Immigration Controls,Life-Course Coordination,and Livelihood Strategies: A Study of Families Living across the Mainland-Hong Kong Border

In-depth studies of families living across the mainland Chinese-Hong Kong border indicate how immigration controls can adversely affect the ability of families to synchronize members’ life-courses to provide for their own livelihoods. By disrupting family timetables, the immigration quota system that governs migration from the mainland to Hong Kong hampers the attempts of families to secure their long-term viability and arrange for inter-generational caring. Circumventing immigration laws through illegal migration is costly, and family care-givers are often forced to stay in Hong Kong without being recognized as residents. Mainland-Hong Kong families have a unique opportunity to live on one side of the border while members commute to work or study on the other side, but this strategy affects long-term social participation and is available only to families with the requisite social and economic assets. The research was supported by a grant from Oxfam Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Hong Kong Christian Action, the Industrial Relations Institute, and St. James’ Settlement made the interviews possible by helping us contact our informants. Caren Wong, Lo Kwok Wai, and Lai Yuen Mei provided competent research assistance. Chan Chu Fung was a tremendous help in our research on public policies. We must also thank our informants for agreeing to be interviewed and sharing with us personal information about their life.     

Romantic Relationships,Relationship Styles,Coping Strategies,and Psychological Distress among Chinese and Australian Young Adults

This study examined the association between relationship styles, coping strategies, and psychological distress among 144 Anglo‐Australian and 250 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicated that relationship styles (secure, clingy, and fickle) influenced psychological distress through their association with coping strategies (avoidance and self‐punishment). Society of residence was a moderating factor for the association between clingy relationship style and psychological distress. Females also reported higher levels of psychological distress than males. Among participants who had experienced a romantic relationship break up, participants endorsing clingy relationship style and those whose partners initiated the break up expressed more hurt in comparison, whereas those who endorsed avoidance strategy reported less hurt. The results of the present study also suggested that psychosocial variables (relationship styles, coping strategies) were generally more important than demographic factors (e.g., age) in predicting mental health outcomes. However, relationship styles and coping strategies may operate differently under different contexts.     

A hybrid algorithm based on variable neighbourhood for the strip packing problem

This paper addresses the strip packing problem, which has a wide range of real-world applications. Our proposed algorithm is a hybrid metaheuristic that combines an improved heuristic algorithm with a variable neighbourhood search. Different neighbourhoods are constructed based on the concept of block patterns. The proposed algorithm has three interesting features. First, a least-waste strategy is used to improve the constructive heuristics. Second, a better sorting sequence is selected to generate an initial solution. Finally, different neighbourhoods are constructed based on block patterns. The computational results from a diverse set of problem instances show that the proposed algorithm performs better than algorithms reported in the literature for most of the problem sets compared.     

Smoothing Spline Estimation for Partially Linear Single-index Models

In this article, the partially linear single-index models are discussed based on smoothing spline and average derivative estimation method. This proposed technique consists of two stages: one is to estimate the vector parameter in the linear part using the smoothing cubic spline method, simultaneously, obtaining the estimator of unknown single-index function; the other is to estimate the single-index coefficients in the single-index part by the using average derivative estimator procedure. Some simulated and real examples are presented to illustrate the performance of this method.     

The Emergence of a Community-based Social Assistance Programme in Urban China

To many people, the problem of poverty in China was confined mainly to the rural areas, and the situation of urban poverty was regarded as insignificant. Yet in fact, market-orientated economic reforms have created an urban underclass, made up of poorly paid state workers, the unemployed, and migrants from the countryside. In attempting to respond to the mounting needs of the urban poor, the Chinese government has introduced a means-tested social assistance programme in the cities since the mid-1990s. This paper describes the basic philosophy, structure and operation of this programme, and provides a general assessment of its functions and shortcomings.     

Retrospective and prospective evaluations of environmental quality under urban renewal as determinants of residents’ subjective quality of life

Claims about the impacts of environmental quality associated with urban renewal on the resident’s subjective quality of life are more speculative than empirically grounded. To clarify the impacts of environmental quality under urban renewal, this study surveyed 876 residents living in housing surrounding seven urban renewal sites in Hong Kong. It shows that environmental quality, both perceived (retrospectively) during and expected (prospectively) after urban renewal, exhibited positive effects on the resident’s subjective quality of life. Furthermore, it reveals that the subjective quality of life of the resident with higher education was less responsive to environmental quality perceived during urban renewal. The findings imply that more measures to mitigate the adverse social impact of urban renewal are preferably available to residents with less education.     

An Integrated Decision Methodology for Designing and Operating an Air‐Express Courier's Distribution Network*

DHL, an international air‐express courier, has been operating in Hong Kong for many years. In 1998, the new international airport located at a site considerably distant from the old location opened in Hong Kong (HK). Other airport‐related infrastructure facilities have also been developed or are being developed, resulting in major changes in transport structure as well as a shift in customer demand. In this paper a multiyear distribution network is designed for DHL(HK) using an integrated network design methodology, which consists of a macro model and a micro model. The macro model, a mixed 0–1 LP, determines in an aggregate manner the least‐cost distribution network. The micro model, a simulation, evaluates the operational viability and efficacy of the network according to its service coverage and service reliability. We also illustrate how coverage and reliability can be improved via the integrated use of the two models. Extensive discussion on relevant planning and operational issues of an air‐express courier are included. The methodology has been successfully implemented at DHL(HK). It has been used to design the network, to test strategic decisions, and to update the network.     

The struggle for hegemony: the emergence of a counter-public sphere in post-1997 Hong Kong

The present study examines the struggle for hegemony in the public sphere by two different systems, following Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997. It has been postulated that the new media, particularly social media, has become an important public sphere for the citizens of Hong Kong to engage in an anti-hegemonic struggle against China’s discursive encroachment into Hong Kong since 1997. Given that the public platform provided by legacy media has been bought out or coopted by China, new media has begun to serve as a subaltern public sphere to enable resisting the hegemony imposed by China. This was analyzed through a survey conducted as part of this study, which showed that people who are young, read the Apple Daily, have high expectations of local autonomy, and a high regard for press freedom are prone to using social media to obtain their social and political information. This article analyzes the implications of the emergence of a counter-China hegemonic public sphere.     

Two-agent scheduling of time-dependent jobs

We consider the problem of scheduling deteriorating jobs or shortening jobs with two agents A and B. We are interested in generating all Pareto-optimal schedules for the two criteria: (1) the total completion time of the jobs in A and the maximum cost of the jobs in B, and (2) the maximum cost of the jobs in A and the maximum cost of the jobs in B. We show that all Pareto-optimal schedules for both problems can be generated in polynomial time, whether the jobs are deteriorating or shortening.