Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).

The paper begins by rigorously defining the notion of CD, as well as the concept of CS and tracing its development in Hong Kong over the past several decades. By using a model of CS typology, which combines the variables of state control and a society’s quest for autonomy (SQA), the paper aims to outline the historical development of CD movements in Hong Kong. It also discusses the recent evolution of CS and its relationship with CD movements, particularly focusing on their development since Leung Chun-ying became the Chief Executive in 2012. Finally, by using five cases of CD witnessed in the past several decades, the relationship between the development of CS and the emergence of CD in Hong Kong has been outlined.

Four implications can be concluded: first, CD cannot emerge when the state and society are isolated. Second, the level of SC and the scale of CD are positively related. Third, as an historical trend, the development of SQA is generally in linear progress; SQA starts from a low level (e.g. interest-based and welfare-based aims) and moves upwards to campaign for higher goals of civil and political autonomy. If the lower level of SQA is not satisfied, it can lead to larger scale CD in future. Fourth, the CD movement would be largest in scale when the state-society relationship confrontational and when major cleavages can be found within CS itself.

This paper serves to enrich knowledge in the fields of politics and sociology.

Family planning (FP) services through the lens of human rights are not well known in Nepal. This study aims to assess Family Planning 2020: Rights and Empowerment Principles for Family Planning and identify factors affecting contraceptive use among HIV-infected women living in rural Far Western Nepal.

This study conducted a cross-sectional survey using self-designed proforma. To assess the association between contraceptive use and independent variables, this study calculated adjusted odd ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) V.20.

Only 37.8% of participants had access to full range of contraceptive methods, and only 57.5% of participants received proper counseling. Agency/autonomy, transparency/accountability and voice/participation were practiced by 43.7%, 23.4% and 19.7% of participants, respectively. Husband’s support (AOR = 4.263; 95% CI: 1.640–11.086), availability of FP services in their locality (AOR = 2.497; 95% CI: 1.311–4.754), employment (AOR = 3.499; 95% CI: 1.186–10.328) and postpartum period (AOR = 0.103; 95% CI: 0.023–0.475) were significantly associated with contraceptive use.

Health-care providers’ and program managers’ perspectives were not examined.

Findings of this study will be useful for making strategic plan on human rights-based approach to FP.

Expanding access to contraceptive information and services and strengthening autonomy, accountability and participation are key to human rights-based approach to FP.

This study identified that inadequate counselling, nonavailability of full range of contraceptive methods, low level of autonomy, accountability and participation were key bottlenecks in fulfilling human rights-based approach to FP.

Many historical urban cultural landscapes are suffering the effect of rapid urban economic development. This paper integrally relates historical sites in dispersed and point-shape distributions in cities and proposes strategies and methods for constructing urban linear cultural landscapes. As such, our work aims to form urban cultural landscape communities with an organic and linear distribution. The urban linear cultural landscape is not only an important means for integrally protecting and utilizing historical sites in historical cities but is also a special type of urban cultural landscape. The urban linear cultural landscape’s extensive application can enrich the theory of cultural landscape and protection methods of urban cultural heritage.

Solder bumps for chip interconnections are downsizing from current approximately 100 µm to the expected 1 µm in future. As a result, the Cu-Ni cross-interaction in Cu/Solder/Ni solder joints will be more complicated and then strongly influence the growth of the intermetallic compounds (IMCs). Thus, it is critical to understand the fundamental aspects of interfacial reaction in micro solder joints. This paper aims to reveal the effect mechanism of reflow temperature and solder size on the interfacial reaction in Cu/Solder/Ni solder joints.

The Cu-Ni cross-interaction in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints with 50 and 100 µm solder sizes at 250°C and 300°C were observed, respectively. The line-type interconnects were soaked in silicone oil, and the temperature of the line-type interconnects was 250 ± 3°C and 300 ± 3°C, which were monitored by a fine K-type thermocouple, and followed by an isothermal aging process at various times. After aging, the specimens were removed from the silicone oil and cooled in the air to room temperature.

