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This paper complicates the classic security dilemma by considering the notions of ontological security and relational deterrence. It studies how the ontological security dilemma has emerged between the US, China, and Taiwan from the relational perspective and how these spiral chains will further develop in the future. The paper incurs the literature on relational analysis to expound on how different ontological security concerns allude to relational deterrence between the three actors. Taiwan's separatism is more of a threat to China's relational self than to physical security because the separatist does not belong to any already agreed relationship. A geometric model and a few simulations yield three unconventional findings. 1) The less advantaged the US military is over China, the less likely armed unification will occur. 2) The US anti-Chinese tendency is irrelevant in determining the probability of armed unification. 3) What may escalate the spiral are China's anti-Taiwan independence and Taiwan's anti-unification. Case sensitivity indicates the ontological sensibilities of a security dilemma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are ample national, transnational, and international geopolitical conflicts around the world, the two most prominent likely being the current ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, and the conflict between Taiwan (the Republic of China) and China (the People's Republic of China). To avoid criticism or the label of political bias, academics might refrain from using the term Taiwan or might not refer to it as a country. Similarly, they might not know whether they should refer to Crimea or the Donbas as being Ukrainian or Russian. Authors currently have little guidance and are somewhat left to their own devices when it comes to referring to these and other locations and territories, uncertain of the names that should be used to indicate them. They might also observe disclaimers on publishers' websites, in the footer of editorial board pages, or even as a small notice in their own manuscripts placed there by the publisher that distance the publisher from geopolitical conflicts and/or territorial claims, claiming neutrality, independent of whether those papers mention those conflicts, or not. Such disclaimers might be perceived as self-serving, placing the onus of responsibility of the choice of territorial term on authors' shoulders, so publishers should offer clearer advice to authors and editors on how to better handle this issue, that is, how to accurately name locations in geopolitically sensitive areas. There is a risk that papers that are insufficiently sensitive to such issues may be labelled as erroneous, and subjected to correction or retraction, or the authors may be subjected to public criticism or humiliation, so resolving this issue falls within the realm of academic publishing ethics. Currently, very little advice exists for geopolitical issues in the Committee on Publication Ethics and International Committee of Medical Journal Ethics ethics-related publishing guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publications in Renal Failure in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) between 1992 and 2021 were analyzed. Six publication indicators: total, independent, collaborative, first author, corresponding author, and single author publications as well as their related citation indicators, were used to compare performances of countries, institutes, and authors. Comparison of the highly cited papers and journal's impact factor (IF) contributors was discussed. In addition, the main research topics in the journal were presented. Results show that China published the most total articles and reviews, as well as the first-author papers and corresponding-author papers in the journal. The Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan ranked the top in five publication indicators: total, single-institution, inter-institutionally collaborative, first author, and corresponding-author papers. A low percentage of productive authors emerged as a journal IF contributor. Similarly, only a limited relationship between highly cited papers and IF contributing papers was found. Publications related to hemodialysis, chronic kidney disease, and acute kidney injury were the most popular topic, while meta-analysis was new focus in the last decade in the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a multi-sited physical and virtual ethnography of Chinese migrant women's entrepreneurship in Taiwan, this paper illuminates the role of digital migrant entrepreneurship in the making of globalisation. In the digital age of gendered migrant entrepreneurship, it challenges the long-lasting dichotomy between 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' globalisation and contributes to the theoretical debate about migrant transnational entrepreneurship, elucidating how capitalism and globalisation can take multiple forms. Drawing on Chinese women's migratory biographies and the commercial geographies of the objects they trade between China and Taiwan, it shows how our global economic system is simultaneously forged by supply-chain capitalism and migrants' digitalised petit capitalistic practices. Chinese migrant workers firstly manufacture goods whilst working for multinational companies in China, then, after marriage-migration, they commercialise the products in Taiwan via WeChat. Findings illustrate the link between ICTs, migrant entrepreneurship, gendered social networks, and border transgressions in shaping a mutable globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the February 2000 white paper by the People's Republic of China about the relations of Mainland China and Taiwan. China's basis and prerequisite for achieving peaceful reunification; Questions involving the One China Principle in cross-strait relations; Adherence to the One China principle in the international community. INSET: PRC White Paper....

