Effects of Volunteering Experiences and Motivations on Attitudes Toward Prisoners: Evidence from Hong Kong

Volunteers are playing an increasingly bigger role in correctional institutions both in Western settings and in the Hong Kong Chinese context, and yet previous studies have focused only on descriptive accounts of their motivation and satisfaction. Utilizing three samples in Hong Kong, namely prison volunteers (N = 54), non-prison volunteers (N = 146), and non-volunteers (N = 77), the present study compares these groups' attitudes toward prisoners. Moreover, this study examines the correlations between volunteer satisfaction and volunteer motivation and attitudes toward prisoners. The results indicate that, compared to the non-volunteer group, both the volunteer groups exhibited more positive attitudes toward prisoners. For the prison volunteers, motivation to express important values and to help others correlated with the attitude that prisoners can change positively. The implications of the study are discussed. © 2012 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio

Use of FBG optical sensors for structural health monitoring: Practical application

This paper describes the development of FBG Optical sensors for their practical application on structural health monitoring. The sensors were installed on the Tsing Ma Bridge for a trial run. The results using FBG sensors were in excellent agreement with those acquired by the bridge WASHMS

Chronic toxicity of double-walled carbon nanotubes to three marine organisms: influence of different dispersion methods

Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) are found in a variety of consumer products, but there are no ecotoxicity data of DWNTs into marine organisms. Materials & methods: Chronic toxicity of DWNTs was investigated with the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, copepod Tigriopus japonicus and medaka Oryzias melastigma. DWNTs were dispersed using sonication (so-DWNTs) and stirring (st-DWNTs) for comparison. Results: The median aggregation size (0.89 μm2) of so-DWNTs was smaller than that of st-DWNTs (21.8 μm2). Exposure to DWNTs led to growth inhibition of T. pseudonana with EC50s of 1.86 and 22.7 mg/l for so- and st-DWNTs, respectively. Population growth of T. japonicus was reduced to 0.1 mg/l for so-DWNTs and 10 mg/l for st-DWNTs. Growth inhibition in O. melastigma was observed at 10 mg/l for so-DWNTs but not for st-DWNTs. Conclusion:Given that so-DWNTs are consistently significantly more toxic than st-DWNTs, dispersion method and size of aggregations should be considered in DWNT toxicity testing

Prevalence of extracranial carotid and vertebral artery disease in Chinese pateints with coronary artery disease

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Use of bolted steel plates for strengthening of reinforced concrete beams and columns

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures often need strengthening due to defective construction, having higher loads than those foreseen in the initial design of the structure, or as a result of material deterioration or accidental damage. The need for strengthening concrete structures has become a crucial problem not only in developed countries but also in China and other developing countries. The use of bolted steel plates to retrofit existing RC structural components has been proven experimentally and practically to be effective in solving the problem. In this article, experimental and numerical studies conducted at The University of Hong Kong on the strengthening of RCcoupling beams, floor beams, and columns using bolted external steel plates are summarised. Features and design principles of this strengthening method are discussed. © 2011 The Institution of Engineers, Singapore.postprin

Percutaneous angioplasty and stenting as an alternative to surgery in the treatment of renal artery stenosis

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Three-dimensional reconstruction of wafer solder bumps using binary pattern projection

As the electronic industry advances rapidly, the shrunk dimension of the device leads to more stringent requirement on process control and quality assurance. For instance, the tiny size of the solder bumps grown on wafers for direct die-to-die bonding pose great challenge to the inspection of the bumps' 3D quality. Traditional pattern projection method of recovering 3D is about projecting a light pattern to the inspected surface and imaging the illuminated surface from one or more points of view. However, image saturation and the specular nature of the bump surface are issues. This paper proposes a new 3D reconstruction mechanism for inspecting the surface of such wafer bumps. It is still based upon the light pattern projection framework, but uses the Ronchi pattern - a pattern that contrasts with the traditionally used gray level one. With the use of a parallel or point light source in combination with a binary grating, it allows a discrete pattern to be projected onto the inspected surface. As the projected pattern is binary, the image information is binary as well. With such a bright-or-dark world for each image position, the above-mentioned difficult issues are avoided. Preliminary study shows that the mechanism holds promises that existing approaches do not. © 2005 SPIE and IS&T.published_or_final_versio

Structured-light based sensing using a single fixed fringe grating: Fringe boundary detection and 3-D reconstruction

Advanced electronic manufacturing requires the 3-D inspection of very small surfaces like the solder bumps on wafers for direct die-to-die bonding. Yet the microscopic size and highly specular and textureless nature of the surfaces make the task difficult. It is also demanded that the size of the entire inspection system be small so as to minimize restraint on the operation of the various moving parts involved in the manufacturing process. In this paper, we describe a new 3-D reconstruction mechanism for the task. The mechanism is based upon the well-known concept of structured-light projection, but adapted to a new configuration that owns a particularly small system size and operates in a different manner. Unlike the traditional mechanisms which involve an array of light sources that occupy a rather extended physical space, the proposed mechanism consists of only a single light source plus a binary grating for projecting binary pattern. To allow the projection at each position of the inspected surface to vary and form distinct binary code, the binary grating is shifted in space. In every shift, a separate image of the illuminated surface is taken. With the use of pattern projection, and of discrete coding instead of analog coding in the projection, issues like texture-absence, image saturation, and image noise of the inspected surfaces are much lessened. Experimental results on a variety of objects are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this mechanism. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Non-surgical techniques in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease of the lower limb: preliminary results in a cohort of elderly, high risk patients

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Fast and reliable storage using a 5 bit, nonvolatile photonic memory cell

This is the final version. Available from Optical Society of America via the DOI in this record.Optically storing and addressing data on photonic chips is of particular interest as such capability would eliminate optoelectronic conversion losses in data centers. It would also enable on-chip non-von Neumann photonic computing by allowing multinary data storage with high fidelity. Here, we demonstrate such an optically addressed, multilevel memory capable of storing up to 34 nonvolatile reliable and repeatable levels (over 5 bits) using the phase change material Ge2Sb2Te5 integrated on a photonic waveguide. Crucially, we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a technique that allows us to program the device with a single pulse regardless of the previous state of the material, providing an order of magnitude improvement over previous demonstrations in terms of both time and energy consumption. We also investigate the influence of write-and-erase pulse parameters on the single-pulse recrystallization, amorphization, and readout error in our multilevel memory, thus tailoring pulse properties for optimum performance. Our work represents a significant step in the development of photonic memories and their potential for novel integrated photonic applications.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)European CommissionDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (H2020