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Copyright of All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy & Peace is the property of Ihsan Dogramaci Peace Foundation, Center for Foreign Policy & Peace Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) has emerged as a novel variant of K. pneumoniae, exhibiting distinct phenotypic and genotypic characteristics that confer increased virulence and pathogenicity. It is not only responsible for nosocomial infections but also community-acquired infections, including liver abscesses, endophthalmitis, and meningitis, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. HvKP has been reported all over the world, but it is mainly prevalent in Asia Pacific, especially China. Moreover, hvKP can acquire carbapenemase genes resulting in the emergence of carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (CR-hvKP), which possesses both high virulence and drug resistance capabilities. Consequently, CR-hvKP poses substantial challenges to infection control and presents serious threats to global public health. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive summary of the epidemiological characteristics, virulence factors, and mechanisms underlying carbapenem resistance in hvKP strains with the aim of offering valuable insights for practical prevention strategies as well as future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a legitimacy‐based view on what factors determine multinational corporation (MNC) employees' adoption of English at work. We posit that legitimacy judgment represents an alternative mechanism, other than language ability, for explaining MNC employees' response to headquarters' corporate language policy. The hypotheses were confirmed in two studies with mixed‐methods (experiments; semi‐structured interviews), involving MNC employees in China. Our findings verified that corporate language policy increases positive legitimacy judgment, which in turn enhances employees' adoption of English at work. Further analysis showed that language ability moderates the mediating effect of legitimacy judgment, such that this effect is stronger for employees with lower language ability. Semi‐structured interviews confirmed the experimental findings and brought more insight into why and how Chinese employees adopt English in daily work. This paper contributes to the research on corporate language policy, legitimacy judgment, and cross‐border management in Asia Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating Cognitive Appraisal Theory with the transmission model of inspiration, this paper investigates the tourist inspiration-eliciting process in the context of wellness tourism. A questionnaire survey (N = 974) was provided to wellness tourists in Shizhu county, China, with findings revealing the motivations of wellness tourists positively influence goal relevance and goal congruence. Goal congruence led to the elicitation of inspiration, which could be separated into two stages of inspired-by and inspired-to. Tourist inspiration was found to diminish as frequency of visitation increased. This research provides conceptual clarity surrounding the intricate connection between motivations and tourist inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrialized world's workforce is aging. China, as one of the important representative countries in the Asia‐Pacific region, is also experiencing an aging trend. Older people are often viewed as inflexible and unwilling to proactively change their environment or themselves to some extent. Prior studies have also found a negative association between age and proactive behavior. Therefore, breaking this negative cycle of age and proactive behavior becomes significant for the literature on age and management practices regarding older employees. In this paper, we identified job variety as a critical boundary condition and suggested that it would moderate the relationship between age and future time perspective, ultimately affecting proactive behavior. Our model was tested using a multilevel and multisource sample including 36 managers and 193 employees in China. The results showed that when job variety is high, the negative relationship between age and behavior becomes nonsignificant. Further, the interaction between age and job variety influenced proactive behavior through individuals' future time perspective. By identifying the important role of job variety, our study contributes to human resource management interventions for the aging workforce in China and other Asia‐Pacific countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the degree of connectedness of Asia Pacific forex markets post‐global financial crisis and relates it to developments in the renminbi markets. The connectedness measure developed by Diebold and Yilmaz (2014) (Journal of Econometrics, 182, 119–134) reveal the strength of linkages across the U.S. dollar currency pairs of 12 currencies, namely offshore renminbi, onshore renminbi, euro, yen, Australian dollar, Indian rupee, Korean won, Malaysian ringgit, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, Thai baht and Taiwan dollar. With the gradual liberalization of China's exchange rate system, shocks from the renminbi markets contribute more to fluctuations in almost all individual Asia Pacific currency markets vis‐à‐vis the yen. Rolling regressions show a number of Asia Pacific currencies exhibit tighter association with the renminbi when the latter underwent exchange rate regime reform. Finally, results from a two‐step analysis involving a panel regression provide evidence that time‐varying sensitivities of Asia Pacific currencies to the renminbi are directly related to the countries' trade and financial links with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the world was in a process of transition from the unipolar system which had ruled the world since the end of the Cold War to an increasingly multilateral order. With this regard, there was a kind of consensus between academics, decision-makers and other interested actors in the international arena in the sense that the world was transitioning towards a much more multipolar order in which the US would lose gradually its status of the only superpower for the benefit of mainly China but also for other Asian-Pacific states. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of the consequences of the COVID-19 at the geopolitical level in the framework of global power redistribution. In this sense, this paper will analyse if the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the US and Chinese social, economic and political scenarios in the framework of the great power competition and also if the pandemic will substantially shift the geopolitical balance of the world. This study will try to answer which have been the effects of the pandemic in terms of geopolitics and the prospects of its impact on the global power redistribution and international leadership competition at the short and medium term. In this sense, the main question to be answered in this research is: Has the COVID-19 pandemic lead to a faster than previously expected Western loss of economic and political power able to lead to new world order transition dynamics with significant consequences for the international security architecture? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical augmentation satellite system for centimeter-level positioning, PPP (Precise Point Positioning) service based on PPP-B2b signal of China's new generation BeiDou system (BDS-3) was released for Asia-Pacific area on July, 2020. This paper first introduces the recovery theory of PPP-B2b SSR (State Space Representation) messages and then implements a real-time PPP-B2b precise positioning terminal to decode and obtain the PPP-B2b SSR orbit, clock, and biases. On those bases, the coverage, signal-in-space, and positioning performance of PPP-B2b SSR are evaluated. The results show that PPP-B2b SSR of BDS-3 can cover the most area of 50°E-180°E, 30°S-70°N and improve signal-in-space accuracy significantly. The improvement rate on BDS clock offset can reach 77%, which far exceeds average 40% improvement on BDS orbit, while it is opposite for GPS with 80% improvement rate on orbit and 61% on clock offset. Average SISRE (signal-in-space range error) of PPP-B2b SSR is better than 10 cm. The 95% positioning results show that centimeter- to decimeter-level positioning can be achieved after a few minutes of convergence based on PPP-B2b SSR, which satisfies the BDS open service performance standard. Comparing to BDS PPP based on PPP-B2b SSR, BDS + GPS PPP can promote convergence significantly with average 40% improvement rate for 95% epochs and can further improve positioning accuracy with 30%-35% improvement rate in horizontal and 10%–15% in vertical direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mineral Resources Management / Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi is the property of Mineral & Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the leadership transition in China in November 2012, there have been significant changes in Chinese foreign policy. It has been widely observed that under the new leadership headed by President Xi Jinping, Beijing has become more assertive in international affairs. This paper ex- amines the emerging contours of China's foreign policy under Xi and the implications for the future regional order in the Asia Pacific. It argues that recent international behaviour of China is the manifestation of a new phase of Chinese foreign policy that could be defined as ‘peaceful rise 2.0’. In this analysis, while Beijing still adheres to its declared ‘peaceful development’ policy aiming to maintain a stable external environment conducive to its ascendance, the manner in which it seeks to do so are considerably different from past decades. The paper further argues that despite China's growing power, President Xi faces greater difficulties than his predecessor to achieve his foreign policy objectives. Indeed Beijing's capacity to shape the regional environment in its favour in the near future is arguably declining rather than increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal resources have great development potential and prospects, owing to their wide distribution and high thermal storage temperature. HDR resources are abundant in China, but their exploration and exploitation remain in the early stages. The Yishu fault zone in Shandong Province in eastern China is in a high-temperature geothermal zone of the Pacific Rim. Three craters and 15 hot springs are in this area, which possesses abundant geothermal resources and favourable conditions for the occurrence of HDR resources. Nevertheless, HDR resources in this area have not been studied in detail, and the index-evaluation system for HDR is still imperfect. In this paper, five index layers are selected, including: the gravity and magnetic fields, geothermal field, tectonic activity, reservoir and cover characteristics, and remotely sensed features. Thirteen index elements were also selected as evaluation factors. In combination, these index layers and index elements have established a favourable evaluation index system for HDR resources in this region, and the analytic hierarchy process has been used to determine the weight of each factor. Then, the GIS spatial analysis function is used to carry out spatial superposition analyses for each index element, and finally the distribution characteristics of HDR resources east of the Yishu fault zone were determined, with four favourable selection areas being delineated. The occurrence conditions of HDR resources are analysed in detail with evaluation indexes. It is believed that HDR resources are closely related to neotectonic movement, volcanism and rocks with high heat-generation rates. Searching for areas with geothermal anomalies is indispensable for the evaluation of HDR resources. This study provides a basis for the exploration and development of HDR resources in the region, and it can also provide a reference for similar work in other parts