The article discusses about various issues related to the U.S. security policy on China. This discussion shows that, from China's perspective, the key to improving the U.S.-China relations is not stressing common interests in reality, but stressing China's long-term goodwill. The most important issue in the U.S.-China security relations is Taiwan issue. When dealing with Taiwan issue, China should also take into account how to influence the U.S. concerns about gains. The U.S., therefore, might adopt a more co-operative policy on China.

Tackles a variety of issues concerning national reunification and territorial integrity of China over Taiwan in 1949. History of China's administrative authority in Taiwan; Efforts of the Chinese government to protect Taiwan from foreign invasions and occupation; Origin of the issue concerning China's jurisdiction over Taiwan.

This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members' experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the various factors that influence the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. Details on international factors; Factors originating in mainland China; Factors arising from developments within Taiwan.

Examines issues surrounding the national unity and territorial integrity of Taiwan. Significance of national reunification of China and Taiwan; Discussion on the civil war started by the Kuomintang; Position of the Chinese government regarding the settlement of the Taiwan question.

Cloud computing (CC) has been a buzzword in recent years. The application of cloud computing has been seen in almost all domains. It has also sparked interest in Libraries and the Information field because it provides new solutions to the emerging problem. The study aims to map LIS's global cloud computing literature between 2010 and 2021. Scientometric methods were employed to gauge the global research performance on cloud computing LIS. The analysis also identifies the leading countries, Institutions, authors, sources, funding agencies, authorship pattern, international collaboration, and most used author keywords on CC literature in LIS. The research data were retrieved from the Scopus database. 808 publications were downloaded and analyzed with the help of bibliometric tools such as Biblioshiny, Bibexcel, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. The study results showed that research on cloud computing in LIS has a mounting trend in publications and citations during the 12-year study period. The highest number of research papers were published in 2020 (n=135), China produced the maximum research in the field with 194 publications, and the top three organizations identified from Taiwan contributed the maximum research. Cloud computing, big data, and Knowledge Management were acknowledged as LIS researchers' most important research area. However, e-learning, library services, systematic reviews, bibliometrics, and blockchain have gained recent research absorption. Two authorship patterns were the most prevalent among the LIS researchers, and the authors from China and the USA preferred to collaborate highest in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to examine whether and on what basis the international human rights law applies to the territorial non-state entities, having as an example the cases of the Republic of China and the territorial non-state entities from the post-Soviet space. For this purpose, the paper will focus first, on the applicability of the relevant international human rights treaties and general international human rights law regulations. Second, it will look at what place is reserved for the international human rights law in the national legal systems of the analysed territorial non-state entities. It is argued here that these territorial non-state entities proclaim their commitment to the rule of law and human rights by transplanting international regulations, especially the human rights ones, into their national provisions. After analysing the two case studies, it will be claimed that although the territorial non-state entities committed themselves to following international human rights law norms and standards, legal transplant is not sufficient and the territorial non-state entities shall engage more at the practical level in order to ensure the effectiveness of human rights protection on their territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Travel booking engines can produce, resist, and destabilise popular and state-directed geopolitical representations of a world neatly divided into national and international space. Although they present as strictly functional technical platforms, booking engines obscure and omit what is contingent and contested in the production of a destination as a bordered national territory. Due to their embedding in the webs of political representation, these systems and their backers can become targets for economic boycotts, political threats, hacks, or other interventions when territorial designations are contested. Such interventions manifest as political performances aimed at multiple audiences, including tourists and travellers, as well as the businesses and political entities that facilitate or inhibit their circulation, with spillover effects into other domains of geopolitical representation. To empirically illustrate this argument, the paper analyzes the People's Republic of China's mostly successful efforts to coerce the international travel industry to relist destinations within Taiwan as belonging to China. By extending the notion of border performativity into the 'code/spaces' that span the online and offline worlds, it concludes that booking engines, like other forms of infrastructure that serve travellers and tourists, can produce popular geopolitical effects that exceed their own technical systems. Peering through these ruptures reveals the uneasy and unstable assemblages of travel infrastructure and territorial representation that regulate global mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research involving international research communities has been advocated in the field of behavior analysis (Dymond et al., 2000; Martin et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study