Showing papers by "Hong Kong Baptist University published in 1998"
TL;DR: An error bound for multidimensional quadrature is derived that includes the Koksma-Hlawka inequality as a special case and includes as special cases the L p -star discrepancy and P α that arises in the study of lattice rules.
Abstract: An error bound for multidimensional quadrature is derived that includes the Koksma-Hlawka inequality as a special case. This error bound takes the form of a product of two terms. One term, which depends only on the integrand, is defined as a generalized variation. The other term, which depends only on the quadrature rule, is defined as a generalized discrepancy. The generalized discrepancy is a figure of merit for quadrature rules and includes as special cases the L p -star discrepancy and P α that arises in the study of lattice rules.
693 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors applied Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour to predict behavioural intention and actual behaviour of voluntary use of waste recycling receptacles in Hong Kong and found that attitude was the major factor in predicting behavioural intention, followed by behavioural control and social norms.
315 citations
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: A simple but often effective way to approximate an integral over the s-dimensional unit cube is to take the average of the integrand over some set P of N points.
Abstract: A simple, but often effective, way to approximate an integral over the s-dimensional unit cube is to take the average of the integrand over some set P of N points. Monte Carlo methods choose P randomly and typically obtain an error of 0(N-1/2). Quasi-Monte Carlo methods attempt to decrease the error by choosing P in a deterministic (or quasi-random) way so that the points are more uniformly spread over the integration domain.
286 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new way of modeling time-varying volatility is presented, which generalizes the usual stochastic volatility models to encompass regime-switching properties.
Abstract: This article presents a new way of modeling time-varying volatility We generalize the usual stochastic volatility models to encompass regime-switching properties The unobserved state variables are governed by a first-order Markov process Bayesian estimators are constructed by Gibbs sampling High-, medium- and low-volatility states are identified for the Standard and Poor's 500 weekly return data Persistence in volatility is explained by the persistence in the low- and the medium-volatility states The high-volatility regime is able to capture the 1987 crash and overlap considerably with four US economic recession periods
223 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the phonon-lattice interaction is the main ingredient of the Fourier heat law and provided a rather satisfactory explanation to all existing numerical results concerning this problem.
Abstract: We study numerically the thermal conductivity in several different one-dimensional chains. We show that the phonon-lattice interaction is the main ingredient of the Fourier heat law. Our argument provides a rather satisfactory explanation to all existing numerical results concerning this problem.
206 citations
TL;DR: The role of social resources in the status attainment process was examined in this article, where the causal link between access to (for example, network resources) and use of (for instance, contact resources) social resources was empirically tested in a series of models in which the effects of personal resources and social resources on status outcome were assessed.
201 citations
TL;DR: The variance projection function is developed and employed to locate landmarks of the human eye which are then used to guide the detection of the eye position and shape.
183 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of iron plaque on the growth of Typha latifolia L. and its accumulation of zinc (Zn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) were investigated under field conditions and in nutrient solution cultures in the laboratory.
165 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the influence of family-responsive variables and the moderating influence of gender on the retention-relevant outcomes of organizational commitment and turnover intentions of employed parents in a human service authority in Hong Kong.
Abstract: This study examined the influence of family-responsive variables and the moderating influence of gender on the retention-relevant outcomes of organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Data were obtained with the aid of structured questionnaires from employed parents (N = 228) in a human service authority in Hong Kong. Results of regression analysis revealed that satisfaction with work schedule flexibility and supervisor work-family support were related to both retention-relevant outcomes. Contrary to our prediction, gender did not moderate the influence of any of the family-responsive variables on the retention-relevant outcomes. Limitations of the study, directions for future research and implications of the findings for enhancing the effectiveness of family-responsive human resource policies are discussed.
160 citations
TL;DR: It was found that water-stressed plants exhibited a much greater accumulation of the QB-non-reducing PS II reaction centres and a smaller increase in non- photochemical quenching during photoinhibited, which might be responsible for the increased susceptibility to photoinhibition.
Abstract: Effects of water stress on photosynthesis, PS II photochemistry and photoinhibition were investigated in wheat plants (Tritium aestivum L.). To separate water stress effects from photoinhibition, water stress was imposed at low irradiance (180 µmol m-2 s-1). When water stress developed gradually, net CO2 assimilation rate and leaf stomatal conductance decreased significantly. However, water stress had no effects on the PS II photochemistry in dark-adapted leaves. There were no significant changes in the maximal efficiency of PS II photochemistry and no apparent damages in PS II reaction centre, its oxidising and acceptor sides, or its antennae system. However, PS II photochemistry in light-adapted leaves was modified in water-stressed plants. This was shown by the decrease in the efficiency of excitation energy capture by open PS II reaction centres and the quantum yield of PS II electron transport and a significant increase in non-photochemical quenching. In addition, water stress increased the susceptibility to photoinhibition. The extent of photoinhibition became more pronounced as water stress increased. It was found that water-stressed plants exhibited a much greater accumulation of the QB-non-reducing PS II reaction centres and a smaller increase in non- photochemical quenching during photoinhibition. Such changes might be responsible for the increased susceptibility to photoinhibition.
