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Based on data analysis and documentary research, this paper indicates that the main causes which negatively affect the preservation of paper documents in China are acidification and damaging pests such as moths and insects. The priorities for the preservation of Chinese documents are protecting the documents against air pollution and controlling pests and insects. Taking these problems and the Chinese national condition into account, the paper proposes to create a favorable microenvironment for decreasing the acidification of papers and to adopt various measures for controlling pests and insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is an attempt to understand the trends in LIS research by analyzing published literature on the topic. The study identifies and analyses 39 research papers on LIS research trends in various countries, three papers on LIS research trends in regional countries and 13 papers on LIS research trends with an international perspective. The findings of the study reveal that there is a similarity among various countries as far as the LIS research topics are concerned but with a different focus at different periods. While understanding international research trends in LIS, it was interesting to note that the research trend in China was similar to the worldwide research trend while the pattern in other countries differed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the utilization of land resources, in recent years, there has been an increase in the design and construction of over-track buildings in metro depots in China. However, there are daily tasks such as testing, parking, and maintenance of metro trains in the depot, vibration induced by trains in those tasks may exert impact upon the residents living in the buildings over the metro depots. In this paper, detailed on-site measurements were carried out to investigate the source and transmission characteristics of train-induced vibrations in the metro depot. The main results indicated that (i) the magnitudes of train-induced vibration on the testing lines and throat areas are greater than other areas, and the issue of environmental vibrations induced by trains in the building near these areas need to be given more attention. (ii) Traininduced vibrations are more attenuated from the ground to the platform and less attenuated from the platform to the building floor, and most vibration acceleration levels below 30 Hz are even amplified during the transmission from the platform to the floors in the building, which could be because of the matching of the frequencies of train-induced vibrations and the natural frequencies of the superstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development projects have undergone remarkable changes with the arrival of agile development approaches. Many firms are facing a need to use these approaches to manage entities consisting of multiple projects (i.e. programs) simultaneously and efficiently. New technologies such as big data provide a huge power and rich demand for the IT application system of the commercial bank which has the characteristics of multiple sub-projects, strong inter-project correlation, and numerous project participating teams. Hence, taking the IT program management of a bank in China as a case, we explore the methods to solve the problems in multi-project concurrent development practice through integrating the ideas of program and batch management. First, to coordinate the multi-project development process, this paper presents the batch-based agile program management approach that synthesizes concurrent engineering with agile methods. And we compare the application of batch management between software development projects and manufacturing process. Further, we analyze the concurrent multi-project development practice in the batch-based agile program management, including the overlapping between stages, individual project's activities, and multiple projects based on common resources and environment to stimulate the knowledge transfer. Third, to facilitate the communication and coordination of batch-based program management, we present the double-level responsibility organizational structure of batch management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic suspension is considered as a widely-used type of maglev train systems. It has been successfully used recently in Changsha Maglev Express (CME), China. Great research interests and engineering efforts have been focused on increasing the operation speed of such an environment-friendly low-speed maglev type to 200 km/h in order to meet the requirement of inter-city transportation, which has not been realized yet. However, at a higher speed, there is a considerable levitation force drop at the front of vehicles due to the pronounced eddy current effect. The electromagnet modules are more likely to saturate. An optimized electromagnet design is required for the medium-speed maglev train to achieve better levitation capability, weaker vibration, and more comfortable ride. Based on the actual parameters and operation data of CME, this paper uses the three-dimensional finite element analysis method to fully analyze the occurrence of magnetic saturation and its adverse effects. A novel structure design of electromagnet module coping with the problem of magnetic saturation is proposed to improve the levitation performance. The study also puts forward a three-controller system on the electromagnet module at the front of the vehicles which can effectively ease the imbalance of levitation forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has seen rapid economic development and urbanization, and this has included the upgrading of traditional sanitation systems. But the speed of this transition raises concerns about the coexistence of diverging sanitation practices and their impact. This paper asks how this coexistence is experienced by low-income urban residents in Shanghai. It is based on field research during four weeks in July 2013, which involved in-depth, open-ended interviews with 20 low-income urban residents. The article concludes that these diverging everyday practices are situated at the core