was to report the status of behavioral research in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, in terms of number of publications, types of research, and frequency of collaboration with international researchers. Fifteen behavioral journals were selected from the list by Cooper et al. (2020). These were searched by hand to find publications conducted in or authored by researchers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan dating from each journal's inception to December 2021. The earliest publication we found appeared in 1980 in The Psychological Record. Over the following four decades (1980–1989; 1990–1999; 2000–2009; 2010–2021), the number of publications per decade increased dramatically and continues in recent years to rise. Publications include research reports, review papers, and conceptual articles, with the majority being basic research reports published in Behavioral Processes. Approximately half the publications involve collaboration with international researchers, mostly in North America. Implications for behavioral research, practice, and policy in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are we to understand China's decades-long sovereignty claim over Taiwan? One assumption upheld by many international relations scholars is that state behaviour will change according to a variance of polarity in the international system. Yet while China can flexibly manage its territorial issues elsewhere, its goal of unification with Taiwan has not changed despite multiple structural changes in the international system over the decades. This paper argues that historical and nationalist approaches alone do not explain China's unswaying obsession with this island. Geopolitics plays a far more prominent role in the minds of Chinese leaders than scholars have previously acknowledged. Since 1949, China has viewed Taiwan as a geopolitical buffer protecting the security of Chinese coastal areas. China's buffer thinking towards Taiwan was a significant factor in China's decisions to launch military action against Taiwan in 1954, 1958, and 1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up until the end of Cold War mainstream theories in the disciplines of International Relations and Peace Studies have overlooked the transformation in relations between actors but instead concentrated on either the constant state of conflict between units or radical changes from war to peace. Acknowledging major changes in their subject matters due to the changing conditions with the end of Cold War, both disciplines had to rethink their theoretical assumptions and renew their toolboxes. Accordingly, the constructivist turn in International Relations and the introduction of Transformational Approach to conflict in Peace Studies have brought the two disciplines closer. Similar to the Constructivist theory of International Relations that emphasizes changes rather than law-like regularities in international politics, the Conflict Transformation Approach in Peace Studies focuses on perennial transformation processes in conflicts. This paper through bringing together insights from the disciplines of International Relations and Peace Studies, analyses the cross-strait conflict between the People's Republic of China and Republic of China (Taiwan) within a constructivist framework, and from a transformational perspective by applying Hugh Miall's five-point model of conflict transformation (context transformation, structural transformation, actor transformation, issue transformation, and personal/elite transformation). Miall's five-point model is utilized in this paper to show that, despite serious crisis occurred in more than 70 years history of People's Republic of China-Republic of China conflict, the relationship of the parties has undergone a set of transformations on the way to reconciliation. Although the conflict, with serious disagreements on crucial issues, is far from being settled, the ongoing transformation creates room for negotiations and further reconciliation on issues that were previously regarded as non-negotiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the current global COVID-19 crisis Taiwan has portrayed itself as both an example for other countries to follow and as a country willing to assist others in their own efforts with the virus. Taiwan has also renewed efforts to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO), an organisation from which it is currently excluded. Although some countries have supported Taiwan's efforts to participate in the WHO or have praised its COVID-19 response, others have been silent or even critical, sometimes citing commitments to a "one China policy." In this paper, we use newly collected data to explore cross-national variation in support for Taiwan during the current pandemic. We find that a country's level of economic development and security ties with the US are strongly correlated with support for Taiwan while a country's economic ties to China is a less consistent predictor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The offshore China (OC) region is a significant sea area in the Western Pacific and many researchers have been interested in the distribution of sea surface temperature (SST) fronts in this area. In this study, the Cayula and Cornillon single image edge detection algorithm was used to detect SST fronts using the Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature data from 1982 to 2021. The results revealed that there are eighteen SST fronts in OC— three in the Bohai Sea, seven in the Yellow Sea, two in the East China Sea, five in the South China Sea, one in the Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan province, China—and among them a new front was detected in the Yellow Sea and named the Yellow Sea Ring Front. The frequency of most fronts showed a tendency of initially increasing and then decreasing from January to September, followed by a trend of growing steadily from October to December. The frequency of a few fronts showed a decreasing tendency from January to September and an increasing tendency from October to December. The frequency of most fronts is highest in winter and lowest in summer. In spring and autumn, the frequency of most