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This research focuses on the under-studied phenomenon of maritime borders by providing a civilian perspective on how fishers live, negotiate, contest, and transcend state borders and surveillance at sea. It explores the everyday transboundary practices of Chinese fishers in the geopolitically sensitive South China Sea (SCS), examining their cross-border tactics to sustain fishing livelihoods and the mechanisms underpinning these tactics. Based on long-term, continuous ethnographic investigations, we unravel four tactics employed by Chinese fishers to elude the constraints of territorial borders: contract production, trans-territorial production, paying for the sea, and the appropriation of marine physicality. These transboundary strategies are supported by three mechanisms, including common fisher identity, historical transnational networks, and regional development structures. This research shows the agency and creativity of fishers in challenging and punctuating maritime territoriality in the context of increasing militarisation and securitisation of borderlands. It illustrates how the distinct materiality, mobility, and temporality of the ocean can be weaponised by fishers to undermine state-bordering processes. By exposing the extensive, dynamic, and complex civilian interactions and collaborations in the region, we demonstrate that the SCS is more than a geopolitical space but at the same time a social site of cooperation and solidarity. In doing so, this research contributes to studies of maritime borders and civilian geopolitical subjectivity by illuminating the flexibility of fishers in exercising powers on borders at sea. It also advances the existing SCS area studies by 'peopling' the political geography of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates fishery governance in Tonlé Sap, Cambodia, with a specific focus on fishery management since 1963 and recent determinants of political participation. The research suggests that the policy reforms leading to the implementation of open-access fisheries have not produced satisfactory outcomes due to inequitable access to fishery resources. The results of statistical analyses reveal: the dependency of small-scale fisherfolk on fishery resources; the level of institutional support available to small-scale fisherfolk; the capacity of the local community; and the important roles fishery management initiatives play in determining the level of political participation in fishery governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese urbanites' housing differentiation is a subject that attracts increasing scholarly attention. Previously, housing differentiation was measured by access to homeownership and housing tenure. Given high Chinese homeownership rates, however, heterogeneity among urban Chinese homeowners should be further decomposed. Many studies identified links between housing differentiation and social stratification, but few have examined residents' responses to their homes. Based on the China Labour-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), this study decomposes homeowners' housing differentiation along three dimensions: housing conditions, housing wealth, and neighbourhood environment. We also examine the impacts of these dimensions on homeowners' subjective social status (SSS). Significant differentiation is found among homeowners in housing conditions, neighbourhood environment, and housing loans. Furthermore, housing wealth and neighbourhood environment affect homeowners' perceived social status. These findings advance housing differentiation studies and have important implications for policies aimed at reducing social inequality and housing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the genealogy of 'Chinese' political geography, which, to a certain extent, can be read as a national report of the status of political geography in Chinese scholarship. It begins by outlining the short duration of the development of political geography in China, compared to the longer history of western political geography. Looking at the extant studies related to political geography in China, this paper suggests an existence of a duality in this field. One strand of scholarship is termed 'exogenous political geography', which is largely influenced by western scholarship with a particular focus on theories and vocabularies from classical geopolitics and geo-economy. The other strand is termed as 'endogenous political geography', which covers rich topics, including, yet not limited to, political and geographical views of inter-state relationships, central-local relationships and emperor-people relationships. Such a duality is important for understanding the condition of current political geography in China. The dualised understanding, however, seems to have undermined the comprehensiveness of political geography in China. In this regard, this paper calls for a more complete, integrated and critical agenda for political geography in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing affordability has become a critical challenge worldwide, consequently constraining young generation from entering the housing market. Despite growing attention to housing inequality in China, little research has been undertaken to reveal the extent to which a family of origin contributes to housing inequality among young adults. Family resources could support the young generation to achieve homeownership not only directly through intergenerational transfers of wealth, but also indirectly through intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic characteristics. Using the 2013 Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey, this study constructs a structural equation model to examine the direct and indirect influence of parents' resources on the young generation's housing outcomes. The results show that the direct influence of parents' homeownership is prominent, whereas the impact of transmitted socioeconomic status is limited. Housing advantages of parents, derived from their superior institutional status during China's housing reforms, are being transmitted to their offspring, particularly to sons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese hukou system has been a hot topic in China study for decades. It not only restricts access to state-sponsored benefits (such as food and housing provision) in pre-reform China, but continues to influence the local-led urbanization in post-reform era. However, few studies have explained why this highly exploitative system persists in China. This paper tries to contribute some insights to interpretation of this issue based on Foucault’s concept of governmentality. It is argued that Chinese hukou system is actually a power relation consisting of a series of governmental technologies based on differentiation, surveillance and calculation in pursuit of economic growth and political stability. The governmental techniques and rationality within the Chinese institutional system make the hukou system persist in modern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antiviral alkaline phosphatase L (AapL) protein ofPseudomonas fluorescensCZ was expressed inEscherichia coli, purified using the Ni-NTA column, and its antiviral activity against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)-infectedNicotianawas tested. The recombinant protein (360 µg/mL) showed stability and most effective suppressionin vitro(94.85%) against TMV. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The existing literature has documented that housing conditions, neighborhood characteristics, and socioeconomics are important determinants of residential satisfaction. However, the contribution of the actual usage of the residential environment to residential satisfaction has rarely been studied. To help fill in this gap, this study examines the contribution of the usage of housing and neighborhoods as well as the affective residential experience to residential satisfaction. We apply a subjective well-being framework and consider residential satisfaction and residential affective experience as two constituent components of the residential domain subjective well-being. Data were collected in Beijing from November 2011 to June 2012. The results show that home and neighborhood activities significantly affect residential satisfaction; higher levels of valence and activation of daily activities at home and in the neighborhood lead to more residential satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Landslides are one of the most destructive disasters that cause damage to both property and life every year. The mountainous terrain, heavy and prolonged rainfall and dense development near steep hillsides make Hong Kong as one of the most vulnerable metropolitans to the risk of landslides. Therefore, regional-specific landslide susceptibility assessment in Hong Kong is necessary for hazard management and effective land use planning. Various methodologies have been proposed for landslide susceptibility mappings. By applying the statistically based frequency ratio and logistic regression models in Lantau Island, Hong Kong, this study attempts to add extra value to the literature of evaluating their ‘prediction rate’ (rather than ‘success rate’) for landslide susceptibility mapping in a temporal context. The spatial relationship among landslide occurrence and nine causative factors (elevation, slope, aspect, plan curvature, profile curvature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), distance to river, distance to fault and lithology) were examined, and landslide susceptibility maps were generated by frequency ratio and logistic regression model. Validations of the mapping results were performed by calculating relative operating characteristics (ROC). Virtually all previous studies randomly extracted and reserved a portion of historical landslide records to perform the model evaluation. In contrast, in this study, 1864 (70%) landslide records in the Enhanced Natural Terrain Landslide Inventory from 2000 to 2008 are utilized to train the model, while the subsequent 799 (30%) landslides occurred from 2008 to 2009 are used for model validation. The validation result shows that logistic regression model (84.05%) possesses a better prediction power than frequency ratio model (76.64%) for the study area. This study attempts to offer a new model assessment strategy for landslide susceptibility mapping. The resultant maps also provide a scientific assessment of the risk areas with respect to landslides on Lantau Island and could serve as a basis for decisions or justification of the Lantau development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]