143 citations
TL;DR: A critical review of the research into the role and process of marketing in small firms and attempts to classify the existing studies can be found in this article, where the authors identify four approaches, namely the stages/growth model, the management styles model, marketing as a management function model and the contingency model.
Abstract: Though academic research into the marketing/ entrepreneurship interface is of only relatively recent origin, it would seem that the basic principles of marketing appear to be equally valuable to both large and small firms. This article provides a critical review of the research into the role and process of marketing in small firms and attempts to classify the existing studies. In so doing, it identifies four approaches, namely the stages/growth model; the management styles model; the marketing as a management function model and the contingency model. From this, it concludes that in order to advance the theory of small business marketing a theoretical framework integrating the contingency approach and the process model appears to hold the greatest potential.
TL;DR: In this article, the concentrations of six heavy metals, copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr), in sediments and fish sampled from inland waters of Hong Kong were presented.
TL;DR: In this article, the behaviors of coupled oscillators are investigated, each of which has periodic motion with random natural frequency in the absence of coupling, and some novel collective phenomena are revealed.
Abstract: The behaviors of coupled oscillators, each of which has periodic motion with random natural frequency in the absence of coupling, are investigated. Some novel collective phenomena are revealed. At the onset of instability of the phase-locking state, simultaneous phase slips of all oscillators and quantized phase shifts in these phase slips are observed. By increasing the coupling, a bifurcation tree from high-dimensional quasiperiodicity to chaos to quasiperiodicity and periodicity is found. Different orders of phase synchronizations of chaotic oscillators and chaotic clusters play the key role for constructing this tree structure.
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of climatic variables on variations in residential electricity consumption in Hong Kong for the period 1980-1994 has been investigated, and the association between a potential weather stress index, clo, and rec was also examined.
TL;DR: The present results indicate that glutamate receptors are differentially localized in neuronal elements of dorsal horn where receptor—neurotransmitter interaction takes place.
Abstract: Immunocytochemical localization of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) and ionotropic glutamate receptors (NMDA-type: NMDAR1 and NMDAR2A-C; AMPA-type: GluR1-4) was performed on sections of rat dorsal horn. Immunoreactivity for mGluR1 alpha was detected in laminae I-III of the dorsal horn, whilst mGluR2/3 immunoreactivity was detected primarily in lamina III. Immunoreactivity for NMDAR1, GluR1, GluR2, GluR2/3, GluR4 and GluR5/6/7 was strongly localized in neuronal elements of laminae I-III. Immunoreactivity for NMDAR2B was localized in laminae I-III. No mGluR5, NMDAR2A and NMDAR2C immunoreactivity was detected. In addition, immunoreactivity for receptors was found to co-localize with immunoreactivity for glutamate in the dorsal horn. The present results indicate that glutamate receptors are differentially localized in neuronal elements of dorsal horn where receptor-neurotransmitter interaction takes place.
TL;DR: In this paper, a significant correlation was found between total lead (r =; − 0.70, p < 0.01) and zinc (r=; 0.74, p = 0.05), and the 20 min -EC50 using P. phosphoreum.
Abstract: Samples of urban dusts, road site dusts and car park dusts, were collected at two selected sites each in Hong Kong and London. Sequential extraction was used to characterise the chemical compositions of these urban dusts. Copper, lead, zinc, pH, electrical conductivity and organic content were measured. Biotoxicity tests of urban dusts were conducted on higher plants (Brassica chinensis and Lolium perenne), a dinoflagellate green alga (Dunaliella tertiolecta) and luminescent bacteria (Photobacterium phosphoreum). A significant correlation was found between total lead (r =; – 0.70, p < 0.01) and zinc (r =; – 0.74, p < 0.05), and the 20 min – EC50 using P. phosphoreum. In addition, there was a significant correlation (r = – 0.72, p < 0.01) between the exchangeable lead content in dust and the 48 h- EC30 using D. tertiolecta. No specific trend was obtained for higher plants. Total lead and zinc contents were higher in dusts from London while the percentage of exchangeable fraction of metal contents was higher in those from Hong Kong.
