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To better respond to today’s volatile and changing fashion market, the purpose of this paper is to develop a web-based design support system that enables users to design realistic and interesting skirts in the form of technical sketches over the internet.

The proposed system mainly consists of a sketch representation and composing method (SRCM), a graphic user interface (GUI) and a controller. The SRCM is implemented at the server end that generates technical sketches according to user defined parameters and features via the web-based GUI at the client side. The controller manages the workflows between the server and the clients.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, a survey was conducted by inviting 30 subjects (professional designers or undergraduate students studying fashion design) to have trial run of the system in Hong Kong and in the USA. Positive comments and feedbacks were received, and valuable suggestions were also obtained in regard to the prototype system.

Compared with traditional computer-aided design (CAD) systems, the proposed system is more effective and easier to operate as users can create technical sketches in accurate proportions with simple computer operations in a few mouse clicks. Besides, the output sketches are fully compatible with most commercial CAD software. The system is developed based on web technologies, thus fashion sketches can be easily designed using any computer connected to the internet; it can be implemented on Android or iOS platform in the future.

Accurate and fitted garment patterns are fundamentally important in garment manufacturing. Even though a virtual body can now be obtained by 3D scanning, the problem of generating patterns model is still challenging because the mapping from a 3D body to 2D pattern is constrained by complex garment style information and sewing definitions. This paper presents a new approach for generating 2D block patterns directly from scanned 3D unstructured points of the human body. The new approach consists of a series of steps from body recognition, body modelling to pattern formation. In the paper, algorithms for body feature extraction and body modelling are first described, then the relationship between the human body, patterns and darts are investigated, and pattern creation through automatic dart transformation are thus developed. The paper has demonstrated that the proposed method can generate 2D block patterns from a 3D unstructured point cloud.

This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about the conditions under which such knowledge is (or is not) produced” (Loader and Sparks, 2012, p. 6). In reviewing the core issues and concerns about crime and control from the 1980s as articulated in these research dissertations, the authors seek to be self-reflexive about academic criminology as a field of enquiry in Hong Kong.

In this research, 209 dissertations, completed between 1988 and 2015, are categorized on the basis of the main subject or theme of investigation carried out by each of the research paper.

This discussion is among the first and few attempts to look at the development of criminology in the Hong Kong China region and draws from the unique perspectives of practitioners – those working on the front lines – in their attempts to understand crime and its control with a criminological imagination.

Hong Kong has been a major entrepôt for China for decades and its intermediate role has been enhanced in recent years. With the open door policy of China, Hong Kong manufacturers have relocated extensively their low‐cost operations to the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. Under the outward processing arrangement, raw materials, components and work‐in‐progress are shipped to China for further processing and the finished products are shipped back to Hong Kong for re‐export to other countries. This mode of operation has created tremendous loads on the already congested cross‐border traffic between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. In order to modernize its outdated and inadequate transportation systems, China has embarked on huge infrastructure development programmes in the Pearl River Delta and other fast developing regions. Hong Kong has also launched multi‐billion‐dollar ports and airport development projects scheduled to be completed in 1997/98. On completion of these projects, the strategic position of Hong Kong as an entrepôt of Southern China will be further enhanced, despite increasing competition from neighbouring ports and airports in the medium to long term.

The recent global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has aroused public concern on environmental health and hygiene. Develops a practical assessment scheme for assessing the health and hygiene performance of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. The scheme involves assessing a hierarchy of building factors that have a bearing on environmental qualities, and thus occupants’ health. Proposes an index method to integrate the assessment outcomes into a simple and user‐ friendly performance indicator for public consumption. The index can inform the public of the health and hygiene risk of different buildings and facilitate building owners, developers, and government bodies to make more informed and socially responsible decisions on environmental health and hygiene improvement. Although the assessment scheme is tailored for the institutional and cultural settings of Hong Kong, the assessment framework for the development of the scheme is also applicable to other cities.