The major interfacial reaction product on both interfaces was (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅, and the asymmetric growth of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅, evidenced by the thickness of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMCs at the Sn/Ni interface was always larger than that at the Sn/Cu interface, resulted from the directional migration of Cu atoms toward the Sn/Ni interface under Cu concentration gradient. The morphology of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMC at Sn/Cu interface was columnlike at 250°C, and which changed from columnlike to scallop with large aspect ratio at 300°C, while that at Sn/Ni interface gradually evolved from needlelike to the mixture of needlelike and layered at 250°C, and which evolved from needlelike to scallop with large aspect ratio at 300°C. The evolution of morphology of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ is attributed to the content of Ni. Furthermore, the results indicate that the Cu-Ni cross-interaction was stronger with small solder size and relatively low temperature in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints.

The asymmetric growth of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints, evidenced by the thickness of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMCs at the Sn/Ni interface, was always larger than that at the Sn/Cu interface. The morphology evolution of (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ IMC at both interfaces was attributed to the content of Ni. The Cu-Ni cross-interaction was stronger with small solder size and relatively low temperature in the Cu/Sn/Ni micro solder joints.

Deep excavation in soft clay often causes additional deformations to surroundings. Then, if deformations cannot be predicted reasonably, the adjacent buildings may be threatened by the deep excavation. Based on the good field observations from ten deep excavations in Hangzhou, this paper aims to thoroughly investigate the characteristics of wall deflections and ground settlements induced by deep excavations.

On the basis of good field observation of ten deep excavations, the performances of excavations, supported by contiguous pile in Hangzhou, were studied, and also compared with other case histories.

The maximum wall deflections (dhm) rang mostly from 0.7 to 1.2 per cent H_e, where He is the final excavation depth, larger than those in Taipei and Shanghai. The observed maximum ground settlement in the Hangzhou cases generally ranges from 0.2 to 0.8 per cent H_e. Then, the settlement influence zone extends to a distance of 2.0-4.0 H_e from the excavation. The relatively large movements and influence zones in Hangzhou may be attributed to low stability numbers, large excavation widths and the creep effect. The excavation width is justified to have a significant influence on the wall deflection. Therefore, to establish a semi-empirical formula for predicting the maximum wall deflection, it is necessary to include the factor of excavation width.

The relevant literature concentrated on the characteristics of deep excavations supported by the contiguous pile wall in Hangzhou soft clay can rarely be found. Based on the ten deep excavations with good field observation in Hangzhou, the characteristics of wall deflection and ground settlements were comprehensively studied for the first time, which can provide some theoretical support for similar projects.

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is used to manufacture biomedical implants because it has a high strength-to-weight ratio and high strength and is biocompatible. However, the use of fused deposition modeling to print a PEEK results in low strength and crystallinity. This study aims to use the Taguchi method to optimize the printing factors to obtain the highest tensile strength of the printed PEEK object. The annealing effect on printed PEEK object and crystallinity are also investigated.

This study determines the printing factors including the printing speed, layer thickness, printing temperature and extrusion width. Taguchi experimental design with a L9 orthogonal array is used to print the tensile specimen and carried out the tensile test to compare the tensile strength and porosity. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the experimental error and to determine the optimization printing parameters to obtain the highest tensile strength. A multivariate linear regression analysis is used to obtain the linear regression equation for predicting the theoretical tensile strength. An X-ray analysis is achieved to evaluate the crystalline of printed object. The effect of annealing is investigated to improve the tensile strength of printed part. An intervertebral lumber device is printed to demonstrate the feasibility of the obtained optimization parameters for practical application.

Taguchi experiment designs nine sets of parameters to print the PEEK tensile specimen. The experimental results and the ANOVA present that the order in which the factors affect the tensile strength for printed PEEK parts is the layer thickness, the extrusion width, the printing speed and the printing temperature. The optimized printing parameters are a printing speed of 5 mm/s, a layer thickness of 0.1 mm, a printing temperature of 395 °C and an extrusion strand width of 0.44 mm. The average tensile strength of printed specimen with the optimized printing parameters is 91.48 MPa, which is slightly less than the theoretical predicted value of 94.34 MPa. After annealing, the tensile strength increases to 98.85 MPa, which is comparable to that for molded PEEK and the porosity decreases to 0.3 from 3.9%. X-ray diffraction results show that all printed and annealed specimens have a high degree of crystallinity. The printed intervertebral lumber device has ultimate compressive load of 13.42 kN.

