Educational duties of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions: past, present and future

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Effects Of Supply Chain Strategies And Practices On Firm Performance

A number of studies have looked at the impacts of supply chain strategies on firm performance. Yet, how different supply chain practices translate to firm performance remains unclear. Drawing from the resource based view, this study investigates the role of supply chain capabilities in mediating the relationships between supply chain practices and firm performance. A survey was conducted with 171 manufacturing firms in five Chinese cities to empirically validate the research model. Our findings suggest that, supply chain practices, as driven by supply chain strategies, create different supply chain capabilities and lead to firm performance. The findings shed some lights on the mechanism in which supply chain strategies and practices translate into firm performance

An examination of stock market performance in China using accounting information

This study aims to examine the usefulness of China accounting information in reflecting the stock returns in China stock markets and to recognize the significant factors that are possibly related to the stock returns in A shares and B shares respectively.Peoples’ Republic of China accounting standard (PRC accounting standard) is used for A shares whereas International Accounting Standard (IAS) is used for B shares. By comparing the two accounting standards, we found that the definition of some items and concepts of the financial statements are different. Consequently, the values of the financial ratios are varied. In order to recognize the significant factors in A shares and B shares, the means of factor analysis was adopted to sort out important factors from a large number of financial ratios. For A shares, profitability, interest efficiency, liquidity, asset efficiency and earning power are found to be significant factors. While for B shares, the significant factors are profitability, asset efficiency, liquidity, operating efficiency and earning on interest expense. After running the regression with A shares daily returns and B shares daily returns to their respective significant factors, profitability, asset efficiency and earning power are found to be significant at 5% level in A shares and only profitability is found to be significant at 1% level for B shares

UNDERSTANDING THE DETERMINANTS OF BLOCKCHAIN ADOPTION IN SUPPLY CHAINS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN CHINA

This study adopts affordance approach to understand how supply chain managers interpret the possible benefits that can be performed within blockchain-enabled supply chain applications. With a focus on governance efficiency improvement, the impacts of traceability and transparency affordance on uncertainty reduction were examined from the perspective of transaction cost theory in supply chain industry. Partial least squares – structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data collected from 364 experienced supply chain managers in China. The results revealed that traceability affordance exerted significant impacts on environmental and trading partner uncertainty rather than transparency affordance, which in turn affected the adoption intention. This study contributes to the extant literature by embedding transaction cost in blockchain affordances. The findings are useful in guiding practitioners to improve blockchain system design for reducing uncertainties in supply chain environment, leading to a higher adoption rate of blockchain technology

Oscillations of Highly Magnetized Non-rotating Neutron Stars

Highly magnetized neutron stars are promising candidates to explain some of the most peculiar astronomical phenomena, for instance, fast radio bursts, gamma-ray bursts, and superluminous supernovae. Pulsations of these highly magnetized neutron stars are also speculated to produce detectable gravitational waves. In addition, pulsations are important probes of the structure and equation of state of the neutron stars. The major challenge in studying the pulsations of highly magnetized neutron stars is the demanding numerical cost of consistently solving the nonlinear Einstein and Maxwell equations under minimum assumptions. With the recent breakthroughs in numerical solvers, we investigate pulsation modes of non-rotating neutron stars which harbour strong purely toroidal magnetic fields of $10^{15-17}$ G through two-dimensional axisymmetric general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We show that stellar oscillations are insensitive to magnetization effects until the magnetic to binding energy ratio goes beyond 10%, where the pulsation mode frequencies are strongly suppressed. We further show that this is the direct consequence of the decrease in stellar compactness when the extreme magnetic fields introduce strong deformations of the neutron stars

Effectiveness of Nutritional Advice for Community-Dwelling Obese Older Adults With Frailty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives: This systematic review was aimed to examine the effectiveness of nutritional advise interventions compared with usual care, or exercise, or exercise combined with nutritional advice as a means of improving the body weight, body composition, physical function, and psychosocial well-being of frail, obese older adults. Methods: CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were searched to identify relevant studies. The quality of the included studies was assessed using Cochrane's risk of bias tool 2. Meta-analysis was performed with respect to body weight and fat mass. Other outcomes were synthesized narratively. Results: Eight articles (from two studies) with a total of 137 participants were included in the review. The results revealed that nutritional advice was more effective than exercise in reducing body weight and fat mass. The nutritional advice was also beneficial in enhancing physical function and psychosocial well-being. However, it was less effective than exercise or combined interventions in increasing muscle strength and preventing lean mass loss. Conclusions: Nutritional advice is an essential intervention for reducing body weight and fat mass, for enhancing physical function, and for improving the psychosocial well-being of obese older adults experiencing frailty. The limited number of studies included in this review suggests that there is a need for more well-designed interventional studies in order to confirm these findings