of the country. A set of evaluation indexes to determine favourable areas for HDR resources, including gravity, geothermal field, geological structure and crustal stability, heat storage and heat cover and features on remotely sensed images, is established. East of Yishu fault zone, there is a great potential of HDR resources, with an area of 19 399 km2 of favourable and more favourable areas, accounting for approximately 38.8% of the total area. HDR resources are likely closely associated with neotectonics, igneous activity, geothermal anomalies and rocks with a high heat-generation rate such as granites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grand Strategy determines the ultimate goals and interests of a state. It has long-term effects on state policies. With the advent of the 21st century, China has emerged as a regional and global power. After entering the new era of development, China set specific goals and decided to achieve them, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. These goals are to convert China into a prosperous society, increase per capita income at par with developed states and realize modernization. In 2013, Xi Jinping announced China's Grand Strategy, while stating that the period extended to 2020 (and beyond) is the era of strategic opportunity for China. This article discusses China's Grand Strategy in the Asia- Pacific region. First, it conceptualizes Chinese strategy by focusing on its main objectives and interests. Secondly, it analyses its components while identifying how China is utilizing its economic, political, diplomatic, and security means to secure its interests in the region and maintain regional order. It also examines Chinese foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region according to the institutions of international society described by Hadley Bull. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction of the United States-led Indo-Pacific (IPAC) and the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an exercise in power to reshape the geopolitics of Asia-Pacific. Under the IPAC metageography, China is potentially excluded while the US's security border is extended to the Indian Ocean. BRI, on the other hand, has been advanced as an alternative model of economic globalization and diplomacy that is characterized by open and fluid borders. In this paper, we draw on a geoeconomic lens using oil/gas and the solar energy trade to shed light on Asia-Pacific's changing metageography. Power is constituted through relational coupling and decoupling as China and the US are locked in geoeconomic competition that expands but also contracts imaginaries of the region. The findings suggest that neither China nor the US holds a relational advantage in all energy sectors; each country however leads in sub-sectors. China, BRI and Asian IPAC are all significant importers of US oil and gas while China's solar trade has accelerated regional integration that includes the US. The paper concludes that China's exclusion from IPAC is not consistent with the geoeconomic realities of energy trade. BRI on the other hand has staked its success as an anti-colonial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the manifestation and trends of hybrid warfare in the Asia-Pacific region through the lenses of the following three key hybrid actors: China, North Korea and ISIS affiliates in Southeast Asia. This article explains why the hybrid approach can be such an attractive strategic option for both state and non-state actors in the Asia-Pacific. Finally, this paper will address the impact of how the constant pushing of boundaries in hybrid warfare can lead to unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's military developments and growing naval capabilities are the focus of much discussion among strategists and policy makers. China's moves in this direction are of particular concern because of the implications to maritime security in the region, particularly to countries that have territorial disputes. Its burgeoning military power and growing naval and maritime capability are linked to the country's overall maritime strategy and rising profile in the international arena, raising questions outside the region as to her long-term intentions in the Asia-Pacific region. Of particular interest is China's Anti-access Area-denial (A2/AD) strategy. This paper undertakes an analysis of China's military with specific reference to the A2/AD strategy, and is premised on the belief that the A2/AD strategy is a component of overall Chinese maritime strategy. This paper suggests that People's Liberation Army Navy military capabilities and force developments are inter-related to the evolution of China's maritime strategy, and that China's building onto A2/AD would pose a significant threat to regional security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism live streaming (TLS) has experienced a surge in popularity; however, impulsive travel intention in this context has received limited scholarly attention. Based on the stimulus – organism–response (SOR) framework and presence, this research explores impulsive travel intention in TLS. Adopting WeChat to spread our survey, we analyzed 348 valid questionnaires from TLS viewers in China. Our research reveals that TLS features positively impact physical and social presence, subsequently affecting flow experience and trust, and ultimately boosting impulsive travel intentions. The findings provide theoretical insights and practical implications for online travel agencies, scenic area managers, and travel streamers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia-Pacific has seen the emergence of a new security dilemma, as geopolitical friction increases due to escalating crises. Significant tensions between China and many of its Asian neighbors have arisen due to maritime disputes, the North Korea nuclear crisis, and a military arms race. There are three main areas of the common security challenges in the Asia and Pacific region today: Chinese military growth, the U.S. military dominance and strategic “rebalance,” and conflicts or hot spots in the region. The future way out of the Asia-Pacific's current security dilemma depends heavily on how the U.S., China, and Japan can work together. This paper seeks to examine three issues: 1) the logic of China's military growth and how serious a threat it has posed to other countries in the region; 2) the major barriers that hold back military exchange programs between China and the U.S.; and 3) the intervening factor, the strengthening of a U.S.