of urban socio-spatial differentiation, inequality, exclusion and discrimination. Particularly affected are rural-to-urban migrants and ageing working-class residents, for whom the lack of access to improved sanitation may be associated with stigmatization and social isolation. Future research should examine how changing sanitation cultures under urban development and diverging sanitation practices in different contexts can affect family ties, social relations and socio-spatial integration. To view an animated video that illustrates the ideas discussed in this paper, please visit https://youtu.be/BPEU_apfoLo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have brought dramatic urbanization to China. Between 1978 and 2018, the urban population rose from 17.9 per cent to 59.6 per cent of the total. Urbanization has many implications, including for education. China's government has long been concerned about imbalances in access to and quality of schooling, and new imbalances have been introduced through market forces in the so-called shadow education sector of private supplementary tutoring, arising from both demand and supply. Urban families in particular seek private supplementary tutoring, and tutorial companies favour densely populated areas for higher enrolments. China has the world's largest school system and most extensive shadow provision. This paper conceptualizes the space of shadow provision in educational, social and geographical terms. It highlights the changing scale and nature of private tutoring, observes the roles of new technologies and government regulations, notes the impact of COVID-19, and argues that shadow education both shapes and is shaped by urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the reasons behind the growing social tension and increased number of conflicts in China after a good performance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we map out the issues with old urbanization (1978–2014) and the problems unsolved by past policy, and analyse whether the new policy changes introduced by the New Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) may help to deal with those problems. We argue that the tensions that evolve into conflicts are often a result of unaddressed social anxiety. Using money to purchase social stability can only be part of the solution. There need to be more serious attempts to improve governance, which involve: improving multi-level governance and inter-regional coordination, enhancing policy transparency and rule by law, adjusting the level of redistribution, and integrating rural and urban community governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese cities have undergone a process of urbanization that has resulted in significant urban sprawl in the past 20 years. This paper uses the “ecology of actors” framework to analyse the interactions among various state, market and civil society players that result in excessive land conversion from agricultural to urban use. The paper shows that under the existing institutional settings, the interests of most actors involved in the process are aligned towards greater land development and growth. The more land is developed, the more land lease revenue for the local government, the more profit for developers, and the more opportunities for compensation for farmers. Planners have been powerless to apply long-term planning principles. There is a need to change the underlying rules of the game so that environmental impacts of land conversion are fully taken into account in the future economic calculations of actors involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field to examine the sources of authority, reasons for conflict, and group dynamics in an isotope lab at a Chinese university. After 7 months of participant observation and non-structured interviews, I found that theoretical capital and technological capital are both used in the isotope lab. While both are associated with scientific authority, it was theoretical capital that determined lab members' social authority. Dominant and subordinate members of the lab applied different strategies to advance their interests. Conflicts of interest induced competition between the holders of theoretical and technological capital, which in turn caused interpersonal conflict. The specificity of the field of geoscience determines the relative power of technological and theoretical capital, and the low autonomy of the scientific field in China strengthens that hierarchy. I find that this hierarchy of scientific capital in the broader field can have a considerable impact on the social construction of experimental results in the local settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local Chinese governments have been experimenting with a form of top-down "co-production" under different names and for various purposes. This paper examines practices in four Chinese cities to understand the process by which this co-production is introduced, its implementation and its outcomes. We found that in these cities, co-production is imposed on urban communities by the higher authorities, with the state playing very active roles in initiating, financing and facilitating the process. Despite the much-improved community environment, communities are not participating to the extent that the state would like. Nonetheless, we argue that this top-down approach has its merits. It may be an efficient way to ignite the co-production process and to some extent sustain it. When these practices are embedded in an authoritarian hierarchy, however, local officials involved are unavoidably evaluated by two separate performance assessment systems, the hierarchical and the horizontal, which so far have not been compatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to shed fresh light on rural–urban interaction and urbanization in a non-Western authoritarian context. It describes the change in post-Mao China from very vertical and separate government hierarchies for rural and urban areas, which inhibited rural–urban interactions, to a city-managing-county model, with rural counties around a city coming under the jurisdiction of the city government. Drawing on field research and statistical data, the