TL;DR: In this article, the acid mine drainage problems were experienced in a Pb-Zn mine operation at Lechang, in the northern part of Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China.
Abstract: Acid mine drainage problems were experienced in a Pb–Zn mine operation at Lechang, in the northern part of Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China. Geochemical and acid generation evaluations were made on fresh tailings including tailings fine, tailings sand and high sulphide tailings, and oxidised tailings with the aim of providing information on mine rehabilitation. All fresh tailings had a pH higher than 7 while the oxidised tailings had a pH of 4.9 (range 1.6 to 7.4). Only samples with pH 4 dS m⊃-1. Total S contents of all tailings samples were very high with the high sulphide fraction having a mean S content of 38%. All fresh tailings had a high acid neutralisation capacity (ANC) while half of the oxidised tailings had an ANC less than zero. The results from the acid–base account and the net acid generation test indicated that all fresh and oxidised tailings samples were acid-forming except for the sand fraction samples. All tailings samples contained high total concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn but low concentrations of total nitrogen and phosphorus. The preliminary results demonstrated that the tailings were all acid-forming especially the high sulphide fraction which should be kept permanently unexposed under impermeable cap or water.
TL;DR: In this article, a new discrete isospectral problem and the corresponding hierarchy of nonlinear differential-difference equations are proposed and a Darboux transformation for the discrete spectral problem is found.
Abstract: A new discrete isospectral problem and the corresponding hierarchy of nonlinear differential-difference equations are proposed. It is shown that the hierarchy of differential-difference equations possesses the Hamiltonian structures. A Darboux transformation for the discrete spectral problem is found. As an application, two-soliton solutions for the first system of differential-difference equations in the hierarchy are given.
TL;DR: In this article, an off-line recognition system based on multifeature and multilevel classification is presented for handwritten Chinese characters, where 10 classes of multifeatures, such as peripheral shape features, stroke density features, and stroke direction features, are used in this system.
Abstract: In this paper, an off-line recognition system based on multifeature and multilevel classification is presented for handwritten Chinese characters. Ten classes of multifeatures, such as peripheral shape features, stroke density features, and stroke direction features, are used in this system. The multilevel classification scheme consists of a group classifier and a five-level character classifier, where two new technologies, overlap clustering and Gaussian distribution selector are developed. Experiments have been conducted to recognize 5,401 daily-used Chinese characters. The recognition rate is about 90 percent for a unique candidate, and 98 percent for multichoice with 10 candidates.
16 Aug 1998
TL;DR: It is shown that, in both classification and regression problems, the use of a support vector mixture leads to quadratic programming (QP) problems that are very similar to those for a SVM, with no increase in the dimensionality of the QP problems.
Abstract: We study the incorporation of the support vector machine (SVM) into the (hierarchical) mixture of experts model to form a support vector mixture. We show that, in both classification and regression problems, the use of a support vector mixture leads to quadratic programming (QP) problems that are very similar to those for a SVM, with no increase in the dimensionality of the QP problems. Moreover, a support vector mixture, besides allowing for the use of different experts in different regions of the input space, also supports easy combination of different architectures such as polynomial networks and radial basis function networks.
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed theoretical treatment of the partial oxidation of methane to syngas (OMS) on transition and coinage metal (M) catalysts (M = Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu) was presented.
Abstract: This paper presents a detailed theoretical treatment of the partial oxidation of methane to syngas (OMS) on transition and coinage metal (M) catalysts (M = Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu). The adsorption energies for a number of intermediates in the dissociation of methane on the metals were calculated using medium sized cluster models of 7−13 atoms. Reaction energies for methane dissociation, syngas formation, and byproduct generation were determined. The activation energies were estimated by means of the analytic BOC-MP formula. On the basis of these results, several significant aspects involved in the OMS on the metal catalysts have been elucidated. (1) The total dissociation energy (De) for the complete dissociation of methane to give surface carbon and hydrogen (CH4,s → Cs + 4Hs) can be regarded as a measure for the activity of the metal in methane dissociation. The order of the calculated De's is consistent with the order of methane conversions over the metals. (2) In the presence of coadsorbed oxygen, oxygen at me...
TL;DR: In this article, a new integrable differential-difference equation is proposed, which is transformed into a multi-linear form by introducing an auxiliary variable, and further transformed into the bilinear form.
TL;DR: Public concern about their mental health and their attitudes to mental patients was decreased and became more negative slightly, respectively, and their knowledge of mental illness and attitudes to community care of mental patients were improved slightly.