-Japan alliance and its repercussions for China. It will provide proposals to establish a collective framework including more specific security dialogues and cooperation in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Nosocomial infections are the main adverse events during health care delivery. Hand hygiene is the fundamental strategy for the prevention of nosocomial infections. Microbial characteristics of nosocomial infections in the Asia-Pacific region have not been investigated fully. Correlation between the use of hand hygiene products and the incidence of nosocomial infections is still unknown. This study investigates the microbial characteristics of nosocomial infections in the Asia-Pacific region and analyzes the association between the utilization of hand hygiene products and the incidence of nosocomial infections.Patients and Methods: A total of 78,344 patients were recruited from a major tertiary hospital in China. Microbial characteristics of major types of nosocomial infections were described. The association between the utilization of hand hygiene products and the incidence of nosocomial infections was analyzed using correlation and regression models.Results: The overall incidence of nosocomial infections was 3.04%, in which the incidence of surgical site infection was 1%. Multi-drug resistance was found in 22.8% of all pathogens, in which multi-drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were 56.6% and 54.9%, respectively. The utilization of hand hygiene products (including hand sanitizer, soap and paper towel) was associated negatively with the incidence of surgical site infection in surgical departments and the incidence of nosocomial infections in non-intensive care unit (ICU) departments (especially in surgical departments). Regression analysis further identified that higher utilization of hand hygiene products correlated with decreased incidence of major types of nosocomial infections.Conclusions: Multi-drug-resistant organisms are emerging in Asia-Pacific health care facilities. Utilization of hand hygiene products is associated with the incidence of nosocomial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how Japan and Australia could contribute to a liberal and inclusive order in the Asia-Pacific region. Critics argue that closer ties between Japan and Australia could undermine the stability of regional security, dividing Asia into ‘mutually hostile armed blocs’ consisting of US allies and China. Contrary to such a view, this article argues that deepening and enhancing Japan–Australia security cooperation could, if carefully managed, help to maintain an inclusive regional order based on institutions, norms and values, as well as a stable balance of power relations. In particular, the article contends that Japan and Australia can contribute to regional order by strengthening their ‘middle-power cooperation’ through regional capacity-building, institution-building, rule-making or norm-setting, and coalition-building, while supporting the US military presence in the region. It then concludes that, despite differing attitudes towards Beijing, Tokyo and Canberra can further contribute to the longevity of the current regional order by inclusive institutional architecture and liberal norms and values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, located over East China, is an international urban agglomeration radiating Asia Pacific with convenient transportation, advanced manufacturing industry, and modern service industry. The intensive human activities have exerted substantial effects on the weather and climate over the YRD region during the past decades, thus bringing more challenges to accurate weather and climate forecasting. However, the weekly cycles of surface air temperature and precipitation linked closely to human activities and their corresponding physical processes remain insufficiently understood. Here, we investigate the weekly cycles of summertime surface air temperature and precipitation and the weekend effect over the YRD region for the period of 2008–2019 using high-resolution observational data and reanalysis data. The results demonstrate that lower surface air temperature and higher precipitation generally manifest during weekends compared to weekdays over the YRD region particularly over the areas with intensive human activities. Further analysis of the underlying physical processes points to the aerosol-cloud-radiation interaction which largely explains the weekend effect in summertime temperature and precipitation over the YRD region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of big data leads to higher demands for hyperscale data centers (HDCs) in terms of the scale and quantity required for data storage and processing. Before the construction of an HDC, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze the economic budget according to the energy requirements and potential energy cost. We propose a global energy consumption prediction framework based on the power usage effectiveness (PUE) calculation that considers all heat sources and power consumption. The framework integrates physical models and a statistical framework that combines IT equipment energy consumption and data center energy consuming predictions. Furthermore, the framework provides a method to calculate the carbon emissions and electricity cost of the data center. Using hourly meteorological data as climate parameters, combined with a limited range of energy parameters, the annual PUE values of 60 regions were