paper elucidates the dynamics and complexities of this model, arguing that the combination of city-based bureaucrats favouring the city and the priority given to economic growth mandated by the central government often meant a lack of attention to rural development and support for county government. The paper also comments on the recent development of the province-managing-county model in China, and argues that given an urban-centred administrative system, whether the current reform can change the political and administrative equilibrium in China remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the development of the participatory budgeting (PB) process in the rural villages and communities of the city of Chengdu in China between 2009 and 2012. During this period, more than 40,000 PB-funded projects were implemented in more than 2,300 communities. These projects addressed the growing divide between urban and rural development and increased security of land use rights, resulting in large improvements in the day-to-day lives of millions of villagers. But PB in Chengdu also introduced democratic changes at the local level through processes of deliberation and greater democratic autonomy for village residents. This paper describes the mechanisms through which PB operated locally, and discusses how the process has differed from other instances of PB in China, as well as its innovations in international terms. Despite its successes, PB in Chengdu faces some challenges, namely its expansion from village to township level, the permanent need for support from the Communist Party at a high level, and insufficient research and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mega-events such as the Olympic Games tend to be accompanied by copious media coverage of the negative social impacts of these events, and people in the affected areas are often thought to share similar experiences. The research in this paper, which focused on the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008, unpacks the heterogeneous groups in a particular sector of the housing market to gain a better understanding of how the Games affected different resident groups. The paper critically examines the experience of migrant tenants and Beijing citizens (landlords in particular) in “villages-in-the-city” (known as cheongzhongcun), drawing on their first-hand accounts of the citywide preparations for the Games and the pervasive demolition threats to their neighbourhoods. The paper argues that the Beijing Summer Olympiad produced an uneven, often exclusionary, Games experience for a certain segment of the urban population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Economic decentralization in China has intensified the tension between higher-level and local governments in policy implementation. It is a core development right for local governments in urbanizing China to have construction land quotas determined in local plans. Negotiation around this quota can reveal the hidden rules and operating mechanisms of organizational structures in the urban development field. This paper undertakes a long-term tracing of a planning process in a case study area to reveal the conflicts and bargaining processes that occur when top-down enforcement of relevant policies deviates from or even contradicts local appeals and development goals. This study found that the local governments initially adopted a passive response in order to encourage the opportunity for informal bargaining to maximize their own benefits. The outcome was that higher-level government created incentives and offered flexibility in policy implementation to compensate local government. The role of the planning group in effective information delivery and technical support accelerated consensus reaching with compromise from both higher-level and local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awards and competitions are often used to motivate public servants, and this paper examines how the central government of China uses these to try and motivate cities to improve public hygiene. The authors argue that apart from improving performance,(1) awards and competitions are good at motivating user participation and spreading good practice. However, the design of the schemes used in China tends to prioritize disproportionately the winning mentality, and sometimes causes high costs and social tension. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

This paper reviews water use and water resource issues in Beijing Municipality, the main trends in the agricultural production systems in and around the city with respect to land use, input use, production and economic role, and the impacts of agricultural activities on water quality. Rapid urbanization and strong intensification of agricultural production have meant that the quantity and quality of available water resources have become matters of concern. The agricultural sector still has a major role in supplying the municipality's population with food products, but it is also a major water user and has contributed to large gaps between water supply and demand and to high levels of water pollution. Among the main changes in agriculture in the last decade are the loss of arable land to urbanization, the rapid reduction in the area under grain, and the rapid increase in livestock numbers and in areas under vegetables and orchards. Intensive crop and vegetable production and intensive livestock rearing are major water polluters. The paper also points to some measures being taken to address these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time in modern history, China has become an active, if somewhat still elusive, member of the global system. With this momentous transformation comes myriads of new linkages, new contexts, new demands, new opportunities and new costs and consequences for China/global interaction. Proceeding from the premise that what China does or does not do becomes part of the global problem or part of the global solution, the article seeks to situate post-Mao China in the global/local problematique. The article advances the concept of global learning as a way of exploring diachronic changes and shifts in Chinese global thinking. Global learning