Abstract: A telephone survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1273 Chinese in Hong Kong to examine public attitudes to the mentally ill and mental health rehabilitation facilities. Attitudes were compared with a study using the same measures carried out two years previously. Results indicated that public concern about their mental health and their attitudes to mental patients was decreased and became more negative slightly, respectively. On the other hand, their knowledge of mental illness and attitudes to community care of mental patients were improved slightly. Their views on the mentally ill were found to be associated with their contacts with mental patients and their socioeconomic variables including age and education, but not sex.
TL;DR: In this paper, two bis(acetylide)-functionalised ferrocenylfluorene complexes, 9-ferrocenylmethylene-2,7-bis(trimethylsilylethynyl)fluorene 1 and 2,7-,bis(ethynyl), have been prepared in good yield by condensation of ferrocenecarbaldehyde with 2, 7-bis, trimethyl-sily lethyynyl (LSL) fluorene and subsequent desilylation of 1.
Abstract: Two new bis(acetylide)-functionalised ferrocenylfluorene complexes, 9-ferrocenylmethylene-2,7-bis(trimethylsilylethynyl)fluorene 1 and -2,7-bis(ethynyl)fluorene 2, have been prepared in good yield by condensation of ferrocenecarbaldehyde with 2,7-bis(trimethylsilylethynyl)fluorene and the subsequent desilylation of 1. Treatment of trans-[PtPh(Cl)(PEt3)2] with half an equivalent of 2 in CH2Cl2–NHPri2, in the presence of CuI, at room temperature, gives the dimeric platinum(II) complex trans-[Ph(Et3P)2Pt–CCRCC–Pt(PEt3)2Ph] 3 (R = 9-ferrocenylmethylenefluorene-2,7-diyl) in 56% yield. Soluble polymeric trans-[{-Pt(PBun3)2-CCRCC-}n] 4 has been obtained in good yield by the CuI-catalysed dehydrohalogenation of trans-[Pt(PBun3)2Cl2] with 2 (1∶1 molar ratio) in an amine solvent. Optical measurements on the thin films indicated that there is a significant reduction in the bandgap value for polymer 4 (2.1 eV) as compared to that of trans-[{-Pt(PBun3)2-CCRCC-}n] 5 (R = fluorene-2,7-diyl) (2.9 eV) without the ferrocenyl moiety, featuring the importance of donor–acceptor interaction in such conjugated systems. All the new compounds have been characterised by analytical, spectroscopic and electrochemical methods, and the single-crystal structures of 2, 3 and 5 have been established.
TL;DR: In this article, a new experimental design called uniform design (UD) has been introduced as a promising candidate for experimental design in nonlinear multivariate calibration by ANN, and a comparative study has been made among UD, orthogonal array design (OAD), and central composite design (CCD).
TL;DR: An incubation experiment was performed to study the effect of sewage sludge on microbial respiration and nutrient mineralization in a sandy soil as an indication of its effects on soil biological properties and nutrient transformation as discussed by the authors.
TL;DR: In this article, the electropolymerization of ortho-phenylenediamine ( o -PD) in 0.10 M H 2 SO 4, 0.40 M Na 2 SO4, and 0.50 M H2 SO 4 solutions was studied using an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance.
TL;DR: It is suggested that the modifications in PSII function, which led to the down-regulation of photosynthetic electron transport, would be in concert with the lower demand for ATP and NADPH in the Calvin cycle which is often inhibited in senescing leaves.
Abstract: Analyses of chlorophyll fluorescence were undertaken to investigate the alterations in photosystem II (PSII) function during senescence of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Shannong 229) leaves. Senescence resulted in a decrease in the apparent quantum yield of photosynthesis and the maximal CO 2 ion capacity. Analyses of fluorescence quenching under steady-state photosynthesis showed that senescence also resulted in a significant decrease in the efficiency of excitation energy capture by open PSII reaction centers (F' v /F' m ) but only a slight decrease in the maximum efficiency of PSH photochemistry (F v /F m ). At the same time, a significant increase in non-photochemical quenching (q N ) and a considerable decrease in photochemical quenching (q P ) were observed in senescing leaves. Rapid fluorescence induction kinetics indicated a decrease in the rate of Q A reduction and an increase in the proportion of Q B -non-reducing PSII reaction during senescence. The decrease in both F' v /F' m and q P explained the decrease in the actual quantum yield of PSII electron transport (Φ PSH ). We suggest that the modifications in PSII function, which led to the down-regulation of photosynthetic electron transport, would be in concert with the lower demand for ATP and NADPH in the Calvin cycle which is often inhibited in senescing leaves.
TL;DR: In this article, coal ash residues, including fly ash (FA) and lagoon ash (LA), were co-composted with dewatered sludge for 100 days in a bench-scale composting system and biological parameters were monitored to evaluate the effect of ash residues on the composting process.