estimated, and a further analysis of the Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) and electricity costs in China was conducted as an example. Based on experimental validation and an evaluation of real-time data, our framework can predict the overall energy consumption of HDCs effectively, filling a gap in HDC research in the Asia-Pacific region and providing a basis for HDC feasibility analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether and how a novel index of Chinese public diplomacy influences the flow of tourists between China and countries in the Asia-Pacific region from 2000 to 2019. Countries more actively influenced by Chinese public diplomatic activities are found to have supported a larger inbound and outbound tourists with China. Sister-cities relationship, exchange students, and informational contacts in our composite index are drivers of our finding. Our results contribute to expanding the knowledge on the informal political communication aspect of bilateral tourism determinationand the important role of public diplomacy in the hospitality and tourism context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global insurance industry is undergoing fundamental change, with countries that are classified as emerging economies (such as China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region) playing increasingly important roles. In this article, we investigate the effect of two important dimensions of a country's culture, societal trust and risk avoidance, on risk taking by insurance firms around the world between 2001 and 2014. We measure societal trust and risk avoidance using the World Value Survey. Our results indicate that there is a positive and significant association between the level of societal trust and insurer risk taking in a country, while there is a negative and significant association between the level of risk avoidance and insurer risk taking. We show that our main results are robust to changes in sample composition and potential bias related to the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. One possible concern is that insurer risk taking could be affected by many institutional and societal factors of a country that are not included in our regression analysis. To alleviate this concern, we use the two-stage least squares regression method with instrumental variables to address the potential endogeneity problem related to omitted variables, and find that our results remain unchanged. Additionally, we show that the negative relationship between risk avoidance and insurer risk taking still holds when we use alternative uncertainty avoidance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The service areas of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) are China, the Asia–Pacific, and the world via three stages of development. The BDS constellation is designed to maintain a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO), and medium Earth orbit (MEO). These orbital maneuvers yield certain difficulties for data processing, especially for the BeiDou satellites, such as a decrease in the real-time service performance, which causes a missing precise orbit product from the maneuvered satellites. The frequencies of the orbital maneuvers for the GEO and IGSO satellites are higher than those for the MEO satellites. The maneuvering time and strategy cannot be obtained by common users due to secrecy, which can yield a decline in the service performance of the BDS. Thus, in this study, we analyzed the variation in the orbital semimajor axis for the satellites. The long-term variation in the orbital semimajor axis changes linearly. The short-term variation in the orbital semimajor axis also has periodicity, which can be described by the sum of sine functions. According to the long-term variation in the orbital semimajor axis for the satellites, we propose a detection method for in-plane orbital maneuvering of the GEO, IGSO, and MEO satellites. We then propose a detection method for out-of-plane maneuvering of the GEO satellites. BDS and Global Positioning System (GPS) data from the broadcast ephemeris were analyzed to verify the proposed methods. The experimental results from 2013 to 2019 show that the frequency of orbital maneuvering is approximately once a month for the GEO satellites, once every six months for the IGSO satellites, and once every 1.4 years for the MEO satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I offer my comments on the "Cultural Roots of Compositional Capability in China: Balanced Moderation" (Zhou, Li, Zhou, & Prashantham, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, forthcoming, 2019) that extends the composition-based view (CBV) originally developed by Luo and Child (Management and Organization Review, 11(3): 379-411, 2015). Uniting congruity with novelty and integrating internal and external learning are important cultural conduits for compositional capability. I illustrate some further thoughts into the social and cultural context of the CBV in a bid to foster continued research on this theory that explains the unique growth pathway for ordinary firms that lack strategic assets. I also discuss how the social and cultural context influences the balance between utilizing and possessing resources, between ordinary and distinctive capabilities, and between temporary and sustainable competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a vast land area with complex topography and landforms, of which the mountain area accounts for more than 60% of the total area. China is located between the Pacific Rim seismic zone and the Mediterranean-Himalayan earthquake zone, causing frequent earthquake disasters. Earthquake-linked secondary disasters cause far greater damage than themselves, and often cause geological disasters such as landslides and slope collapses in mountainous areas. The secondary disaster caused by the earthquake is closely related to the dynamic response of the slope and the dynamic characteristics of the slope. Geological structure of different slopes and the conditions of ground motion loading have different influences on the pressure and stability of the steep layer between soft and hard phases. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the main modes and processes of slope instability induced by strong earthquakes based on the dynamic response characteristics and laws of slopes, to explore the model deformation and failure phenomena during the test, and to analyze the different results of different lithological slope bodies. This article will use the research methods of specific problems and specific analysis to compare the data and draw conclusions. The research results show that under the common slope body, the acceleration of the falling object is different with different angle and height. Therefore, combined with the investigation of the deformation and failure of the slope in the earthquake zone, the dynamic response law of the rock slope is obtained, which provides a reasonable explanation for the collapse of many large landslides during the earthquake, and provides a theoretical basis for the future design of seismic structures and field slope monitoring and protection against disaster. Combined with physical simulation and numerical simulation methods, the instability and damage characteristics and mechanism of layered slopes under strong earthquake conditions are analyzed and demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines China's influence in the Asia–Pacific stock markets by focusing on spillover effects and market integration and employs how the financial crises and financial liberalization affect the relationship among these markets. Based on the series of studies of Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012, 2015), this study employs the generalized vector autoregressive framework to examine the spillover effects among the main Asia–Pacific stock markets. The multifactor R-squared measure proposed by Pukthuanthong and Roll (2009) is employed to examine the market integration of Chinese stock market. The results indicate that spillover effects and market integration tend to increase, indicating that China stock market is playing a more important role in the Asia–Pacific stock markets. This study provides more evidence that financial crises and financial liberalization can strengthen spillover effects and market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a systematic review of the major contributions in the journal Accounting & Finance over the past 60 years. We apply several different bibliographic tools to model highly cited articles and major strands of research that have significantly advanced research in accounting and finance across the Asia‐Pacific region. An analysis of bursting (or 'hot') topics shows major research trends over time, including recent 'hot' topics such as China‐related research, corporate social responsibility and sustainable finance. The article concludes by highlighting new research directions ‐ Accounting & Finance has opened towards more interdisciplinary research and greater diversity in methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic growth and military modernization have forced the US to shift its focus from the Middle-East to the Asia-Pacific region. The US Pivot to Asia Pacific policy aims to maintain the US hegemony by containing China in this region. This article is an attempt to gauge the responses of those regional countries which are having close economic and political relations with China and the US. It also tries to highlight the factors which increased the US military and diplomatic involvement in the region. This article tries to find the answer of research question that why the US has introduced Asia-Pacific policy and how the regional countries have responded to it. As per the nature of the research, secondary sources have been used to complete this research. Three qualitative approaches such as historical, descriptive and exploratory within the broader framework of post positivist paradigm have been used to find the answer of the research question. This study is conducted under the lens of Hegemonic Stability Theory. This study concludes with the argument that regional countries have shown mixed reactions to the US policy and geo-political competition is likely to grow between the US and China in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional long-range strike weapons of US allies may exacerbate Chinese concerns about the survivability of its small nuclear arsenal against a precision pre-emptive strike from the US-led coalition, although the degree of the new threat depends on various factors including the numbers and types of such weapons to be deployed. Conventional hypersonic missiles, in particular, may generate acute threat perception, as they can play the role of "door kicker" against China's so-called anti-access, area-denial capabilities and pave the way for subsequent massive strikes with more traditional weapons. The development of conventional long-range-strike weapons by US allies also affects the risk of conventional conflicts escalating inadvertently to the nuclear level. Such risks are particularly salient in the Asia–Pacific region because of at least two factors: the ambiguous role of Chinese theater nuclear weapons and significant entanglement of conventional and nuclear capabilities at the theater level. Such conventional capabilities of US allies also help shape the region's overall military balance—something China treats as part of its broader understanding of the term "strategic stability." Regional players, however, have competing visions about what constitutes a stable military balance. They also have conflicting interpretations of why other parties are pursuing conventional long-range-strike weapons. The development of such capabilities will pose growing challenges to regional strategic stability in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of new media technologies has changed how people watch, engage with, and share digital media. Conventionally, audiences were