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What is the most popular TV program genre in China now? The answer is undoubtedly reality TV shows. There were more than 200 reality TV shows being put on air through Chinese satellite TV channels in 2015, which saw an outbreak of reality shows in China, and more than 400 in 2016. Rising together with the popularity of Chinese reality TV shows are claims of copyright infringement. Most of those reality shows do not owe their originality to domestic Chinese ideas, but are based on successful South Korean, American, and European formats. The production teams of some shows, like Daddy, Where Are We Going? and Keep Running, purchase Intellectual Property (IP) rights from the original production teams and produce the show with the advice and cooperation from the original teams. Others, however, copy ideas and easily recognizable formats from popular foreign shows directly, "[f]rom theme to general concept, to story structure, to flow and to the dynamics of the cast," and stuff them with domestic celebrities and scenes. Criticizing some satellite TV channels as "too dependent on broadcasting foreign-inspired program[s]" with no original ideas, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) issued a directive, Directive About Strong Promotion of Innovation in Broadcasting and Television Programs (Directive), limiting the airing of foreign-produced and foreign-adapted TV programs that satellite broadcasters are allowed to import. Unsurprisingly, there was considerable skepticism toward the effect this government regulation would have on the market. In fact, plagiarized TV programs were said to have increased after the introduction of the Directive as more and more Chinese localized program producers simply changed the name of the program and claimed it was domestic and original. The fact that the current regulation system does not provide an incentive to create original content does not mean that regulation per se is not a workable solution. More than twenty countries have some form ...

[Einleitung] Nach mehrjährigen Diskussionen über politische Maßnahmen zum Umweltschutz und zur Nachhaltigkeit sowie im Zusammenhang mit der globalen Finanzkrise, haben eine Reihe von Regierungen weltweit, wie z.B. die USA, Japan, China, Deutschland und Frankreich, seit 2009 erneut Initiativen ergriffen und ihre nationalen Zielwerte für die Markteinführung und -diffusion von Elektrofahrzeugen (EV) angekündigt. Der Grund liegt darin, dass Investitionen in "Green Technologies" auf der einen Seite, kurzfristig gesehen, als die beste Methode gegen die wirtschaftliche Rezession betrachtet werden. Auf der anderen Seite wird gehofft, dass diese Investitionen zu langfristigem und nachhaltigem Wirtschaftswachstum beitragen können. Viele Regierungen haben auch vor, mit einem Programm "Elektromobilität" (E-Mobilität) nachhaltigkeitsbezogene Probleme wie Klimawandel, Energieversorgungssicherheit und Ressourcenknappheit zu lösen. In diesem Sinne entspricht die E-Mobilität einer durch diese globalen Herausforderungen geleitete bzw. getriebene ("challenge-led-" bzw. "challenge-driven-") Innovation, wie die Europäische Kommission in ihrer "Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union" dies beschreibt. [.]

The air pollution in China is among the highest in the world. However, legislation to reduce pollutant emissions have been successful and concentrations of SO 2 (since 2007), aerosols (since 2011) and NO 2 (since 2012) have decreased substantially as deduced from satellite and ground-based observations. The strong reduction of the emissions by the end of January 2020, first caused by the Spring Festival holidays and enhanced and extended by the COVID-19 lockdown, offered an opportunity to study the effects on air quality across the country. In particular the reduction of NO 2 concentrations observed using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite was used to quantitatively estimate the lockdown effect. To determine a baseline for the expected concentrations in 2020, we used Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO 2 TVCD time series from 2011 to 2019 and determined trends for different regions, noticing a possible halt of the decrease in recent years, but for different periods in the south than in the north of east China. Neglecting this leveling leads to overestimation of the lockdown effect on the concentrations in the south, neglecting the trends may lead to underestimation in the north. We also looked at the temporal resolution used in studies on the reduction of the concentrations and noticed the gradual decrease ahead of the Spring Festival, which actually continued during 3 weeks into the lockdown. Using satellite observations of other species and ground-based monitoring data, it was noticed that the expected improvement of air quality due to the reduction of NO 2 concentrations was offset by the increase of the concentrations of aerosols and O 3 ascribed to meteorological influences and complex chemistry. In the current study we use TROPOMI tropospheric NO 2 vertical column densities (TVCDs) together with ground-based monitoring data for NO 2 , SO 2 , CO, O 3 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 in 11 regions around large cities to evaluate the evolution of their concentrations during 19 weeks after the Spring Festival and their effect on air quality. For comparison, and in an attempt to average out short term (e.g., meteorological) influences, ground based monitoring data were used for the same period in 2015–2019. The results confirm that the strong reduction of NO 2 does not always imply good air quality because concentrations of other pollutants may increase. The study shows the different behavior in city clusters in the north and south of China, and inland in the Sichuan and Guanzhong basins. Effect of other holidays and events are small, except in Beijing where the air quality in 2020 was notably better than in previous years. This study was undertaken for east China, but the methodology can also be used for other areas and part of the conclusions are generally applicable.

Abstract. One or several aspects of the
source, distribution, transport, and optical properties of airborne dust have
been characterized using different types of satellite and ground
measurements, each with unique advantages. In this study, a dust event that occurred over the
East Asia area in May 2017 was exemplified to demonstrate how all the above-mentioned aspects of a dust event can be pictured by combining the advantages
of different satellite and ground measurements. The data used included the
Himawari-8 satellite Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) true-colour images, the
Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)
Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aerosol vertical
profiles, the Aura satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aerosol index
images, and the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) aerosol
properties and the ground station particulate matter (PM) measurements. From
the multi-satellite/sensor (AHI, CALIOP, and OMI) time series observations,
the dust storm was found to originate from the Gobi Desert on the morning of
3 May 2017 and transport north-eastward to the Bering Sea, eastward to the
Korean Peninsula and Japan, and southward to south-central China. The air
quality in China deteriorated drastically: the PM10 (PM < 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter) concentrations measured at some air quality
stations located in northern China reached 4333 µg m−3. At the
AOE_Baotou, Beijing, Xuzhou-CUMT, and Ussuriysk AERONET sites,
the maximum aerosol optical depth values reached 2.96, 2.13, 2.87, and 0.65
and the extinction Ångström exponent dropped to 0.023, 0.068, 0.03,
and 0.097, respectively. The dust storm also induced unusual aerosol spectral
single-scattering albedo and volume size distribution.