is conceptualized as a two-way interactive linkage process in which domestic actors' restructuring of their cognitive maps and the changing global reality mediated by positive participatory experience in the global system become reciprocal in terms of cause and effect, constituting mutually essential parts of the same global/local process. Global learning is applied as a guide to examining Chinese global policy in three issue areas -- global peace; global development; and global human rights. Global learning is also suggested as a possible bridge linking Chinese global policy and global policy studies. The paper concludes that some changes and shifts in Chinese global thinking have occurred and explains them as interest-driven adaptive readjustments to the dual logic of modernization imperative and of the world situation. From a post-Tiananmen perspective, the paper also critically evaluates the nature and scope of Chinese global learning as well as its new possibilities and old limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intersectoral collaboration is important for policy implementation. However, effective collaboration may be difficult to achieve because of poor internal drive to collaborate, disagreements on framing the problem, institutional constraints and poor leadership. This article examines how competitive campaigns stimulate intersectoral collaboration in the context of healthy urban planning. We examine the case of the Creating Hygienic City Campaign in Jingchang, China from 2006 to 2011, illustrating how the city resorted to intersectoral collaboration to achieve the multiple targets and thus improved public and environmental hygiene. The paper argues that a competitive campaign, when well-organized, can overcome some of the barriers to intersectoral collaboration by building a campaign organization team, legitimizing the leadership, and enhancing public awareness and involvement. The article also suggests that the campaign approach in its current form failed to involve local authorities in setting the targets and was unable to sustain certain efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a growing, although still far from comprehensive, literature within China on the impacts of climate change in urban areas; also an evolving policy framework at national level to address these concerns and an increased interest in climate change adaptation from many local governments. This paper summarizes the urban risks and vulnerabilities highlighted by the literature, and reviews central and local government responses. It then assesses policy response, including how this considers vulnerability and future risks, formulates an adaptation strategy, engages stakeholders and assesses adaptive capacity. This shows how the Chinese system limits the influence on climate change adaptation of residents and small businesses, and of social scientists. The reasons for this include the tendency to use climate change as an economic growth engine (and GDP growth remains the most important factor for assessing local government officials’ performance), little provision for participation in policy-making, and weak post-implementation evaluation once a policy has been scaled up at national level. These have affected the quality of evidence-based policy-making and make it difficult to draw lessons from unsuccessful practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many libraries are working hard to facilitate user learning, but in fact, staff learning is even more important. It is the staff members who implement plans and services, and it is their adaptability to the growing world that will directly affect the success and effectiveness of library functions. The staff are therefore expected to upgrade their knowledge and skills continuously in order to contribute and enhance the library’s roles and services in meeting the increasing user needs. This paper presents a research on Library Assistants (LA) as situated learners and how they learn in a university library in Hong Kong. LAs are core members of libraries and they often carry out a whole spectrum of duties and services that are indispensable. The most crucial target of this research is to explore, analyse and interpret the learning issue of the LAs and provide the administrators of the Library with some useful recommendations on how to facilitate a more effective learning environment for staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

The China Hands -- the US Foreign Service officers who served in China during the second world war -- have been portrayed as both villains and tragic heroes of US diplomatic and Cold War history. As villains, they deliberately 'lost' China to the communists in 1949. As tragic heroes, they proposed wise alternatives to US policy in Asia: alternatives that might have pre-empted the war in Vietnam. Rather than render judgment on the recommendation to cooperate with the Chinese communists, this article considers instead the medium through which this recommendation was made, namely diplomatic reporting. A focus on the two most vilified and heroized of the China Hands, Jack Service and John Davies, demonstrates the importance of the evolving tradition of Foreign Service reporting to the rise of the China Hands during the war . It also reveals how, after 1949, the anti-communist attack on the China Hands focused not only on the immediate recommendations of the China Hands, but also on the tradition and practice of diplomatic reporting, thereby suggesting that the medium was itself associated with communism. The effects of this conflation outlasted the internal policy debate to which the China Hands' reports properly belonged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environment & Urbanization is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

Copyright of IFLA Journal is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

The article presents abstracts on the environment and urbanization topics which include the social aspects of employer-provided housing for migrants in China, the relationship between internal migration and social transformation within Pakistani communities, and migrants as a source of revenue in small towns in China.

