How America and China see each other: charting national views and official perceptions

Based on the premise that perception operates either as a catalyst or a constraint for a hegemonic war, this study examines ‘national perceptions’ (i.e. how the citizens of the two states view each other) and ‘official views’ (i.e. how the two governments perceive each other) between the US and China of the post-Cold War period. As for the national views, (1) American perceptions of China have generally become more negative than Chinese perceptions of America; (2) little congruence is found between the two powers on key values and norms; and (3) perceptions are generally getting far ahead of the realities. As for the official views, formal documents do not fully reveal their real state of minds. Diplomatic courtesy and strategic self-esteem runs through them. Yet, America’s strategic concern and growing will to manage China from a position of strength is increasingly more discernible. From the Chinese documents, on the other hand, signs of inferiority have gradually disappeared. In sum, perceptions between the two are working more as a catalyst for strategic competition than a constraint on it.     

Distribution of methamphetamine and amphetamine in drug abusers’ head hair

In order to aid the interpretation of hair results from methamphetamine (MA) abusers the MA and amphetamine (AP) concentrations in 2070 hair samples were statistically evaluated. The MA and AP concentrations in hair were put into three groups arbitrarily representing low, medium and high ranges and the metabolite-to-parent drug ratios of each group were examined. The concentration ranges proposed here were also applied to the interpretation of five authentic cases. The low, medium and high ranges of MA were 0.5–4.2, 4.2–24.5 and 24.5–608.9 ng/mg and those of AP were 0.1–0.4, 0.4–1.7 and 1.7–41.4 ng/mg. The AP-to-MA ratios showed large variation but a tendency that it decreased as the MA ranges increased. This evaluation was very useful to presume the severity of individuals’ MA abuse and to provide law enforcement agencies more understandable information. It could also facilitate the court's decision regarding specific circumstances surrounding the drug-related crimes.     

Public Perception and Reporting of Different Kinds of Family Abuse in Hong Kong

The prevalence and serious consequences of family violence have given rise to massive research efforts. However, there is often a discrepancy between the official definitions and public perception of child abuse, elder abuse, and spouse abuse cases. Under-reporting is common due to lack of awareness of the abusive behaviors by the public. Differences between perception of abuse and reporting are well documented in the context of single group of victims. However, research studies on the differences in perception and reporting of different forms of abusive behaviors that occur to victims of child abuse, spouse abuse, and elder abuse are scarce. The present study attempts to examine whether perception and reporting of abuse will be different with respect to who the victim is and how the victim is abused. Findings show that perception and reporting of abusive behavior differ with respect to the victims of abuse and to the nature of abusive behaviors. Implications of these differences and directions for practice are discussed.

Correlates of in-law conflict and intimate partner violence against Chinese pregnant women in Hong Kong

This study examines correlates of in-law conflict with intimate partner violence (IPV) against pregnant women in a cohort of Chinese pregnant women who visited antenatal clinics in Hong Kong. This was a territory-wide, cross-sectional study of 3,245 pregnant women recruited from seven hospitals in Hong Kong. Participants were invited to complete the Chinese Abuse Assessment Screen and a demographic questionnaire. About 9% of the pregnant women reported having been abused by their partners in the preceding year. In-law conflict was the characteristic most significantly associated with preceding-year abuse against pregnant women, after controlling for covariates. Findings underscore the need to obtain information on in-law conflict as a risk factor for IPV. In-law conflict should be included in the assessment of risk for IPV. For the prevention of IPV, family-based intervention is needed to work with victims as well as in-laws.     

关于我国物业税立法的基本构想

国家税务总局在制定"十一五"计划时提出我国将积极稳妥地深化税制改革,其中包括实施城镇建设税费改革,稳步推行物业税,并相应取消相关收费。因此,适时开征物业税,已经成为我国新一轮房地产税制改革的重要内容,也成为我国财税法领域一个重要研究课题。本文通过对市场经济发达国家和地区物业税立法的比较研究,着重就我国物业税立法的必要性展开较为深入的讨论,进而提出了我国物业税立法的基本构想,希冀为推动我国正在进行中的物业税立法提供一见之得。     

Comparing China’s frontier politics: how much difference did a century make?

In response to foreign demands for concessions and territories, China’s last imperial court in the early twentieth century executed reforms to strengthen fiscal, personnel, military, and cultural control over its frontier regions. However, in so doing, it provoked an awakening of the national consciousness of the elites of non-Han ethnic minorities there. Much has changed over the past 100 years regarding the governance of China’s frontier territories of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, with the diffusion of nationalist claims among increasing numbers of the ethnic minority populace, heightened focus of foreign actors on the humanitarian and rights situations of the ethnic minorities, and greatly extended reach and firmer grip of the central government. What remained unaltered is the “state integration” purpose of Chinese regimes, as manifested in the practices of “internal colonialism” or “ethnic assimilation,” which has led to grievances and resistance by China’s ethnic minorities against the Chinese state.     

粤港民间商会社会治理功能比较研究

作为香港社会治理主体之一,香港民间商会以其突显的社会治理功能,在维护市场秩序乃至社会秩序的正常运作中起到了积极的、不可或缺的作用,长期以来为香港的繁荣与稳定发展做出巨大的贡献。近年来,随着市场经济的发展以及行政体制改革的深入,毗邻香港的广东民间商会组织也出现了蓬勃发展之势。但是,与香港相比,广东民间商会在自治性、独立性与民间性等方面仍然滞后,在社会治理中的功能显现较为弱势,存在相应的缺失之处,仍需进一步地强化与完善。     

The Prewar School Civic Education Policy in Hong Kong： A Historical Comparative Analysis

The civic education policy at the school level in Hong Kong had emerged before the Second World War, but the Hong Kong Education Department did not really implement this civic education policy. From the statist and colonial perspectives, this phenomenon was due to several factors, such as： （1） how the Hong Kong Government coped with the whole historical period and scenarios; （2） how it implemented the related policy; （3） whether civic education policy really became part of the government agendas; and （4） whether education did clarify some crucial historical questions. This paper wants to make certain about these questions. In fact, the Republic of China adopted modern schooling system which civic education was one of school subject. But it was not the education policy of the colonial Hong Kong Government. Historical reasons about this issue require reconstructive explanation. Under this study, the understanding of misinterpreted history can be amended correctly.     

Relevance analysis using revision identifier in MS word

Electronic documents often contain personal or confidential information, which can be used as valuable evidence in criminal investigations. In the digital investigation, special techniques are required for grouping and screening electronic documents, because it is challenging to analyze relationships between numerous documents in storage devices manually. To this end, although techniques such as keyword search, similarity search, topic modeling, metadata analysis, and document clustering are continually being studied, there are still limitations for revealing the relevance of documents. Specifically, metadata used in previous research are not always values present in the documents, and clustering methods with specific keywords may be incomplete because text‐based contents (including metadata) can be easily modified or deleted by users. In this work, we propose a novel method to efficiently group Microsoft Office Word 2007+ (MS Word) files by using revision identifier (RSID). Through a thorough understanding of the RSID, examiners can predict organizations to which a specific user belongs, and further, it is likely to discover unexpected interpersonal relationships. An experiment with a public dataset (GovDocs) provides that it is possible to categorize documents more effectively by combining our proposal with previously studied methods. Furthermore, we introduce a new document tracking method to understand the editing history and movement of a file, and then demonstrate its usefulness through an experiment with documents from a real case.