Suchergebnisse

__Abstract__ Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of transnational business governance schemes that regulate business conduct by involving 'a significant degree of non-state authority in the performance of regulatory functions across national borders'. In such schemes, the authority does not emanate from state or intergovernment institutions, but from 'an array of private sector, civil society, multistakeholder and hybrid public-private institutions.' A variety of transnational bus

Following the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, how the compensation system for nuclear damage should be improved has obtained broad attention. The compensation system, including liability rules, insurance and government involvement, does not only concern to what extent the victims can be sufficiently compensated, but is also relevant to create incentives for the nuclear industry to enhance safety. International compensation regimes for nuclear damage started to emerge since 1960s, but still fail to engage some (potentially) big "nuclear power" ones. The Japanese and Chinese systems are such ones which received less attention until recently. This paper will, on the one hand, engage in a positive study by giving a comparison between the international regime, the Japanese and the Chinese system; on the other hand, provide a normative analysis by using economic criteria to examine the efficiency of the systems and formulate suggestions for reform.

Attributes anti-American attitudes to prosperity, cultural puritanism, perceived US support of repressive earlier regimes, and a tendency to blame the US for internal problems; discusses trade implications.

Forest transition theory proposes pathways that countries might follow to experience forest recovery, but countries currently undergoing forest transition do so in a global context fundamentally different from what it was just 50 years ago. Our study analyzes China's ongoing forest transition to extend forest transition theory in three ways. First, we analyze province-level outcomes to disentangle the multiple pathways through which forest transition occurs at the national level. Analysis of diverse drivers and outcomes at the provincial level is an important step toward revealing micro-level causal explanations of forest transition. Second, we investigate specific drivers of the forest transition operating across space and time. Specifically, mechanisms that operated across provinces within China were examined in addition to international factors using appropriate econometric methods. Third, we analyze changes in area, density, and volume of forests to represent different dimensions of forest recovery. The results show that environmental concerns and public investments in forest improvement were important determinants of increased forest area. Increase in forest volume was associated with a complex chain of factors involving China's shift to an export-oriented economy, labor out-migration, and the related reduction in forest dependence for livelihoods.

Abstract. The aim of this study is to characterize the extreme rainfall event on 21–22 July 2012 in Beijing, and its impact on human vulnerability. Based on the available meteorological and rainfall data from Beijing meteorological stations and Surface Weather Observation Stations, the study draws hourly rainfall maps to simulate the rainfall amount and spatial distribution. Using these maps, this paper provides a quantitative analysis of the impact of the temporal and spatial characteristics of rainfall on the vulnerability of three population groups, according to age, gender and total number of victims. The results of three linear regression models indicate the different effects of extreme rainfall parameters on victims with different characteristics. The analysis of victim data in this extreme rainfall event represents the distribution and characteristics of victims in the eight affected districts, and concludes that the "vulnerable group" are males and adults in this extreme rainfall event. This paper is an initial effort to analyze the impact of an extreme rainfall event on the vulnerability of populations with different characteristics quantitatively, which can be used by stakeholders to prioritize the extreme rainfall event impact issues, and develop contingency plans to address and prevent the human and structural damages caused by the extreme rainfall events.

Examines the development of electronic data interchange (EDI) in three
major supermarket chains. Describes case studies which investigate
introduction, implementation, costs, benefits and problems. Concludes
that EDI has brought about a major improvement in the way the businesses
operate.