Suchergebnisse

AbstractSince the end of World War II, the United States has been foremost in negotiating military bases on foreign soil, and it can be anticipated that it will do so again in the future. In general, these base agreements have had many common elements. Most have allowed the stationing of American troops on foreign soil for a very long period of time, and have involved a certain measure of extraterritoriality. Most have been concluded under conditions of stress for the host country. Often, for example, the host nation has been one that was devastated by war, and was either the recently defeated enemy or the near-prostrate victor. In many cases the host nation was relatively small, economically shaky, and newly independent, fearful of its chances of survival in an unpredictable and often hostile world; and more often than not, the former ruler or territorial administrator was the United States.

Humanities Open Book Program, a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ; The relationship of overseas Chinese to the Chinese revolution of 1911 has always been viewed in light of their involvement with Sun Yat-sen. Of equal significance, however, was the growth and development in overseas communities of the radical reform party of K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'ich'ao, pro-Sun revolutionaries, and other political groups greatly influenced the involvement of Chinese immigrants in the 1911 revolution and produced substantial changes in the overseas communities themselves. Chinese in the Americas, especially North America and Hawaii, provide a good illustration of these points but until now have received little attention. Revolutionaries, Monarchists, and Chinatowns provides a comprehensive and original treatment of this dimension of Asian American politics. L. Eve Armentrout Ma has judiciously analyzed the abundant documentation on the development and functioning of the reform and revolutionary parties, showing the interactions between the two parties and with pre-existing social organizations such as hui-kuan, surname associations, and Triad lodges. Particularly important is her use of the contemporary Chinese-language newspapers, a rich source of information on the period.

This research investigates the capitalization effects of proximity to rail transit and BRT in fast growing Beijing. Few related studies have been conducted for Chinese cities because the real estate market was not established until recently. Data were collected on apartment homes sold in the Beijing metropolitan area during 2011, and hedonic price modelling was employed to gauge the price premiums or discounts associated with proximity to transit stations. Overall, we identified an average price premium of around 5% for properties near rail transit stations, but no statistically significant effects are detected at BRT station areas. Moreover, we found that station proximity effects increase both in magnitude and spatial extent at stations further away from the city centre and at stations surrounded by low- and middle-income neighbourhoods; for example, the price premium is as high as 10% in some suburban and low-income station areas. We concluded that rail transit investment is an effective strategy for Beijing to reshape its urban spatial structure, and local governments in China may consider a Rail + Property Development model as a future financing solution for rail transit investment. This study contributes to the evidence of capitalization effects of public transit from a booming and transitional economy.

There is an increase of megaproject construction worldwide. At the same time, risks involved in megaprojects have also become a wide concern. Extending from the macrolevel of qualitative analysis focusing on complexity, politics, and morality, the research conducted the microscopic empirical analysis on twenty-two typical cases by adopting the quality comparative analysis (QCA) from the auditing perspective. Different from the traditional analysis method taking each causation as independent variable, the results in the study revealed that there was complex multiple concurrent causation among eight conditions; additionally, the configuration of those would be divided into six types, among which, the coverage of the three types, namely, project management risk, preliminary and construction risk, and tendering and contract management related risk, was almost eighty percent. Finally, megaproject risks in China were caused by complicated and changeable combination conditions, which would provide a new breakthrough for seeking analyzing megaproject risks through this quantitative analysis method, and indicate the researchers and practitioners to control the megaproject risks from a more systematic way.

INTRODUCTION: Trauma video review (TVR) for quality improvement and education in the United States has been described for nearly three decades. The most recent information on this practice indicated a declining prevalence. We hypothesized that TVR utilization has increased since most recent estimates. METHODS: We conducted a survey of TVR practices at level I and level II US trauma centers. We distributed an electronic survey covering past, current, and future TVR utilization to the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma membership. RESULTS: 45.0% of US level I and level II trauma centers completed surveys. 71/249 centers (28.5%) had active TVR programs. The use of TVR did not differ between level I and level II centers (28.8% vs. 27.8%, p = 0.87). Respondents using TVR were overwhelmingly positive about its perception (median score 8, [IQR 6–9]; 10 = 'best') at their institutions. CONCLUSIONS: TVR use at Level I centers has increased over the past decade. Increased TVR utilization may form the basis for multicenter studies comparing processes of care during trauma resuscitation.

Emerging construction practices such as building information modelling (BIM), prefabrication construction, green building, and integrated project delivery methods are gaining momentum in China, with great potential due to the size of its construction market. Through this, the sustainability level of China's construction industry is expected to be enhanced from the economic, social and environmental perspectives. So far, there has been limited understanding of how BIM, as a digital technology, would affect other contemporary sustainable construction practices from the industry professionals' point of view. Limited studies have been carried out to study the regional differences of these contemporary sustainable practices in China. This study adopted a questionnaire-based approach targeting industry professionals from three different metropolitan cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wenzhou).The follow-up comprehensive statistical analysis revealed that with regards to these contemporary sustainable construction practices, survey participants held much varied views on the growth of renovation projects, traditional Design–Bid–Build delivery, and conventional on-site construction methods. These three types were also generally perceived to have weak correlation with BIM application. Regional comparison further conveyed information on differences in perceptions among survey respondents from these three cities. For example, respondents from Wenzhou perceived more positive effects of BIM use in conventional construction projects. This research addressed the inter-correlation among these emerging sustainable construction practices, as well as the regional differences in China's construction market. The findings provide insights and the big picture for both governmental authorities and industry practitioners on the latest sustainable practices of China's construction industry. Recommendations are also offered towards improved economic, social and environmental sustainability performance for construction projects in the country.

China's livestock industry has experienced a vast transition during the last three decades, with profound effects on domestic and global food provision, resource use, nitrogen and phosphorus losses, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the driving forces around this transition and its national and global consequences. The number of livestock units (LUs) tripled in China in less than 30 years, mainly through the growth of landless industrial livestock production systems and the increase in monogastric livestock (from 62 to 74% of total LUs). Changes were fueled through increases in demand as well as, supply of new breeds, new technology, and government support. Production of animal source protein increased 4.9 times, nitrogen use efficiency at herd level tripled, and average feed use and GHG emissions per gram protein produced decreased by a factor of 2 between 1980 and 2010. In the same period, animal feed imports have increased 49 times, total ammonia and GHG emissions to the atmosphere doubled, and nitrogen losses to watercourses tripled. As a consequence, China's livestock transition has significant global impact. Forecasts for 2050, using the Shared Socio-economic Pathways scenarios, indicate major further changes in livestock production and impacts. On the basis of these possible trajectories, we suggest an alternative transition, which should be implemented by government, processing industries, consumers, and retailers. This new transition is targeted to increase production efficiency and environmental performance at system level, with coupling of crop-livestock production, whole chain manure management, and spatial planning as major components.