CHINA´S WTO ACCESSION: ITS IMPACT ON CHINESE EMPLOYMENT

It is often claimed that the WTO membership will benefit China by increasing exports and employment and forcing domestic firms to improve efficiency through competition. Benefits are expected to accrue through improved resource allocation and greater economic efficiency resulting from trade liberalization and greater global competition. In the paper we argue that although some sectors will benefit from competition others will suffer a great deal especially in the short and medium terms. The net overall benefits are likely to accrue only in the long run. During the transition period China will face enormous problems of restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and banking, insurance and financial services, entailing significant loss of employment. The employment impact of the accession with special reference to SOEs is considered since they are generally less competitive than the non-state enterprises. Reduction in SOE employment may not be compensated by an increase in employment in the non-state sector. The experience of three specific industries is discussed: textiles and clothing, automobiles and household appliances. Besides the unemployment impact of the accession, the paper examines the possibility of a ‘flying geese model’ of trade and development working within China to maintain its global competitiveness on account of low labour costs in the hinterland. It also discusses China’s possible response to global competition to protect employment, for example. Three types of response are considered: non-compliance of the WTO accord, devaluation, and a production shift from tradeables to non-tradeables.

Individualizing assembly processes for geometric quality improvement

Dimensional deviations are a consequence of the mass production of parts. These deviations can be controlled by tightening production tolerances. However, this solution is not always desired because it usually increases production costs. The availability of massive amounts of data about products and automatized production has opened new opportunities to improve products\u27 geometrical quality by individualizing the assembly process. This individualization can be conducted through several techniques, including selective assembly, locator adjustments, weld sequence optimization, and clamping sequence optimization in a smart assembly line for spot-welded sheet metal assemblies. This study focuses on two techniques of individualizing the assembly process, selective assembly, and individualized locator adjustments in assembly fixtures. The existing studies and applications of these methods are reviewed, and the research gaps are defined. The previous applications of selective assembly are limited to linear and rigid assemblies. This study develops the application of selective assembly for sheet metal assemblies. This research addresses another research gap regarding the selective assembly of sheet metals by reducing the calculation cost associated with this technique. This study also develops a new locator adjustment method. This method utilizes scanned geometries of mating parts to predict the required adjustments. Afterward, a method for individualized adjustments is also developed. Considering applied and residual stresses during the assembly process as constraints is another contribution of this research to locator adjustments. These methods are applied to three industrial sample cases and the results evaluated. The results illustrate that individualization in locator adjustments can increase geometrical quality improvements three to four times.Accumulation of the potential improvements from both techniques in a smart assembly line is also evaluated in this study. The results indicate that combining the techniques may not increase the geometrical quality significantly relative to using only individualized locator adjustments.A crucial factor in the achievable improvements through individualization is the utilized assembly fixture layout. This study develops a method of designing the optimal fixture layout for sheet metal assemblies. Different design and production strategies are investigated to acquire the maximum potential for geometrical improvements through individualization in self-adjusting smart assembly lines

Transplanting Organ Donors with Printers: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Manufacturing Organs

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is no longer restricted to simple inanimate objects; that conjecture is a thing of the past. With advancements in many areas of science, living tissues and organs can now be printed through a technique called 3D bioprinting. This technology could potentially save the lives of the 120,000 Americans in need of an organ transplant. However, whether or not a 3D bioprinted organ qualifies as a “human organ” under the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) and whether 3D bioprinted organs require federal approval could either delay or completely bar this technology’s promise. The Ninth Circuit’s Flynn v. Holder and Richards v. Holder and the federal approval requirement for lab-grown organs bolster the interpretation that a manufactured organ would be a “human organ.” The ethical ramifications of 3D bioprinting might also detract from the benefits it promises to offer. If and until the federal government approves it, private creation and selling of 3D bioprinted organs would exacerbate organ selling on the black market. With increasing progressive ventures in medicine, it may be an appropriate time for Congress to amend NOTA

Political Economy of Additional Development Finance

The paper considers the political obstacles and supports for additional development finance and a number of possible devices through which advantage may be taken of the supports and the obstacles circumvented. It emphasizes the need for effective negotiating alliances among developing-country governments that will draw on support from outside their own ranks. It gives particular attention to the 'innovative' methods by which funds might be mobilized by transnational activity for global disposal within a strategy for the progressive reduction of poverty. In order to eliminate one difficulty it outlines a possible arrangement through which funds so raised might be allocated.development finance, aid, Tobin Tax, global governance

Models of atypical development must also be models of normal development

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of developmental disorders and normal cognition that include children are becoming increasingly common and represent part of a newly expanding field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. These studies have illustrated the importance of the process of development in understanding brain mechanisms underlying cognition and including children ill the study of the etiology of developmental disorders

Are developmental disorders like cases of adult brain damage? Implications from connectionist modelling

It is often assumed that similar domain-specific behavioural impairments found in cases of adult brain damage and developmental disorders correspond to similar underlying causes, and can serve as convergent evidence for the modular structure of the normal adult cognitive system. We argue that this correspondence is contingent on an unsupported assumption that atypical development can produce selective deficits while the rest of the system develops normally (Residual Normality), and that this assumption tends to bias data collection in the field. Based on a review of connectionist models of acquired and developmental disorders in the domains of reading and past tense, as well as on new simulations, we explore the computational viability of Residual Normality and the potential role of development in producing behavioural deficits. Simulations demonstrate that damage to a developmental model can produce very different effects depending on whether it occurs prior to or following the training process. Because developmental disorders typically involve damage prior to learning, we conclude that the developmental process is a key component of the explanation of endstate impairments in such disorders. Further simulations demonstrate that in simple connectionist learning systems, the assumption of Residual Normality is undermined by processes of compensation or alteration elsewhere in the system. We outline the precise computational conditions required for Residual Normality to hold in development, and suggest that in many cases it is an unlikely hypothesis. We conclude that in developmental disorders, inferences from behavioural deficits to underlying structure crucially depend on developmental conditions, and that the process of ontogenetic development cannot be ignored in constructing models of developmental disorders