Suchergebnisse

AbstractFor three decades after liberation in 1949, the Chinese economy consisted almost entirely of state monopolies. Economic reforms, starting in 1979, sought to increase the efficiency of the economy by introducing competitive practices in many sectors of the economy. But the Chinese economy has been partially administered by the state for over two millennia. As a result, both state‐managed and private monopolies are still an intrinsic part of the Chinese economy today. Despite two decades of anti‐monopoly reforms, state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) continue to dominate key sectors of the economy, particularly in resource extraction and financial services. The government is aware of the inefficiencies and corruption caused by monopolies, both public and private. But Chinese tradition takes a balanced view of social harms and weighs the damage caused by monopoly against the stability that SOEs have provided China in recent decades. There is less reason for China to tolerate private monopolies, but most of them have arisen in conjunction with digital technology because of its distinctive cost structure (high entry costs, low marginal costs). China has made some use of antitrust law, but most economic regulation in China is administrative. Thus the anti‐monopoly activities that are used to restrain monopoly power in China are different from Western practices.

In an attempt to diversify the marketplace for Canadian wood products, the forest industry, particularly in British Columbia, has been promoting the benefits of building with wood to China, one of the largest markets that has not widely adopted wood frame construction. During this marketing campaign that started more than a decade ago, a number of demonstration projects were completed in order to promote wood in a various ways, such as being used as a building material or a landscaping component. Those projects play an important role in establishing the foundation for further developments of wood frame construction, as well as other applications using Canadian wood products in China on a much larger scale. On May 12, 2008, a dreadful earthquake struck Wenchuan claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and leaving many homeless. There was a massive number of building collapses and many buildings sustained permanent structural damage, most of the buildings being made out of masonry or concrete. Comparatively, the few wood frame houses within the earthquake region performed exceptionally well; some of them did not even sustain any superficial damages. The fact that wood frame construction possesses a better seismic characteristic, along with its other benefits, drew a lot of attention from people in China after this devastating earthquake. In addition, the Federal Government of Canada announced a donation of 8 million CAD to the earthquake region to build three demonstration projects all in the configuration of multi-storey wood frame construction buildings. This would not only provide tremendous help to people in dire need, but also further demonstrate the safety, comfort and affordability of wood frame buildings in a much more visible way. This report reviews some of previous demonstration projects in details and a number of current projects for the post-earthquake reconstruction. It also briefly examines why wood frame construction has better seismic performance, as well as discussing other benefits of building with wood, such as its limited impact on the environment. In conclusion, all the efforts initiated by the forest industry of Canada will open the door for Canadian wood products to be used in China, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing markets. ; Forestry, Faculty of ; Unreviewed ; Undergraduate

As humanity's moral failure leads to wild aquatic resources decline, habitat destruction and community tension, an ethically sound path towards good governance is increasingly needed globally. To epitomize sustainable paradigm shifts of grassroots practicalities in the fish sector, an ethical governance framework is initially conceptualized with a meta-governance infrastructure and a value-based decision-making mechanism. The ethical approach is then contextualized by using fish-specific evidence and outlining evolution of participatory fisheries and aquaculture management in rural China as a case study. The empirical investigation of socio-ecological justice manifested in social empowerment, ethical conduct and ecological resilience reveals that in China: fisheries and aquaculture governance models have been transforming from hierarchical governance to integrated governance combining hierarchy, market and community; participatory ethics are embedded in civil organizations upgraded from fishery association, offices, leagues to societies and cooperatives, indicating a multi-stakeholder governance mechanism steered by the government as meta-governor; villagers' committees play a critical intermediary role in extending township governance and promoting autonomy of fishermen (farmers); local knowledge and traditional code of conduct regulates fish activities of fishermen (farmers) ready for community cooperation and mutual assistance; fish communities adopt socio-ecological measures to ensure property rights to fish (farm) and conserve aquatic resources. The current study aims to provide value reference in leveraging justified policy tools while promoting legitimacy of fish grassroots governance, in hope of contributing to a greener future of fisheries and aquaculture worldwide.

Abstract. The data of debris-flow events between 2004 and 2021 in
the Shenmu area Taiwan are presented and discussed in this paper. A total of
20 debris-flow events were observed in 18 years. Debris flows in
the Shenmu area usually occurred in the Aiyuzi Stream during the rainy
season, May to September, and about once per year between 2009 and 2017. The rainfall thresholds from the observed data are proposed to be Imax⁡ (maximum hourly rainfall),
R24 (24 h accumulated rainfall), and Rt (effective accumulated rainfall) of 9, 23, and 67.8 mm, respectively. The rainfall data also imply that the trend curves of intensity–duration (I–D) were different before and after 2009, which is due to the extreme rainfall event of Typhoon Morakot in 2009. The I–D curve obtained from the post-2009 data is proposed as the baseline of the debris-flow I–D relationship in the study area. The extreme rainfall event also influenced the flow speed (average 14.3 m s−1 before 2010 and 4.46 m s−1 after 2010) and the occurrence frequency of debris flows (1.83 times per year before 2009 and 0.75 times after 2009). Recent findings have
indicated that the ground surface vibrational signals of debris flows are
potentially useful for debris-flow early warning in terms of accumulated
energy, and the characteristic frequency of debris flows in the study area
was below 40 Hz. The dataset and the rainfall thresholds in this study
permit comparison with other monitored catchments and are useful for
global debris-flow datasets.

This study used an efficient data mining algorithm, called DCIP (the data cutting and inner product method), to explore association rules between the lifestyles of factory workers in Taiwan and the metabolic syndrome. A total of 1,216 workers in four companies completed a lifestyle questionnaire. Results of the questionnaire survey were integrated into the workers' health examination reports to form an attribute database of the metabolic syndrome. Among the association rules derived by DCIP, 80% of those on the list of the top 15 highest support counts are corroborated by medical literature or by healthcare professionals. These findings prove that data mining is a valid and effective research method, and that larger sample sizes will likely produce more accurate associations connecting the metabolic syndrome to specific lifestyles. The rules already verified can serve as a reference guide for the health management of factory workers. The remaining 20%, while still lacking hard evidence, provide fertile ground for future research.

This study focuses on the relationships among crisis situations, crisis response strategies, and media coverage. The author examines four political crisis situations and the strategies used to manage them; adopts a comparative, multicase, holistic research design; uses typical content analysis procedures for data analysis; and applies pattern-matching logic to compare the data against a theoretical model, the corporate communicative response model. More than 1,220 news articles covering four political figures'crises are examined. Results indicate that the use of denial in a commission situation, justification in a standards situation, and concession in an agreement situation increased positive media coverage. The results also suggest that for all but the agreement situation, a combination of crisis communication strategies was the most effective strategy to employ. This study has theoretical and practical implications for the symbolic approach in general and for crisis communicative responses in particular.

This paper develops a multiple-item scale for measuring public relations strategies, i.e., the Public Relations Strategy Assessment (PRSA). In this study, Chinese culture was considered and incorporated into scale development. After a discussion of the conceptualization and operationalization of the dimensions of public relations strategies, three survey data sets are used for scale development, including (1) legislators and their assistants from the Legislative Yuan, (2) congressional liaisons from the Executive Yuan, and (3) public relations practitioners from Taiwan's top-500 companies and PR agencies in Taiwan. Moreover, two long-interview data sets that consist of a total of thirty-two in-person long interviews were incorporated. Evidence of the scale's reliability, factor structure, and validity are presented.