surveyed selectively, and the results were collated by professional agencies and often kept confidential. However, the conspicuous ratings given to media and cultural products outside their country of origin and their very public success and failure raises questions about the validity of such methods, particularly at a time when media and cultural products are used as proxies for cultural "soft power." This term, first used by Joseph Nye in a political context, evokes reputational impact: a particular nation's cultural and media products can "go global" if they prove sufficiently popular, reflecting positively on the originating nation. This article examines the various methods used to evaluate China's "cultural power." It notes the current weighting given to the humanities and social sciences. By applying some basic big data analysis and machine-learning techniques, the authors build on previous studies by offering new insights into the rise of "Digital China" and China's digital and Internet trailblazers. The authors consider two major international metrics, as well as China's early experimental attempts at devising its own standard, before introducing an alternative model, the cultural power metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) is regarded as the key circulation system that dominates the summer heat waves over eastern China, but whether the WPSH–summer heat wave connection changes with time remains unknown. In this study, decadal variations in the WPSH–heat wave connection were examined for the period 1959–2016 using daily maximum temperature data from 654 observational stations across China and global reanalysis datasets. The results show that the correlation coefficient between the WPSH intensity (WPSHI) and the number of heat-wave days (NHD) was 0.65 (>99% confidence level) during positive phases of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), whereas that during negative phases of the PDO was only 0.12 (<80% confidence level). The remarkable difference in correlations is due to the more westward extension of a stronger WPSH in El Niño decaying summers during the positive phases of PDO. The stronger Indian Ocean warming in El Niño decaying-year summers for PDO positive phases in comparison to PDO negative phases is associated with enhanced convection and heating, which further drive a stronger anticyclone over the northwestern Pacific, leading to a stronger and more westward-extending WPSH, which is favorable for more heat waves over eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has become operational in the Asia-Pacific region, it is important to demonstrate the capabilities that a combination of GPS, BDS and GLONASS to high-precision positioning. Multi-constellation combination increases the available satellites and thus improves the positioning reliability. However at the same time, it will bring some challenges to the high-dimension ambiguity resolution (AR). In this contribution, a GPS/BDS/GLONASS combined real time kinematic (RTK) positioning method for middle-long baseline is proposed. In order to reduce the influence of troposphere and ionosphere delays on AR, a two-step AR strategy is adopted, where wide-lane and ionosphere-free observation model are used respectively. In the integer ambiguity search process, a partial ambiguity resolution (PAR) method is proposed to improve the AR performance. In the PAR method, satellite cutoff elevation, satellite number, AR success rate and ratio are used together to determine the ambiguity subset, which can be fixed reliably. A set of baselines ranging from about 30 to 60 km, which all contain GPS/BDS/GLONASS observations, are used to test RTK positioning performance. Experiment results demonstrate that GPS/BDS/GLONASS combined RTK positioning with partial ambiguity resolution can get much improved performance for middle-long baseline both in positioning speed and accuracy, as within about 20 s and 5 cm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China’s rapid economic growth is facilitating massive increases in its military spending and causing increased security concerns in Asia and the Western Pacific. But there is uncertainty over how large China’s military spending is relative to other countries, or how fast it is growing in real terms. We address this issue by deriving a relative military cost price index based on the relative unit costs of inputs. We find that China’s real military spending is much larger than suggested by exchange rate comparisons, and even larger than standard purchasing power parity comparisons. We also find, however, that the real growth of China’s military spending has been smaller than conventionally thought. This is due to rapidly growing wages in China and the large share of personnel in China’s military budget. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The Asia-Pacific region is home to nearly half of the world's population. The region has seen a recent rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity, type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The present systematic review summarizes the recent prevalence and trends of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) among adults in countries of the Asia-Pacific Region.Methods: Data on MetS in Asia-Pacific countries were obtained using a stepwise process by searching the online Medline database using MeSH terms 'Metabolic Syndrome X' and 'Epidemiology/EP'. For the purpose of describing prevalence data for the individual countries, studies that were most recent, nationally representative or with the largest sample size were included. When evaluating secular trends in prevalence in a country we only considered studies that evaluated the temporal change in prevalence between similar populations, prospective studies based on the same population or National surveys conducted during different time periods.Results: This literature search yielded a total of 757 articles, and five additional article were identified by screening of reference lists. From this total, 18 studies