fronts is lower than that in winter and higher than that in summer. The annual average frontal probability of five-ninths of the fronts showed an upward trend, and the annual average frontal probability value of one-third of the fronts showed a downward trend. The rest of the fronts showed a stable trend. The results of this paper also showed that the Liaodong Bay Front and the Bohai-Laizhou Bay Front did not form a complete front, as previously reported. In addition, the frontal probability of the Bohai Front to the north of 39° N was in the tendency of decreasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands upon a hitherto underexplored finding by Rich and Banerjee's 2015 model which finds that Taiwan has done comparatively better with non-democracies in Africa. The paper proposes that democratisation makes an African state more responsive to domestic economic imperatives and thus more likely to form relations with the demographically and economically larger People's Republic of China because of the prospective trade, aid and investment gains to be made once such a switch is affected. Seven case studies conducted over the 2001–2018 period yield results which are in line with this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital development has been vigorously promoted in China to drive a comprehensive and indepth change in production, life and governance through the construction of digital economy, digital society and digital government. It has put forward new and higher requirements for basic surveying and mapping products and services. Recently, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People􀆳s Republic of China issued a notice to promote the construction of 3D realistic geospatial scene of China, aiming to develop new 3D geo-spatial information products which can describe and represent the real 3D spaces of industrial production, living environment and ecological development. The construction of such 3D realistic geospatial scene of China will lead to a 3D digital space which can be well connected with the real geo-spatial space through real-time inter-connection, and will provide a new generation of spatiotemporal information framework for the development of digital China. It is not only a major task for national and local basic surveying and map‐ ping agencies in the next few decades, but also a challenging scientific and technological initiative where several complex factors and technical problems remain to be solved. This paper analyzes the background and problems, discusses the development directions and general technical logic, and conductes the major technological path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tendency in the study of modern Chinese history to seek uniqueness in the history of modern China while attempting to identify differences from some presumed universality. However, modern Chinese history research that emphasizes uniqueness is likely to be used to create a negative image of China in the minds of the Japanese general public, given that China has become a major power and Sino-Japan relations have become unstable in the 21st century. As China is becoming a major power and an increasing global presence, the Japanese view that China is becoming distanced from universals and is instead becoming something entirely different from the "norm" is likely to amplify misunderstanding and prejudice regarding China. Therefore, we have to consider how to study the history of modern China. I believe it is only natural to study it based on the political problem that was the constant theme throughout the history of modern China. It is the history of constitutional government and revolution. From these two keywords, this paper reconsiders the universality and uniqueness of modern Chinese history, and also presents a new perspective on the relationship between China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the role of Taiwanese psychiatrists in turning neurasthenia into a culture-specific disease in the late twentieth century. It first delineates the shift in both explanatory models of psychoneuroses and patient population in post-World War II Taiwan. Neurasthenia became a focus of international attention in the 1970s and 1980s with the advance of cultural psychiatry, and, as China was closed to the outside world, Taiwanese psychiatrists were influential in framing the cultural meaning of neurasthenia. With the rise of post-socialist China, Taiwan lost its status as a key laboratory of Chinese studies. This paper argues that the history of neurasthenia during the period was closely associated with the professional development and national identity of Taiwanese psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taoism and Confucianism both exited simultaneously as philosophies of living in dynastic China. Although there has been an increasing popularity in scientometric studies, religion and health (R&H) literature lacks a holistic evaluation investigating articles relevant to Taoism and Confucianism. All publications produced in Taoism and Confucianism literature and indexed in Web of Science (WoS) databases between 1975 and 2018 were included in this study. Database search on health and Taoism literature retrieved 199 documents from WoS databases. Main research areas were Psychology, Religion and Behavioral Sciences (24.121, 21.608 and 20.603, respectively). The USA ranked first with 38 papers followed China, Taiwan and the UK (n = 35, 20 and 6 documents, respectively). Hong Kong Polytechnic University from China was the most contributor institution in health and Taoism literature. A total of 448 documents were published in health and Confucianism literature between 1975 and 2018, and original articles covered 93.08% of all literature. China was leading country with 126 articles followed by the USA, South Korea and Taiwan (n = 97, 35 and 35 items, respectively). The most productive institutions were City University of Hong Kong (China), Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and University of Hong Kong (China). Researchers from developing and least developed countries should be encouraged to carry out novel scientometric studies in R&H literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most