In developing China, groups of people are facing social exclusion. They are citizens unemployed or with ill health, laborers with poor skills, teenagers in prisons, residents suffering a disaster, and peasants in remote country-side. Library service is crucial for these vulnerable groups. The Sun Yat-sen Library has been active in providing services to these vulnerable groups, creating 56 branch libraries countrywide. The paper describes innovative services provided to residents of a special community for families with financial difficulties, to prisoners — especially juveniles and prisoner students — to a library devastated by flooding, and to two remote mountain communities in Tibet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the digital library services for China's scientific communities, explores the challenges toward sustainable digital libraries, presents a development strategy for digital libraries using Chinese Academy of Sciences as an example, and provides a layered design framework for a digital library in an e-science environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural change in Asia among India, China, and Pakistan has been intense and is directly associated with the instability that has resulted. As these governments move forward on their regional and global power cycles, what points of non-linearity (critical points) yet await the region and the larger system, and with what effect? The article calls for management of the foreign policy role such that comparative calm is sustained in the midst of structural change and uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on African Journal of Information & Communication Technology. The journal provides a publication vehicle for coverage of topics of interest to those involved in computing, communication networks and bioinformatics. AJICT's first issue contains papers from China, Italy, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and the United States. The papers address new and existing areas of information and communication technology (ICT). Despite of being international, the journal is called "African" so as to provide fruits of ICT to people of all nations including the developing countries in Africa. The journal includes papers on ICT research problems relevant to the specific needs of developing countries. The journal is available as an open source periodical of high quality, dealing with contemporary and emerging technical, policy and regulatory matters in ICT.

Hardware, applications, and software are equally important to the comprehensive strength of a country in the high-performance computing (HPC) arena. China has made significant progress in developing HPC systems in recent years. The nation's first win of the Gordon Bell Prize at Supercomputing 2016 (SC16) also represents an accomplishment in HPC applications. China's subsequent win in 2017 shows that the 2016 accomplishment was no accident. However, lacking adequately reliable and scalable application software remains the biggest challenge for China. Scientists and engineers who can develop algorithms and software to effectively use supercomputers are in short supply. The present report describes the current HPC software development landscape in China, including government projects and leading universities/research organizations/companies in terms of developing application software and programming frameworks (middleware), as well as examples of self-developed software in the application areas of energy and physics, aerospace, manufacturing, weather and climate, biotechnology (biotech), material science, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics. In addition, China's demand and supply of HPC experts are analyzed. Data for this report were generated during the first half of 2017. Some modifications to the text have been added to account for new information through the end of 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about a conference on information services that will be held during August 16-17, 2006, in Shanghai, China. The hosts of the conference are the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' Management and Marketing Section; and Shanghai Pudong New Area Government. And the organizers are Shanghai Library; Shanghai Pudong New Area Library; Shanghai Life Sciences Library, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The theme of the conference will be "Library Management and Marketing in a Multicultural World." The working language of the conference is English. Registered participants will be allowed to attend the Opening Ceremony of the 3rd Shanghai International Library Forum on August 17, 2006 free of charge. Participants are invited to submit their papers by June 15, 2006. Topics of interest include: impact of globalization on library management and marketing; information technology and library management and marketing; changing libraries in a multicultural world; case studies of advanced library management and marketing; and how to promote library services.