were eligible to be included in the final analysis. Of the 51 Asia-Pacific countries (WHO) we only located data for 15. There was wide between country variation in prevalence of MetS. A national survey from Philippines conducted in 2003 revealed the lowest reported prevalence of 11.9% according to NCEP ATP III criteria. In contrast, the highest recorded prevalence in the region (49.0%) came from a study conducted in urban Pakistan (Karachchi, 2004). Most studies reported a higher prevalence of MetS in females and urban residents. Data on secular trends were available for China, South Korea and Taiwan. An increase in the prevalence of MetS was observed in all three countries.Conclusion: Despite differences in methodology, diagnostic criteria and age of subjects studied, the Asia-Pacific region is facing a significant epidemic of MetS. In most countries nearly 1/5th of the adult population or more were affected by MetS with a secular increase in prevalence. Strategies aimed at primary prevention are required to ameliorate a further increase in the epidemic and for the reduction of the morbidity and mortality associated with MetS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses China's growing assertiveness and its strategic interest in the South China Sea as well as focuses on its strained relationships with the U.S. as well as other Asian states such as Japan and India.

U.S. alliances in the Asia-Pacific are increasingly viewed as more than just threat-centric policy instruments. Three core principles for alliance management underscore this reasoning: maintaining consensus about purpose and objectives; generating maximum alliance adaptability; and building capabilities to achieve full-spectrum deterrence. The interests that compel U.S. regional allies to cooperate with Washington are this special issue's analytical focus. Evolving U.S. security partnerships in the Asia-Pacific, the emergence of 'hybrid' forms of security alignment, and Sino-U.S. tensions complicate understanding the nature and politics of U.S. security alignments in the region. A Chinese 'shadow' is likely to confront U.S. alliances and partnerships in ways which will compound strategic competition and tensions in the region. This reality impels the United States and its regional collaborators to understand and to coordinate each other's motivations for security cooperation as effectively as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Comparisons Program ( ICP) run by the World Bank compares prices and real incomes across countries, and plays a pivotal role in the Penn World Table. Using a unique dataset consisting of over 600,000 price quotes from nine countries in the Asia- Pacific region, we consider ways of improving the basic heading price indexes that form the building blocks of ICP. Current ICP methodology computes these price indexes using the country-product-dummy ( CPD) method applied to the country average prices. We contrast this approach with: (i) a weighted version of CPD; (ii) CPD applied directly to the individual price quotes; and (iii) extended versions of CPD that include adjustments for unrepresentative products, urban-rural price differences, and different outlet-types. Also considered are new CPD-based methods for measuring urban-rural price differences, and the implications of our findings for the downward revision in China's GDP in ICP 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alliances continue to occupy a prominent place in the Asia-Pacific's security architecture. For many regional states such as Australia and Japan, their respective alliances with the USA are the unchallenged foundations of their security. But when the rise of China is causing major change in the region, and when many countries are increasingly reliant on China economically, is the region's network of alliances any longer appropriate or useful? This article reviews alliances in theory and practice, and argues that, while alliances are unlikely to disappear, their utility is nothing like as clear-cut as many of their supporters would have one believe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Asia Pacific is a global growth engine and remaining cognizant to this fact, the US is striving to maintain its regional supremacy. China has achieved a remarkable growth in last two decades while the US was involved in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current transformation of China at global landscape forced the US policy makers to revisit and review their strategic priorities in Asia Pacific to harness the China's expanding political clout. Thus, Sino-US strategic engagement in Asia-Pacific is quite significant under the prevailing geo-political landscape and deems thorough research. The US-China strategic engagement in Asia-Pacific is a blend of cooperation and competition simultaneously. In keeping with the core realist theories and postulates of power transition, the US is and will remain as a dominant power. However, economically the US is giving away its some influence which is taken over by China. The US think tanks consider China as a competitor and hence managing China's rise is a test case for the US diplomacy in Asia-Pacific. China as a rising power has posed a substantial challenge to the US led global order. The research concludes that contrary to the US approaches the China is currently focusing on soft power approach and pursuing a peaceful rise to extend its economic signature across the globe to economically influence the regional geo-political order. US-China clash of geo-strategic interests in Asia-Pacific has led to regional polarization and the phenomenon is quite devastating in South Asia with two nuclear armed arch rivals India-Pakistan. Thus, the developing global scenarios merits visibility of both powers strategies so that the world may not witness another catastrophe owing to great powers engagement. Pakistan also needs to put its house in order and keep its policy open instead of aligning any power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]