Incident heart failure and myocardial infarction in sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 vs. dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor users

Aims This study aimed to compare the rates of major cardiovascular adverse events in sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2I) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4I) users in a Chinese population. SGLT2I and DPP4I are increasingly prescribed for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. However, few population-based studies are comparing their effects on incident heart failure or myocardial infarction. Methods and results This was a population-based retrospective cohort study using the electronic health record database in Hong Kong, including type 2 diabetes mellitus patients receiving either SGLT2I or DPP4I from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020. Propensity score matching was performed in a 1:1 ratio based on demographics, past comorbidities, and non-SGLT2I/DPP4I medications with nearest neighbour matching (caliper = 0.1). Univariable and multivariable Cox models were used to identify significant predictors for new-onset heart failure, new-onset myocardial infarction, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality. Sensitivity analyses with competing risk models and multiple propensity score matching approaches were conducted. A total of 41 994 patients (58.89% males, median admission age at 58 years old, interquartile range [IQR]: 51.2–65.3) were included with a median follow-up of 5.6 years (IQR: 5.32–5.82). In the matched cohort, SGLT2I use was significantly associated with lower risks of new-onset heart failure (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.66, 0.81], P < 0.0001), myocardial infarction (HR: 0.81, 95% CI: [0.73, 0.90], P < 0.0001), cardiovascular mortality (HR: 0.67, 95% CI: [0.53, 0.84], P < 0.001), and all-cause mortality (HR: 0.26, 95% CI: [0.24, 0.29], P < 0.0001) after adjusting for significant demographics, past comorbidities, and non-SGLT2I/DPP4I medications. Conclusions SGLT2 inhibitors are protective against adverse cardiovascular events including new-onset heart failure, myocardial infarction, cardiovascular mortality, and all-cause mortality. The prescription of SGLT2I is preferred when taken into consideration individual cardiovascular and metabolic risk profiles in addition to drug–drug interactions

Ten-year population trends of immunoglobulin use, burden of adult antibody deficiency and feasibility of subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg) replacement in Hong Kong Chinese

BackgroundAdult antibody deficiency remains under-recognised and under-studied – especially among Asian populations. Patterns of immunoglobulin use and the feasibility of subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg) replacement among Chinese patients remains unclear.ObjectiveTo investigate the trends of immunoglobulin use, burden of adult antibody deficiency and the outcomes of patients on SCIg compared to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) replacement in Hong Kong through a retrospective observational study.MethodsPopulation-wide data of immunoglobulin recipients in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2021, and longitudinal clinical data of adult immunodeficiency patients at Queen Mary Hospital were collected and analysed.ResultsTotal immunoglobulin consumption and recurrent immunoglobulin recipients increased continuously from 175,512g to 298,514g (ρ=0.99, p&lt;0.001) and 886 to 1,508 (ρ=0.89, p=0.001) between 2012-21 in Hong Kong. Among 469 immunoglobulin recipients at Queen Mary Hospital in 2021, 344 (73.3%) were indicated for replacement. Compared to those on IVIg (n=14), patients on SCIg replacement (n=8) had fewer immunodeficiency-related hospitalisations (IRR=0.11) and shorter duration of hospitalisation stay (IRR=0.10) per year, as well as better quality of life (SF-36v2 Health Survey and Life Quality Index). Estimated annual healthcare cost of SCIg replacement per patient was lower than that of IVIg (HKD196,850 [USD25,096] vs HKD222,136 [USD28,319]).ConclusionThere was a significantly increasing burden of adult antibody deficiency and immunoglobulin consumption in Hong Kong. SCIg was feasible and more cost-effective when compared to IVIg, with SCIg patients experiencing better clinical outcomes and quality of life. Future prospective studies to confirm the long-term efficacy and superiority of SCIg are required