ethnic Chinese in northern Thailand are Thai citizens now, their everyday lives are a site where we can witness the political power entanglement of China, Taiwan and Thailand. With this in mind, this paper aims to look into the relationship between global China and overseas Chinese from the perspective of the ethnic Chinese in the northern borderlands of Thailand. The purpose is not just to disclose the multiplicity of global China in people's everyday lives, but also to complicate the picture of overseas Chinese as portrayed in top-down grand narratives about global China. I argue that the ongoing re-Sinicization in South-East Asia and the territorial geopolitics among China, Taiwan and Thailand have opened a conceptual space for the ethnic Chinese in northern Thailand to flexibly articulate themselves within the changing geopolitical economy. I use tea production and related Chinese-language education programmes, two separate but intertwined cases, to address these issues. By looking beyond the competition, conflict and dilemmas between China and Taiwan, I argue that Taiwan's previous engagement with agricultural transfer to Thailand and the rooting of pro-Taiwan identity and discourse in language education have paradoxically paved a way for China to stretch its influence into the everyday lives of the Chinese communities in the northern Thai borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) (Taiwan) have taken divergent paths in the area of human rights. Since the two leaders Xi Jinping and Tsai Ing-wen came to power, the differences in the area of human rights have further increased. The paper analyses and compares their external human rights strategies based on realist assumptions and the soft and hard power resources of the PRC and the ROC. The PRC's objectives are to deflect international criticism of its human rights situation and to weaken the global human rights system and its underlying human rights norms. Taiwan's objective is to use its record as a human rights leader in Asia to expand its limited international space and to strengthen its ties with other consolidated democracies and the global civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the growing human rights gap between China on one side and the US and Taiwan on the other side and analyses its impact on cross-strait relations. Since Xi Jinping's ascent to power in the People's Republic of China in 2012/2013 and the elections of Donald Trump in the US and Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan in 2016, the relationship between China and the other two countries has worsened. The US and Taiwan have a similar view on human rights in the PRC. The increasing repression and authoritarianism of the PRC leads to a human rights gap in the Taiwan Strait that increases the divide and the tensions between both sides. The failure of the PRC to address in its proposal for a peaceful unification the concerns of the Taiwanese for their democracy and human rights pushes Taiwan further away. The similar assessment of the PRC's authoritarian threat by the US and Taiwan strengthens the bond between both, based on the shared values of democracy and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that while China now attaches geostrategic importance to Taiwan, it has not always done so. It has only accorded such significance to Taiwan in the post-Mao era. By reviewing how Taiwan became a Japanese colony, how it came under the control of Chiang Kai-shek's government, and how it came to be seen by the government of the People's Republic of China as a sacred territory before being deemed geostrategically significant, this paper seeks to demonstrate that Taiwan's importance to China is not based on geography, an immutable factor. Instead, it was the result of contingencies of history and the changed calculations of succeeding governments in China. This leads to the important conclusion that the geostrategic importance the Chinese government now attaches to Taiwan may change if the Chinese leadership alters its strategic calculus or if the government itself is replaced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek Lost China's Civil War" by Parks M. Coble is a book that revisits the reasons behind the Kuomintang's (KMT) defeat in China's civil war. Coble focuses on Chiang Kai-shek's fiscal policies, which led to hyperinflation and corruption, alienating the urban population and compromising the morale and combat effectiveness of the KMT's armies. The book draws on primary sources such as Chiang's diaries and the papers of KMT leaders T.V. Soong and H.H. Kung. Coble argues that Chiang's financial policy was a disaster, attributing it to his belief in the importance of a large army and his habit of covering budget deficits by increasing the money supply. The book also acknowledges the complexities of economic recovery in the aftermath of Japanese occupation and the legacy of colonialism. Overall, this concise and engaging reassessment of the KMT's defeat will be of interest to historians and accessible to students. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, we discuss the teaching effects of augmented reality (AR) technology in German instruction. We conducted one prestudy and three formal studies on German learners in China's mainland and Taiwan region. In the formal studies, a total of 120 students participated in the survey, allowing us to compare the differences in interest in learning between AR picture books and traditional picture books. A total of 114 students took part in the survey, which enabled us to compare the contribution of AR picture books to teaching when students' satisfaction and German proficiency were different. To improve satisfaction, 514 students participated in the survey regarding the influence of the interactive narrative design effect and peer learning on satisfaction with using AR picture books. The results suggest that when learning German with AR picture books, satisfaction is the key construct that determines students' learning states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an excerpt from China's national defense white paper published on July 28, 1998, which deals with China's strait relations with Taiwan.

Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses major cultural differences and corresponding teaching strategies when training student therapists in Taiwan about the concepts of self‐of‐the‐therapist and self‐awareness in marriage and family therapy. The authors present their years of teaching experience and observations about these cultural differences as well as a class example to address these differences. Specifically, a detailed summary of a master's level course titled 'Self‐Development for Helping Professionals' will be illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this paper are to elucidate Taiwan's successful COVID-19 measures as well as the conditions surrounding the deterioration of Cross-Strait relations and to identify future prospects. The author has demonstrated the success of Taiwan's Novel Coronavirus countermeasures and shown that China's increasingly hardline policies toward the rest of the world and Taiwan in particular have contributed to unstable Cross-Strait relations. First, Taiwan's successful anti-epidemic policies have done much to boost Taiwanese self-esteem. Second, within Taiwan, the majority view identified China as the source of the trouble, not the DPP. Third, with US–China relations deteriorating even further as a result of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, the US began to actively "showcase" Taiwan's success. Fourth, China's Taiwan policy is expected to remain deadlocked for the time being. US–China relations are increasingly worsening, Taiwanese public opinion is trending toward increasing distance from China, and all that remains of China's Taiwan policy is "placing hope on the mainland itself." Thus, the Cross-Strait relationship is expected to continue deteriorating well into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of marriage and family therapy (MFT) has been established around the world. Inspired by theories and models developed in Western countries, professionals in East Asian countries over the last two decades have been dedicated to introducing the concepts of MFT to local mental health professionals. This paper presents an overview of the cultural background of East Asian cultures, a summary of MFT development in East Asia, and a discussion of key challenges to advancing MFT in East Asia. We provide recommendations to overcome these obstacles, including bridging the gap between MFTs in the West and East Asia, developing country‐specific MFT development plans, establishing accreditation and licensing regulation, increasing the public awareness of MFT, increasing collaboration among training institutes and the number of qualified MFT trainers and training locations, and developing culturally attuned MFT training and practices. Practitioner points: Direct application of Western approaches to the East Asian context can be detrimental if therapists do not carefully examine the cultural differences and adapt accordinglyA critical step in developing MFT in East Asia is to develop country/region‐specific plans including the recognition of the history, values, and distinctive features of Asian families [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the intersections of social anthropology, philosophy, and Asian studies, my paper explores the body ecologic through a phenomenological frame in the context of Chinese culture engaging both theory and method. How can qì cultivation experiences transporting bodies and persons in movement, within the world and their "life‐world," be interpreted through a phenomenology of perception? Based on ethnographic study data collected mainly in South China (Guangzhou) and in Taiwan (1990s–2000s), this exploration is situated within qìgōng experiences (training, cultivating and mastering the qì). Anchored in martial, religious, and healing arts and their meanings, qìgōng's myriad of forms and infinite variations invite journeys into religious Daoist and Buddhist practice, Chinese thought, and politico‐religious issues of past and present Chinese society. The qìgōng world, paths of knowledge transmission, healing horizons, claimed affiliations, and views of practitioners unveil an ontology and a cosmology grounded in religious (Daoist and Buddhist) lore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a competitive airline hub-and-spoke network design problem in a duopolistic market with sequential airline entry. Two airlines, a leader and a follower, enter the market sequentially to make decisions about their own flight networks. Each must consider their opponent's reactions and respond to each other's decisions in making their own, leading to interactive competition between them. A bi-level model is proposed to formulate the behaviors and decisions of the two airlines. In addition, an interactive solution procedure based on a genetic algorithm (GA) is developed to repeatedly solve the upper and lower level models. Finally, we generate a numerical example based on the regional air market in Taiwan and China. The results provide useful insights and highlight the importance of considering interactive