The purpose of this study is to give an overview of the development of Chinese libraries and library and information science (LIS) in China during 1840 to 2009. The discussion is divided into four historical periods: 1840–1897, 1898–1948, 1949–1977, and 1978–2009. In each of these periods, the author discusses three themes that have had a major influence in the development of libraries and LIS: the social, economic, scientific and political climate in China that influenced the development of libraries and information institutions, and LIS education, which supported the growing profession. In sum, this study reviews the accomplishment of library and information science in China from 1840 to 2009, and the significant efforts of people from different classes, and across several generations, combining the historical background, including the change of regimes, crisis from foreign invasion, and social progress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Working People’s Cultural Palace (WPCP), formerly the Imperial Ancestral Temple, is a celebrated public park near Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing. A closer look at the park, which was created by the government in 1950 to provide recreational activities for the local residents, reveals that it was not primarily used as a conventional urban amenity but rather as an arena for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to launch political campaigns and stage propaganda exhibitions. The park, therefore, under the guise of a recreation area, was used to promote labor policies, international diplomacy and Party politics, thus extending the CCP’s control of people’s lives. Based on recently available archival sources and by comparing the CCP’s use of urban parks to how they were used in the former Soviet Union and in the United States, this article argues that the WPCP reflects the conflict between the state and society, resulting in the domination of the former over the latter and rapid loss of citizens’ private space in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the collapse of long-lived dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt in early 2011, many analysts have turned their attention to China to identify possible stirrings of revolution. Of course, whereas efforts spiraled into revolutionary outcomes in the Middle East and North Africa, the Chinese Jasmine Revolution stimulated little domestic interest and failed to materialize into a popular movement. Beginning with the cases of Egypt and Tunisia, this article critically examines recent literature identifying the causes of the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions to develop several hypotheses on the sources of regime vulnerability in these countries and considers their applicability in explaining the exceptional resilience of single-party rule in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares and explores forms of ‘public’ participation in the development of bioethical governance of human embryonic stem cell research (hESR) in four Asian societies, and in doing so it contributes to the wider discussions on expertise and public inclusion. The article aims to add nuance to the concept of ‘public consultation’ by focusing on the contested meanings and relationships through which public roles and public debates are defined. The analysis seeks to go beyond a straightforward comparison by interpreting public discussions of hESR as being influenced by both local conditions and interconnected global science institutions. An adequate understanding of the public participation in debates on science requires the analysis of (a) particular reasons for scientific issues to require public discussion; (b) pressures of transnational forces; (c) variability of publics relevant to bioethical regulation; and, (d) the effects of institutionalization of bioethics. This study uses data from fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2010 in four Asian countries. Most of the interviews were conducted in the local languages and concerned various kinds of public participation in bioethics activities, as well as the views of stem cell scientists on the need to involve the public in discussions on the acceptability of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China has been held up as a modern-day exemplar of ‘market-preserving federalism.’ This article challenges this popular belief by showing that its local governments face soft budget constraints. Fiscal indiscipline among subnational governments, which risks national indebtedness and macroeconomic instability, can pose serious dangers to federations. A large body of literature which proposes solutions to fiscal indiscipline through electoral incentives and political party structure cannot be applied to China. The Chinese Communist Party’s cadre-evaluation and dual accountability systems make it an imperative for local officials to augment fiscal revenue and allow them to tap resources at local credit institutions. This has resulted in mounting local government debt, the lion’s share of which is unrepaid loans owed to local credit institutions. To harden budget constraints, political institutions need to be reconfigured to allow the central government more effectively to hold local authorities accountable for resources deployed in achieving their job-performance targets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Cultural Palace of Nationalities, one of the Ten Monumental Buildings built in 1959 in Beijing to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), is considered a ‘political building’ in that it brings together ethnicity, architecture, art, technology and, most importantly, representations of the Party-state’s policy on the unity of the many different nationalities in China. A careful examination of the history of the Palace’s construction and its exhibits reveals two unsettling problems: the Chinese Communist Party’s manipulation of official images of national minorities, along with the Party’s difficulties in dealing with ethnic nationalism, regional separatism and local identity in the first decade of the PRC. These same thorny issues continue to cause the current government a major headache. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rapid economic development has increased mass political participation in market reform China. Many electoral authoritarian regimes with a good record of economic development have experienced the growing participation of elite/middle-class citizens. Under the Chinese Communist Party regime, however, the poor mass is the main group to participate drastically more. This is because despite rapid aggregate growth, the mass have suffered extensively from excessive exploitation with high levels of corruption and inequality, which benefits many local elites. The regime has evaded authoritarian election but channeled such mounting participatory demands into an extensive petition (Xinfang) institution nationwide. As a result, the mass petition activism has rapidly increased since the early 1990s. This article finds the specific determinants of such petition activism with newly assembled data on provincial petition frequency and multiple case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present game theoretic models of two of the most famous military bluffs from history. These include the legend of Li Guang and his 100 horsemen (144 BC), and the legend of Zhuge Liang and the Empty City (228 AD). In both legends, the military commander faces a much stronger opposing army, but instead of ordering his men to retreat, he orders them to act in a manner consistent with baiting the enemy into an ambush. The stronger opposing army, uncertain whether it is facing a weak opponent or an ambush, then decides to flee and avoid battle. Military scholars refer to both stories to illustrate the importance of deception in warfare, often highlighting the creativity of the generals’ strategies. We model both situations as signaling games in which the opponent is uncertain whether the general is weak (i.e. has few soldiers) or strong (i.e. has a larger army waiting to ambush his opponent if they engage in combat). We then derive the unique Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium of the games. When the probability of a weak general is high enough, the equilibrium involves mixed strategies, with weak generals sometimes fleeing and sometimes bluffing about their strength. The equilibrium always involves the generals and their opponents acting as they did in the historical examples with at least a positive probability. When the probability of a weak general is lower (which is reasonable given the reputations of Li Guang and Zhuge Liang), then the unique equilibrium always involves bluffing by the general and retreat by his opponent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this report we review the history of high-performance computing (HPC) system development and applications in China and describe the current status of major government programs, HPC centers and facilities, major research institutions, important HPC application fields, and domestic vendor activities. A comparison between China and developed nations, such as the United States, European countries, and Japan, in terms of system development level, application level, and long-term planning, is also briefly provided. In addition, the authors also include a few predictions about future directions for China’s HPC technology and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After just one year of the Spanish Civil War, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident led to the Sino-Japanese War, both conflicts remaining for two years as daily reminders of the world conflicts of the time. This article attempts to emphasize the importance of the coincidence in time of those conflicts in delimiting each bloc, especially through a decision that was particularly divisive for the Japanese government, such as recognition of Franco's rebel government after the outbreak of the war in China. Efforts by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirota Kōki to avoid a decision that would further Japan's pro-Axis drift show the lines of division in the government. His maneuvers progressively failed, including the November 1937 proposal for negotiations to include the recognition of Manchukuo, accepted first by Franco's Spain, later by Italy and finally by the Germans. The article emphasizes the role of Italy in Asia, the reasons for Spanish actions, and the aims of other key persons in this period, such as Prime Minister Konoe, the postwar leader Yoshida Shigeru, or Ishihara Kanji, the officer who masterminded the 1931 invasion of Manchuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's attack on India in 1962 came at a time of high tension in the Cold War, and its objective was not immediately clear. The crisis provided an opportunity for Britain and the US to support India against China and possibly to woo that country towards the western powers. The brevity of the war and the apparently limited Chinese aims did not alter the status quo. However, the crisis demonstrated an Anglo-American willingness to co-operate on South Asian defense policy, although the two tended to differ in their perceptions of the Chinese threat to India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines United States' air aid to China during the Second World War. U.S. War Department's establishment of an American air force in China; Enhancement of combat effectiveness of the Chinese military force; Differences between the countries over military strategies; Identification of causes of Chinese-U.S. conflicts during the most critical years of the War.

The People's Republic of China, as one part of comprehensive changes which extend to the economy and social policy, has moved to change the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to a smaller, more efficient, better-educated force relying more heavily on advanced weapons and high technology. Although Chinese spokesmen insist that war is a continuing phenomenon and that China must be prepared for war, they describe small-scale wars as more likely and deride prior expectations of massive, large-scale war. Policy statements and China's experience since 1949 suggest that the PLA will prepare for defensive war at the border and assertion of Chinese claims in the western Pacific. For the present, however, China insists on the need for a peaceful environment to achieve economic aims. Globally, China urges 'complete prohibition and thorough destruction' of nuclear weapons and criticizes moves to base weapons in space, but pending deep cuts in superpower strategic systems insists on gradual enhancement of China's own nuclear forces. China could encourage moves toward a largely disarmed world, or could insist on sovereign military capabilities re-enforcing today's heavily armed global stalemate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of International Political Science Review is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

Copyright of International Political Science Review is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)