost of computing isogenies between supersingular elliptic curves
The security of the Jao-De Feo Supersingular Isogeny Diffie-Hellman
(SIDH) key agreement scheme is based on the intractability of the
Computational Supersingular Isogeny (CSSI) problem --- computing
-rational isogenies of degrees and
between certain supersingular elliptic curves defined over
. The classical meet-in-the-middle attack on CSSI
has an expected running time of , but also has
storage requirements. In this paper, we demonstrate that the van
Oorschot-Wiener collision finding algorithm has a lower cost (but
higher running time) for solving CSSI, and thus should be used instead
of the meet-in-the-middle attack to assess the security of SIDH against
classical attacks. The smaller parameter brings significantly
improved performance for SIDH
K^0 pi^0 Sigma^+ and K^*0 Sigma^+ photoproduction off the proton
The exclusive reactions and , leading to the p 4 final state, have
been measured with a tagged photon beam for incident energies from threshold up
to 2.5 GeV. The experiment has been performed at the tagged photon facility of
the ELSA accelerator (Bonn). The Crystal Barrel and TAPS detectors were
combined to a photon detector system of almost 4 geometrical acceptance.
Differential and total cross sections are reported. At energies close to the
threshold, a flat angular distribution has been observed for the reaction
suggesting dominant s-channel production.
and higher lying hyperon states have been observed. An
enhancement in the forward direction in the angular distributions of the
reaction indicates a -channel exchange
contribution to the reaction mechanism. The experimental data are in reasonable
agreement with recent theoretical predictions.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, submitted to EPJ
Corrosive-Abrasive Wear Induced by Soot in Boundary Lubrication Regime
Soot is known to induce high wear in engine components. The mechanism by which soot induces wear is not well understood. Although several mechanisms have been suggested, there is still no consensus. This study aims to investigate the most likely mechanism responsible for soot-induced wear in the boundary lubrication regime. Results from this study have shown that previously suggested mechanisms such as abrasion and additive adsorption do not fully explain the high wear observed when soot is present. Based on the results obtained from tests conducted at varying temperature and soot levels, it has been proven that the corrosive–abrasive mechanism was responsible for high wear that occurred in boundary lubrication conditions
The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations
The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become
top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr
pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing
metallicity and in increasingly massive early-type galaxies. It declines quite
steeply below about 0.07Msun with brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low mass stars
having their own IMF. The most massive star of mass mmax formed in an embedded
cluster with stellar mass Mecl correlates strongly with Mecl being a result of
gravitation-driven but resource-limited growth and fragmentation induced
starvation. There is no convincing evidence whatsoever that massive stars do
form in isolation. Various methods of discretising a stellar population are
introduced: optimal sampling leads to a mass distribution that perfectly
represents the exact form of the desired IMF and the mmax-to-Mecl relation,
while random sampling results in statistical variations of the shape of the
IMF. The observed mmax-to-Mecl correlation and the small spread of IMF
power-law indices together suggest that optimally sampling the IMF may be the
more realistic description of star formation than random sampling from a
universal IMF with a constant upper mass limit. Composite populations on galaxy
scales, which are formed from many pc scale star formation events, need to be
described by the integrated galactic IMF. This IGIMF varies systematically from
top-light to top-heavy in dependence of galaxy type and star formation rate,
with dramatic implications for theories of galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 167 pages, 37 figures, 3 tables, published in Stellar Systems and
Galactic Structure, Vol.5, Springer. This revised version is consistent with
the published version and includes additional references and minor additions
to the text as well as a recomputed Table 1. ISBN 978-90-481-8817-
Single nucleotide polymorphisms of the APC gene and colorectal cancer risk: a case-control study in Taiwan
BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC), which has become especially prevalent in developed countries, is currently the third highest cause of cancer mortality in Taiwan. Mutation of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene, a tumour suppressor, is thought to be an early event in colorectal tumourigenesis. To date, however, no large-scale screening for APC gene variants in Chinese subjects has been performed. The present study was undertaken to identify APC gene variants that are significantly associated with the occurrence of CRC in Taiwanese subjects. METHODS: In order to compare the genotype distribution of variant sites, the full-length APC genes of 74 healthy individuals and 80 CRC patients were sequenced. RESULTS: Among the 154 Taiwanese subjects examined in this study, three new mutations, but no previously reported mutations, were found. One deletion at codon 460 leading to a frameshift and two missense mutations resulting in p.V1125A and p.S1126R substitutions were identified. Additionally, three high risk genotypes associated with three single nucleotide polymorphisms and one low risk genotype at codon 1822 were identified. CONCLUSION: The findings of this case-control study are consistent with the proposal that Taiwanese subjects differ from other subjects with respect to phenotypic presentation of APC and CRC risk
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