competition for airlines when designing their flight networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TFT-LCD (thin-film transistor liquid crystal display) industry in Taiwan has been developed for decades. To provide better service for customers, most Taiwan companies in the supply chain have set up their warehouse in mainland China for vendor managed inventory (VMI). However, over the last decade, owing to the industry issues of product diversity strategies and short product lifecycles, it has become difficult for suppliers to control well the stock level in VMI, especially the operation of defective product returns. In order to keep high customer satisfaction, it is considered an option by forecasting possible future defectives for preparing the returning products to satisfy customers. The non-equigap grey model (NGM) used to be applied to such short-term time series data and has shown to be an effective tool. However, NGM predictions still can be improved by making more appropriate background values by determining their parameter a values. Accordingly, this paper employs the mega-trend-diffusion (MTD) technique to estimate better a values, and the model is thus called MTD-NGM(1,1). In the experiments, two data sets taken from a supplier are examined for effectiveness validation. The experimental results indicate that MTD-NGM(1,1) can generally produce better predictions than NGM(1,1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether the pacifying effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on territorial disputes between adversarial dyads is conditional upon the dyads' past experience of military cooperation. I built a political economy model and conducted a logistic regression analysis on the newly coded bilateral FDI data between adversarial dyads and the existing dataset by merging the rivalry data established by Thompson [51] and the territorial disputes data collected by Lee and Mitchell [42]. I found that when bilateral FDI flows between adversarial dyads reach a certain level the pacifying effect of FDI is stronger for adversarial dyads with past military cooperation. I also found that while past military cooperation has a pacifying effect in general, past military cooperation that occurred more recently has a stronger pacifying effect than those that occurred a while ago. Moreover, based upon the theoretical model and empirical findings in this paper, I investigated the political implications for Tsai Ing-wen's "New Southbound Policy" and Taiwan's approach to the territorial dispute issues in the South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The white spots known as microbubbles that are formed in cellulose acetate film, significantly affects the texture of the image. However, the formation of microbubbles and their corresponding microstructure are poorly understood. In this paper, cellulose acetate microfilm from the Republic of China (AD 1912–1949) collected in the Second Historical Archives of China was chosen as a prototype to investigate the causes of microbubble disease for the first time. A comparative study was conducted between the film samples with and without microbubbles. Herein, the microstructural analyses including optical and SEM microscopy were conducted. The crystals in the microbubbles proved to be triphenyl phosphate as identified by NMR spectroscopy and SEM–EDX. Comparative properties of the film substrate with and without microbubbles were measured by TG, XRD and FT-IR spectroscopy. The results show that formation of microbubbles was generally accompanied with the vinegar syndrome and was produced between the protective and emulsion layers with the different types of shapes along the closed structure (the diameter of ~ 0.1–2 mm). The formed microbubble was filled with plasticizer. Based on the above-mentioned results, the possible formation process of microbubble was proposed in the present study. The results can provide support for the cause of microbubbles and basis for the conservation of photographic films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining the most economic benefits while using the least resources and causing the least environmental damage is an urgent and key problem in achieving sustainable development. The concept of eco-efficiency provides a comprehensive perspective for observing and solving this problem. This paper proposes an extended data envelopment analysis model, named the WIN-US-SBM, as a comprehensive eco-efficiency evaluation method that can accommodate undesirable outputs, all the identification problems of decision-making units (DMUs), possible slacks of variables, and the problems of an insufficient number of available DMUs and intertemporal comparability. China's Western Taiwan Straits Economic Zone (WTS Economic Zone) is an important regional economic growth center. By applying WIN-US-SBM and ArcGIS software, we investigated data on the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of eco-efficiency in the WTS Economic Zone for the years 2009–2016. Later, the global Malmquist–Luenberger index was