香港科技發展的經驗及其對澳門的啟示

從97年回歸至今,香港的科技有了很大的發展。香港在發展過程中所制訂的科技發展策略和科技政策都非常值得澳門學習,本文對回歸以來香港的科技政策進行了全面回顧,由此歸納出可资澳門借鑒的科技政策。     

A comparison study of realtime fatality rates: severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Toronto and Beijing, China

Summary.  In an outbreak of a completely new infectious disease like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), estimation of the fatality rate over the course of the epidemic is of clinical and epidemiological importance. In contrast with the constant case fatality rate, a new measure, termed the 'realtime' fatality rate, is proposed for monitoring the new emerging epidemic at a population level. A competing risk model implemented via a counting process is used to estimate the realtime fatality rate in an epidemic of SARS. It can capture and reflect the time-varying nature of the fatality rate over the course of the outbreak in a timely and accurate manner. More importantly, it can provide information on the efficacy of a certain treatment and management policy for the disease. The method has been applied to the SARS data from the regions affected, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto, Taiwan and Beijing. The magnitudes and patterns of the estimated fatalities are virtually the same except in Beijing, which has a lower rate. It is speculated that the effect is linked to the different treatment protocols that were used. The standard estimate of the case fatality rate that was used by the World Health Organization has been shown to be unable to provide useful information to monitor the time-varying fatalities that are caused by the epidemic.     

Probabilistic Modeling—From Physics to Computing Science

It is important in computing science to estimate the number of data blocks needed to answer a query. Three different answers to this problem emerged respectively in 1975, 1977, and 1982. This article investigates the basic differences of the three models and observes that the same differences were shared a long time ago by the physicists who used different models for the behavior of elementary particles to obtain the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, the Bose-Einstein statistics, and the Fermi-Dirac statistics.     

Using Malmquist Indexes to measure changes in the productivity and efficiency of US accounting firms before and after the Sarbanes–Oxley Act

There have been many criticisms of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act passed in July of 2002 to correct business accountability and performance practices. The act has a major emphasis on accounting and its practices. This paper attempts a response to these criticisms by investigating changes in productive efficiency for 62 of the largest US public accounting firms between the periods (2000–2001) and (2003–2004)—the periods before and after enactment of SOX in July of 2002. DEA is used to calculate Malmquist indexes of productivity and efficiency changes. This index is used because it can distinguish between changes in technical efficiency, which limit the possibilities, and changes in the performance efficiencies for each firm. Contrary to many of the criticisms, results indicate that accounting firms have exhibited significant post SOX growth in productive efficiency which is better than pre-SOX performances.     

Factors Associated with Adolescents’ Disclosure of Sexual Abuse Experiences in Hong Kong

This research project is the first study conducted in Hong Kong using adolescent subjects to explore predictors of child sexual abuse disclosure. Eight-hundred male and female adolescents aged 13 to 16 years were recruited from the community while another 30 adolescents joined the study from a clinical setting. One hundred and seventy-seven adolescents acknowledged having a child sexual abuse experience. Results showed that the severity of sexual abuse activities and parent attachment were associated with disclosure in the clinical setting, while abuser’s gender and the adolescents’ disclosure tendency were associated with disclosure among participants in the community setting. Among the 104 participants who had disclosed their childhood sexual abuse, 70% of them had disclosed it within one month and 63% of them had disclosed to 2 to 5 people. The majority of the disclosers (81%) shared their child sexual abuse experience(s) with their friends. Participants from the clinical setting tended to reveal the experience more to adults than those from the community. The study suggested that when choosing a potential confidant, adolescents paid more attention to confidant characteristics than to anticipated confidant responses to their disclosure. Limitations and practical implications for increasing child sexual abuse disclosure rates are discussed.     

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector in Hong Kong's Development

The recent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) brought Hong Kong worldwide attention and scrutiny. In the run up to the handover, the international media prominently featured stories about Hong Kong's freewheeling capitalism and the stability created by its administrative institutions. Lost in the media attention was the role of nonprofit organizations and the voluntary sector in Hong Kong's political and economic development. Although Hong Kong has a vibrant civil society, it has received little attention from scholars. This paper reviews the role of the third sector in Hong Kong's development. Among the issues the paper addresses are the legal codes that govern the creation and operation of nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong, the evidence regarding the role of the nonprofit sector in Hong Kong's development, particularly its relationship to the government and market sectors, and the implications of the 1997 transition for the nonprofit sector's role.     

Impact of Competing Values and Choices on Democratic Support in Hong Kong

This paper examines the reasons for the relatively low democratic support (DS) in Hong Kong in the context of competing values and choices based on the previous Asian Barometer Surveys. In so doing, it establishes a three-factor theoretical model that includes survey attitudinal statements related to authoritarianism (AU), nationalism (NA) and economic evaluations (EC) on DS. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the analysis shows that the hypothesized model is a very good fit. The Hong Kong people’s relatively low DS, in terms of their unconditional support for democracy and the degree of democracy they want for Hong Kong, can be well explained by the three factors in combination. The factors have various extent of impact on DS, with AU being the strongest, followed by EC, and then NA. The paper contributes by illustrating the usefulness of CFA in political values research, unraveling the comparative importance of the values and choices in affecting DS, and establishing a model for further testing.