The optimized printing parameters is suitable for low-price fused deposition modeling machine because it does not involve a table at high temperature and can print the PEEK object with high tensile strength and good crystalline. Annealing parameters offer a good solution for tensile strength improvement.

Noise abatement is one of the key techniques for Partial Discharge (PD) on-line measurement and monitoring. However, how to enhance the efficiency of PD signal noise suppression is a challenging work. Hence, this study aims to improve the efficiency of PD signal noise abatement.

In this approach, the time–frequency characteristics of PD signal had been obtained based on fast kurtogram and S-transform time–frequency spectrum, and these characteristics were used to optimize the parameters for the signal matching over-complete dictionary. Subsequently, a self-adaptive selection of matching atoms was realized when using Matching Pursuit (MP) to analyze PD signals, which leading to seldom noise signal element was represented in sparse decomposition.

The de-noising of PD signals was achieved efficiently. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method has good adaptability and significant noise abatement effect compared with Empirical Mode Decomposition, Wavelet Threshold and global signal sparse decomposition of MP.

A self-adaptive noise abatement method was proposed to improve the efficiency of PD signal noise suppression based on the signal sparse representation and its MP algorithm, which is significant to on-line PD measurement.

The purpose of this study is to present a simplified analytical method to estimate ground lateral displacement due to excavation. Excavations of foundation pit will inevitably lead to soil movements that may adversely impact surrounding facilities or structures. Thus, estimation of the ground displacement induced by excavation is essential in engineering practice.

Based on a theory of elastic mechanics, a simplified analytical method for predicting the ground lateral displacement resulting from foundation pit excavation is proposed.

As the distance from the soil to the supporting structure increases, the maximum ground lateral displacement decreases nonlinearly but at a reduced rate. Poisson’s ratio of soil has a mild influence on the ground lateral displacement, whereas the influence of the supporting structure’s deflection modes is significant.

The advantage of the proposed simplified analytical method lies in that it considers the supporting structure’s arbitrary deflections, giving it wider practical applicability than previous methods.

To realize the operation optimizing of today’s distribution power system (DPS), like economic dispatch, contingency analysis, and reliability and security assessment etc., it is beneficial and indispensable that a faster linear load flow method is adopted with a reasonable accuracy. Considering the high R/X branch ratios and unbalanced features of DPS, the purpose of this paper is to propose a faster and non-iterative linear load flow solution for DPS.

Based on complex function theory, the derivations of the injection current linear approximation have been proposed for the balanced and the single-, double- and three-phase unbalanced loads of DPS on complex plane. Then, a simple and direct linear load flow has been developed with loop-analysis theory and node-branch incidence matrix.

The methodology is appropriate for balanced and single-, double- and three-phase hybrid distribution system with different load models. It provides a fast and robust load flow method with a satisfactory accuracy to handle the problems of DPS whenever the load flow solutions are required.

The distributed generators (DGs) with unity or fixed power factors can be easily included. But the power and voltage nodes cannot be dealt with directly and need to be further studied.

By combining the current linear approximation with the loop theory-based method, a new linear load flow method for DPS has been proposed. The method is valid and acute enough for balanced and unbalanced systems and has no convergent problems.

The authors compared garments made in Poland, Japan and China to investigate the effect of country of manufacture (COM) on garment marketability by Japanese and Chinese experts. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences between the Japanese and Chinese experts.

The authors compared ten jackets and ten skirts manufactured by four factories in Poland, Japan and China and one Japanese sample maker using five different textiles. The authors provided the same specifications and sample pattern to each of the garment makers. The garment’s marketability was evaluated by 16 Japanese and 18 Chinese experts using a questionnaire survey, considering garment shape, silhouette, face fabric, sub-materials, anticipated appeal to consumers, sewing and ironing skills, and estimated selling price.

There were high correlations between the Japanese experts’ estimated selling price and evaluation scores in relation to shape, silhouette and face fabric. There were high correlations between the Chinese experts’ estimated selling price and evaluation scores in relation to all items except for face fabric and buttons. However, there were no significant differences between manufacturing countries. Therefore, the garment quality was not dependent on COM because the manufacturing skills of all selected factories were adequate.

This study experimentally investigated the effect of COM on garment marketability by evaluating garments manufactured in Japan, China and Poland using the same pattern and specification sheet. Moreover, these results show differences between the Japanese and Chinese experts for the COM effect.