Hong Kong's Judiciary Under ‘One Country, Two Systems’

Hong Kong, formerly a British colony and since 1997 a Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the constitutional formula of ‘One Country, Two Systems’, has a judicial system that is much more highly evaluated, trusted and respected internationally and locally than its counterpart in mainland China. The normative ideals of the Rule of Law and judicial independence were implanted on Hong Kong soil during the colonial era. Such ideals have remained alive and well, and more cherished and vigorously defended than ever before, after Hong Kong was re-unified with China in 1997. Under the Hong Kong Basic Law – the HKSAR’s constitutional instrument that was enacted by the PRC’s National People’s Congress in 1990 and came into effect in 1997 – Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy, and its pre-existing legal and judicial systems have largely remained intact, except, for instance, that a new Court of Final Appeal was established, which exercises the power of final adjudication in Hong Kong cases. This paper provides an overview of the Hong Kong Judiciary, particularly those aspects of the judicial system that are relevant to the independence, impartiality and integrity of the courts and their judges. The paper consists of the following sections: (1) the structure of the judicial system; (2) judicial features of ‘One Country, Two Systems’; (3) appointment and conditions of service of judges; (4) rules of bias and recusal; (5) contempt of court by ‘scandalising the court’; (6) judges and free speech; (7) judges and non-judicial functions. These sections will be followed by a concluding section.postprin

Low-profile and wide-beamwidth dual-polarized distributed microstrip antenna

© 2013 IEEE. A low-profile and wide-beamwidth dual-polarized distributed microstrip antenna is presented in this paper. Four isolated micro patches are proposed as the radiation components and are excited by a compact differential-fed network. The micro patches in two diagonals determine the operating frequency bands of the two polarizations, respectively. By increasing the distances between the micro patches, the beamwidth in E plane can be broadened. Shorting poles between the patches and the ground plane are used to achieve good impedance matching. Compact dual-polarized differential-fed networks are also studied and compared with achieve the best antenna performance. To validate the proposed method, a wide-beamwith dual-polarized distributed microstrip antenna, whose dual polarizations operate at 2 and 2.2 GHz, respectively, is manufactured and measured. The external dimensions of the antenna is 70mm × 10 mm (0.49λ × 0.07λ ). The experimental results agree well with the simulated ones. The 3dB beamwidths in E planes reach 116° and 115°, and the gains are 5.15 and 5.5 dB for two polarizations, respectively. Meanwhile, the cross polarizations are less than -26.2 and -27.8 dB. In addition, the impedance bandwidths of 9.2% and 9.9% for VSWR leq 2 are achieved, and the port isolation is greater than 25.4 dB in the bands

Cavity-Backed Proximity-Coupled Reconfigurable Microstrip Antenna with Agile Polarizations and Steerable Beams

© 1963-2012 IEEE. A major challenge for a combined reconfigurable antenna is to realize both polarization switching and beam steering independently in a compact antenna structure. A cavity-backed proximity-coupled reconfigurable microstrip antenna proposed in this communication provides an efficient solution. Beam lead p-i-n diodes DSM8100-000 are employed as switching elements to achieve reconfiguration. Three different linear polarizations (0°, 45°, and 90°) are realized by switching the diodes on a proximity-coupled feed network. For each polarization state, the main beam can be steered to three directions by using a reconfigurable parasitic-element network. The parasitic-element network is printed on the same plane of the radiating patch, thereby making the antenna compact. This antenna has nine different working modes, and for all the working modes, the reflection coefficients are below -10 dB with the measured realized gains ranging from 7.2 to 8.1 dBi

The role of extracellular matrix elasticity and composition in regulating the nucleus pulposus cell phenotype in the intervertebral disc: a narrative review.