used to decompose the sources of growth in eco-efficiency. Finally, the main driving factors of eco-efficiency were explored through a Tobit regression analysis. The empirical results show that: (1) The overall eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone had greatly improved, increasing by 11.46% annually, and the cumulative growth rate of eco-efficiency was 110.84% from 2009 to 2016. (2) The eastern area had the highest average eco-efficiency, followed by the western area and the middle area in that order. Also, the growth rate of the middle area ranked first (16.68%), whereas the eastern area had the slowest growth in eco-efficiency (7.22%). (3) On the whole, the growth of eco-efficiency was driven mainly by technological progress and was restricted by the decrease in management level, which implies that policy makers should focus on improving management and technical levels. (4) High levels of economic development, population density, market openness, and industrial structure had positive effects on the eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone, whereas energy intensity and expenditure on science and technology had negative impacts. • An extended DEA model is proposed to measure eco-efficiency more comprehensively. • The proposed model can be widely applied to input-output efficiency evaluations. • The eco-efficiency of the WTS Economic Zone was evaluated based on a novel model. • The growth of eco-efficiency was driven mainly by technological progress. • The eco-efficiency level is negatively related to energy intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to construct and test an antecedent relationship path model for the leisure involvement of Taiwan expatriate managers working in Mainland China. A leisure temporal-spatial involvement (LTSI) was developed. Design/methodology/approach: Burnout, perceived freedom in leisure and leisure coping strategies were proposed in the conceptual model as antecedents of leisure involvement. A questionnaire survey gathered information on the characteristics of respondents, including demographic/socio-economic details, expatriate profile and leisure activity participation. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used in this research to measure the relationships among the four scale variables (job burnout, perceived freedom in leisure, leisure coping strategies and leisure involvement). Findings: The expatriate managers experienced high burnout levels, particularly in the form of exhaustion. Their leisure involvement was mainly influenced by perceived freedom in leisure. Research limitations/implications: This work contributes to the research on leisure and expatriation in several ways. It is one of the first empirical studies to examine prominent leisure concepts (freedom, coping and involvement) within the milieu of expatriation. The findings provide further support to the notion of the "presumed cultural similarity paradox," in that expatriates of Chinese ethnicity still had significant adjustment difficulties in Mainland China. The research again confirms the challenges of Mainland China as an expatriation destination. Practical implications: The research results have significant practical value and may assist Taiwan-capital enterprises in improving expatriates' leisure life management. The section on Managerial and policy implications outlines the implications for the actors involved. Social implications: This work has social implications since the Taiwan expatriate managers are not effectively adjusting to their work–life environments in Guangzhou. Greater social contact between locals and these managers is recommended in the future. Originality/value: A new scale for leisure involvement (LTSI), expressed in temporal and spatial dimensions, is developed to fit the particular situations faced by expatriates. This is also one of only a few empirical research studies to consider leisure involvement within an expatriation framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This corpus-based study examines the widely-used discourse marker well in Chinese-speaking learners' speech and compares its frequencies in native speaker data and Swedish learners. While Swedish learners overuse well, Chinese-speaking learners (predominantly at the upper-intermediate level) significantly underuse it. The positions and functions of well are further examined using a functional framework. One-fourth of the Chinese-speaking learners who use well manipulate its positions in utterances in a similar way to native speakers. In terms of functions, well is employed for speech management much more frequently than for attitudinal purposes. The greater use of the former does not generally create negative effects, but the under-representation of the latter may suggest that Chinese-speaking learners sound too direct in certain contexts. The paper concludes by considering pedagogical implications for different first languages and proficiency levels and their possible applications to the instruction of well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]