Swimwear is normally designed for swimming. It is should be modified to suit diving purpose as the body movement and the force applied by water to the wearers during diving are greatly different from those during swimming. Major problems of conventional swimwear during diving were found to be insufficient durability, poor fitting and movement of straps and leg parts to inappropriate position, which was largely caused by water going in-between the swimwear and body, resulting a balloon effect inside the garment. To solve the above problems, the design and construction of the swimwear was modified. The swimwear fabric was selected through testing the strength and elongation of a range of swimwear fabrics in order to ensure that the selected fabric can withstand the great force and stretch. The improved diver’s swimwear was found very satisfactory although further improvement may be needed in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a thinking model to recommend to the vocational education institutions for planning their educational business in the face of marketization.

The systems approach is adopted for developing the model. It is not only used for the conceptualization of the principles of systems, but also applied as the technique for reviewing and proposing where and in what direction the institutions should improve their business plan to meet the transformational change.

The current objective and strategy of the institutions are found to be necessary, but not sufficient for meeting the real challenge of marketization. The model recommends the vocational education planners to focus on the new objective of satisfying individuals' working needs and improve the process of course design to enhance the competitiveness of the institutions in the open market.

The proposed new dimension of business planning has two implications for vocational education practitioners. First, course design should start with taking the individuals' perspective to decide how their working needs can be met. Second, it is necessary to explore new methods for collecting, interpreting and incorporating the voices of working needs into the design of contents and features.

The thinking model offers an objective and rational approach to vocational education planners and practitioners for formulating a holistic business plan to meet new challenges. It is hoped that the recommendations will assist the institutions to perform their changing roles in the new economy of the society and to achieve long‐term success in the dynamic environment.

The massive investment in, and development of, automated and connected transport (ACT) technology development has triggered much debate about this breakthrough technology’s potential positive and negative impacts. Multiple studies have explored the potential direct implications for users in terms of road safety, ‘productive’ travel time, mobility of the elderly and physically less mobile persons, as well as indirect impacts such as reduced emissions and freed road space. Through a critical review of the literature on ACT deployment types and discussions with an expert working group on the wider impacts of ACT implementation, this chapter examines four distinct deployment types of ACT technology and their opportunities and threats in transitioning toward inclusive transport systems. Of the four types, we posit that ACT-based public transport has the greatest potential to contribute to a more inclusive mobility future. Examining the case of Singapore using policy documents, academic literature and interviews with representatives of public and private sectors and academia, the chapter draws policy recommendations for governance toward more inclusive ACT innovation and deployment.

This study explores the impact of parents’ and children’s early expectations on children’s later school persistence and completion of compulsory and secondary education, paying special attention to the parent-child agreement in early educational expectations. Results from analyzing longitudinal data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) show that children often carry educational expectations quite different from their parents’. Consistent with previous research, children’s and their parents’ early expectations are strong predictors of children’s later educational attainment. More importantly, the analysis reveals that children benefit greatly when they share with their parents’ high expectations. Those children whose high expectations aligned with their parents fair best in later educational outcomes: They are more likely to complete compulsory education and secondary education. The combined determination of parents and children can help moderate the negative impact of poverty and facilitate children’s continued efforts in fulfilling their expectations. This positive impact holds even for children from the most impoverished families. This study points to the importance to recognize that there are non-material resources that family could provide to advance children’s education.

This paper explores how the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSARG) securitizes internal security, cultural identity and welfare system through refugee policy instruments. It also aims to explore the roles of members of the Legislative Council (Legco) and Chinese newspapers in the securitization process.

The author analyzed 6 landmark verdicts, 342 related documents of the Legco, 2,386 news coverages and 408 editorials/ column articles from 6 selected Chinese newspapers from 2005 to mid-2019. While documents of the Legco were collected from the Legco archives, news reports, editorials and column articles were gathered on Wisenews with the keywords, namely, refugees, asylum seekers, torture claims and non-refoulement claims.

The author argues that the advanced comprehensive security approach helps to comprehend the securitization process in Hong Kong. The HKSARG, Legco members of the pro-government camp and pro-government Chinese newspapers perform as securitizing actors who regard refugees as an existential threat to the referent objects, i.e. internal security, cultural identity and welfare system.

There are two significant limitations, namely, the coverage of newspapers and the absence of poll data. This paper merely selected six Chinese newspapers, which do not cover English newspapers and some other Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong. It may neglect some important data. Additionally, owing to the absence of longitudinal poll data, the author chose not to examine the related materials.

This paper intends to be the first study to provide a longitudinal examination of the transformations of current refugee policies in Hong Kong.