Intervertebral disc (IVD) disorders are a major contributor to disability and societal health care costs. Nucleus pulposus (NP) cells of the IVD exhibit changes in both phenotype and morphology with aging-related IVD degeneration that may impact the onset and progression of IVD pathology. Studies have demonstrated that immature NP cell interactions with their extracellular matrix (ECM) may be key regulators of cellular phenotype, metabolism and morphology. The objective of this article is to review our recent experience with studies of NP cell-ECM interactions that reveal how ECM cues can be manipulated to promote an immature NP cell phenotype and morphology. Findings demonstrate the importance of a soft (<700 Pa), laminin-containing ECM in regulating healthy, immature NP cells. Knowledge of NP cell-ECM interactions can be used for development of tissue engineering or cell delivery strategies to treat IVD-related disorders

Advances in Reconfigurable Antenna Systems Facilitated by Innovative Technologies

© 2013 IEEE. Future fifth generation (5G) wireless platforms will require reconfigurable antenna systems to meet their performance requirements in compact, light-weight, and cost-effective packages. Recent advances in reconfigurable radiating and receiving structures have been enabled by a variety of innovative technology solutions. Examples of reconfigurable partially reflective surface antennas, reconfigurable filtennas, reconfigurable Huygens dipole antennas, and reconfigurable feeding network-enabled antennas are presented and discussed. They represent novel classes of frequency, pattern, polarization, and beam-direction reconfigurable systems realized by the innovative combinations of radiating structures and circuit components

Low sidelobe synthesis of dipole arrays by element orientation selection using binary codec genetic algorithm

© 2017 Euraap. Selecting appropriate element orientations can significantly reduce the sidelobe level of the antenna array. In this paper, a binary coded genetic algorithm (BCGA) which selects the element orientations from specified discrete angles, is proposed to reduce the sidelobe level (SLL) of the array. Compared to the conventional GA, the BCGA is much faster in this application. Synthesis results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method

A novel low-profile wideband reconfigurable CP antenna array

© Institution of Engineering and Technology.All Rights Reserved. For future wireless communications, cost-effective, low-profile circular polarization (CP) antennas with wide bandwidth and high directivity are highly desirable to increase system capacity and suppress polarization mismatch. In this paper, a wideband circular polarization antenna array integrated with a polarization-independent artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is reported that meets the demands. First, a wideband CP reconfigurable antenna with a pair of cross-bowtie radiators and a metal ground is presented to achieve a fractional bandwidth of 35.9%. By replacing the metal ground with a polarization-independent AMC ground, the antenna profile is reduced from 0.25λ0 to 0.05λ0 with only a slight bandwidth decrease. A wideband CP reconfigurable 4-element linear array is achieved using four of those elements. It is low profile (0.05 λ0), and has a wide operating bandwidth (21.7%), and a high realized gain (13 dBic)

Streptokinase is ineffective in restoring early myocardial reperfusion in Asian patients with acute myocardial infarction

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Photocrosslinkable laminin-functionalized polyethylene glycol hydrogel for intervertebral disc regeneration

Intervertebral disc (IVD) disorders and age-related degeneration are believed to contribute to lower back pain. There is significant interest in cell-based strategies for regenerating the nucleus pulposus (NP) region of the disc; however, few scaffolds have been evaluated for their ability to promote or maintain an immature NP cell phenotype. Previous studies have shown that NP cell-laminin interactions promote cell adhesion and biosynthesis, which suggests a laminin-functionalized biomaterial may be useful for promoting or maintaining the NP cell phenotype. Here, a photocrosslinkable poly(ethylene glycol)-laminin 111 (PEG-LM111) hydrogel was developed. The mechanical properties of PEG-LM111 hydrogel could be tuned within the range of dynamic shear moduli values previously reported for human NP. When primary immature porcine NP cells were seeded onto PEG-LM111 hydrogels of varying stiffnesses, LM111-presenting hydrogels were found to promote cell clustering and increased levels of sGAG production as compared to stiffer LM111-presenting and PEG-only gels. When cells were encapsulated in 3-D gels, hydrogel formulation was found to influence NP cell metabolism and expression of proposed NP phenotypic markers, with higher expression of N-cadherin and cytokeratin 8 observed for cells cultured in softer (<1 kPa) PEG-LM111 hydrogels. Overall, these findings suggest that soft, LM111-functionalized hydrogels may promote or maintain the expression of specific markers characteristic of an immature NP cell phenotype. © 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved