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Hong Kong: workfare in the world's freest economy
No full textWorkfare was introduced in many countries to suppress welfare dependency and reduce social security expenditures. However, workfare was launched in Hong Kong when there was only a relatively small social security budget and its citizens still strongly adhered to the ideologies of self-reliance. It was found that workfare has performed several functions in Hong Kong. Firstly, it has forced unemployed claimants to give up benefits so that Hong Kong's social security expenditures can be saved. Secondly, workfare had combined with Hong Kong's semi-democratic polity so that extremely stigmatising welfare measures were implemented. Thirdly, it has pushed poor citizens to the labour market without having any protection over wages and working hours. Thus, the combination of workfare and a semi-democratic polity has successfully suppressed Hong Kong's welfare demands and strengthened its self-help spirit. As a result, Hong Kong's minimal social security scheme and its low tax policy have been maintained
Perspectives of the dentists on smoking cessation in Hong Kong
No full textObjectives. To describe dentists’ current practices in conducting smoking cessation counseling and to investigate factors associated with an active role in such counseling in Hong Kong. Methods. A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted on a random sample of 484 Hong Kong dentists. Information on beliefs, attitudes, and confidence of the dentists towards smoking cessation counseling, current practices, and perceived barriers to such counseling, as well as personal information about the dentists were collected. Results. A total of 211 dentists completed the questionnaires. More than half of the respondents (55%) asked and recorded patient smoking status routinely in their practices. Among them, over 90% advised smokers to quit and explained the associated health risks to them. Less than half (47%) assessed each patient’s willingness to attempt quitting. Around one third of the dentists provided printed resources to patients about smoking cessation (37%), assisted patients in smoking cessation (38%), and arranged follow-ups (36%). Multiple logistic regression showed that dentists who were female (odds ratio=3.5, P=0.001), graduated in Hong Kong (odds ratio=3.6, P<0.001), and had received training related to smoking cessation (odds ratio=7.3, P<0.001) had a significantly higher chance of asking and recording the patients’ smoking status. The top three barriers perceived by the dentists in conducting smoking cessation counseling were lack of patient motivation, lack of time in the consultation, and lack of smoking cessation protocols and guidelines. Conclusions. Smoking cessation counseling activities were not actively carried out by dentists in Hong Kong. Factors associated with dentists who asked and recorded the patient’s smoking status were gender, place of graduation, and receipt of relevant training. patient’s smoking status were gender, place of graduation, and receipt of relevant training
Universal antenatal human immunodeficiency virus testing in Hong Kong: consensus statement.
Full text linkFollowing the recommendations of the Advisory Council on AIDS, Hong Kong, the Hospital Authority announced plans to introduce universal antenatal screening for human immunodeficiency virus infection and hence, a consensus conference was held to discuss strategies for implementing such screening in Hong Kong. This paper reports the discussions of the consensus conference. The consensus meeting group consisted of 15 clinicians and scientists from Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand. Seven commonly asked questions concerning mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus were selected for discussion by the participating panellists. Information on the laboratory diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus infection and the efficacy of preventive measures in reducing mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus were reviewed. Data from local studies was also presented and discussed. The timing, potential problems, and cost issues involved in testing all pregnant women in Hong Kong for human immunodeficiency virus were then considered.published_or_final_versio
A proactive scheme using sub-path extension to enhance performance of preemptive route maintenance scheme for AODV routing
No full textExisting on-demand routing algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks such as DSR (dynamic source routing) and AODV (ad hoc on-demand distance vector) routing do not consider maintenance of established paths. So after a link failure is detected, the path discovery operation is triggered. This causes delay and jitter to packets delivered. To address this problem, the recovery action is triggered early in preemptive route maintenance by detecting that a link is likely to break soon and it finds an alternative path in advance. However, broadcasting RREQs (Route Requests) to find an alternate good path can degrade the performance of mobile ad hoc networks where topology changes frequently. [3] A new proactive scheme is proposed to enhance performance of preemptive route maintenance for AODV. In the proposed idea, nodes adjacent to destination generate GREPs (gratuitous replies) to build extended sub-paths to source and the generated GREPs are forwarded by the "greedy forwarding" strategy using knowledge of position information of neighbors and source. The simulation results prove that our idea is more efficient than PAODV (AODV with preemptive route maintenance) in terms of number of broken links, packet delivery fraction, and routing load
Taiwan's Mandarin popular music in Hong Kong from the late 1960s to the early 1970s
No full textThis thesis examines the history of Taiwan’s Mandarin popular music (aka ‘Mandopop’) songs and singers in the Hong Kong popular music scene from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. It focuses on the practices and impact of three major groups of actors—Mandarin sing-song filmmakers and film stars, music hall operators, and music critics—on the popularisation of Taiwan’s Mandopop in Hong Kong. While existing literature mentions the dominance of Taiwan’s Mandopop in the late 1960s, scholars tend to view this phenomenon as an interlude in the development of Cantonese popular music and treat the spread of Taiwan’s Mandopop in Hong Kong as an insignificant event. It is suggested that researchers of Hong Kong popular music, despite celebrating diversity and hybridity, exhibit a predominantly Hong Kong-centric perspective. They largely pay attention only to local events and actors while disregarding the process of how foreign cultural elements are interpreted and utilised in the local culture. This thesis approaches the popularisation of Taiwan’s Mandopop in Hong Kong as a social process and examines how Taiwan’s Mandopop songs and singers were engaged in the local context and acquired a local meaning. Relying on archival materials, including music magazines, media reports, and biographies of entertainment industry workers, this thesis highlights the efforts of Mandarin sing-song filmmakers and film stars, music hall operators, and music critics in promoting Taiwan’s Mandopop songs and singers in Hong Kong. It is found that the three groups of actors performed distinct roles in facilitating the popularisation of Taiwan’s Mandopop in Hong Kong, including promoting the exposure of Taiwan’s Mandopop songs and singers through sing-song films, enhancing the visibility and prestige of Taiwan’s singers in Hong Kong through music hall performances, and mediating the appreciation and interpretation of Taiwan’s Mandopop through music commentaries. This research clarifies the neglected history of Taiwan’s Mandopop in Hong Kong and enriches the understanding of the Hong Kong popular music scene before the dominance of Cantopop in the late 1970s, a period largely absent in the existing literature. Furthermore, this research avoids the Hong Kong-centric perspective in the academic discourse of hybridity by addressing the foreign cultural elements in the Hong Kong popular culture more seriously.published_or_final_versionModern Languages and CulturesMasterMaster of Philosoph
The Chinese-version of the CARE Measure reliably differentiates between doctors in primary care: a cross-sectional study in Hong Kong
Full text link<b>Background</b> The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure is a widely used patient-rated experience measure which has recently been translated into Chinese and has undergone preliminary qualitative and quantitative validation. The objective of this study was to determine the reliability of the Chinese-version of the CARE Measure in reliably differentiating between doctors in a primary care setting in Hong Kong<p></p>
<b>Methods</b> Data were collected from 984 primary care patients attending 20 doctors with differing levels of training in family medicine in 5 public clinics in Hong Kong. The acceptability of the Chinese-CARE measure to patients was assessed. The reliability of the measure in discriminating effectively between doctors was analysed by Generalisability-theory (G-Theory) <p></p>
<b>Results</b> The items in the Chinese-CARE measure were regarded as important by patients and there were few 'not applicable' responses. The measure showed high internal reliability (coefficient 0.95) and effectively differentiated between doctors with only 15-20 patient ratings per doctor (inter-rater reliability > 0.8). Doctors' mean CARE measure scores varied widely, ranging from 24.1 to 45.9 (maximum possible score 50) with a mean of 34.6. CARE Measure scores were positively correlated with level of training in family medicine (Spearman's rho 0.493, p < 0.05). <p></p>
<b>Conclusion</b> These data demonstrate the acceptability, feasibility and reliability of using the Chinese-CARE Measure in primary care in Hong Kong to differentiate between doctors interpersonal competencies. Training in family medicine appears to enhance these key interpersonal skill
Micro- and nano-fibers of Poly(hydroxybutrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) formed through electrospinning and their biocompatibility assessment
No full textProceedings of BME2008 Hong Kong Biomedical Engineering International Conference: converging frontiers in biomedical engineering from novel research to patient benefits, Hong Kong, 23-25 October 200
Antibiotic resistant switch in salmonellae isolated from chicken hatchery fluff in Taiwan
No full textHow Far Can We Say that Taiwan and Hong Kong Are the Same Chinese Society? Take Masculinity As An Example
No full textThis paper is a historical anthropology of masculinity in the Chinese
societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Following Saussure’s insight that the
conventional value of a cultural category is defined by its relations to
other categories within the same cultural scheme, we shall study
masculinity in relation to ethnobiology, sexuality, marriage, family, and
descent in the Chinese societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan, arguing that
masculinity cannot be understood on its own but should be examined in
relation to other cultural categories. However, the relationship between
masculinity and other social categories varies with different societies. By
comparing such a relationship in the Chinese societies of Hong Kong
and Taiwan, we shall understand why the conventional value/meaning
of masculinity differs in these two societies. We contextualize our study
of masculinity in pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial Taiwan and
Hong Kong, demonstrating how meaning of masculinity changes in
different political regimes of these two societies. This paper ends with a
theoretical question: if masculinity takes on different meanings in Hong
Kong and Taiwanese societies, what do we mean when we say that they
are Chinese societies
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