2,060 research outputs found
Structuring the State’s Voice of Contention in Harmonious Society: How Party Newspapers Cover Social Protests in China
During the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign of building a ‘harmonious society’, how do the official newspapers cover the instances of social contention on the ground? Answering this question will shed light not only on how the party press works but also on how the state and the society interact in today’s China. This thesis conceptualises this phenomenon with a multi-faceted and multi-levelled notion of ‘state-initiated contentious public sphere’ to capture the complexity of mediated relations between the state and social contention in the party press. Adopting a relational approach, this thesis analyses 1758 news reports of ‘mass incident’ in the People’s Daily and the Guangming Daily between 2004 and 2020, employing cluster analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and social network analysis. The thesis finds significant differences in the patterns of contentious coverage in the party press at the level of event and province and an uneven distribution of attention to social contention across incidents and regions. For ‘reported regions’, the thesis distinguishes four types of coverage and presents how party press responds differently to social contention in different scenarios at the provincial level. For ‘identified incidents’, the thesis distinguishes a cumulative type of visibility based on the quantity of coverage from a relational visibility based on the structure emerging from coverage and explains how different news-making rationales determine whether instances receive similar amounts of coverage or occupy similar positions within coverage. Eventually, by demonstrating how the Chinese state strategically uses party press to respond to social contention and how social contention is journalistically placed in different positions in the state’s eyes, this thesis argues that what social contention leads to is the establishment of complex state-contention relations channelled through the party press
Measuring the Impact of China’s Digital Heritage: Developing Multidimensional Impact Indicators for Digital Museum Resources
This research investigates how to best assess the impact of China’s digital heritage and focuses on digital museum resources. It is motivated by the need for tools to help governing bodies and heritage organisations assess the impact of digital heritage resources. The research sits at the intersection of Chinese cultural heritage, digital heritage, and impact assessment (IA) studies, which forms the theoretical framework of the thesis. Informed by the Balanced Value Impact (BVI) Model, this thesis addresses the following questions: 1. How do Western heritage discourses and Chinese culture shape ‘cultural heritage’ and the museum digital ecosystem in modern China? 2. Which indicators demonstrate the multidimensional impacts of digital museum resources in China? How should the BVI Model be adapted to fit the Chinese cultural landscape? 3. How do different stakeholders perceive these impact indicators? What are the implications for impact indicator development and application? This research applies a mixed-method approach, combining desk research, survey, and interview with both public audiences and museum professionals. The research findings identify 18 impact indicators, covering economic, social, innovation and operational dimensions. Notably, the perceived usefulness and importance of different impact indicators vary among and between public participants and museum professionals. The study finds the BVI Model helpful in guiding the indicator development process, particularly in laying a solid foundation to inform decision-making. The Strategic Perspectives and Value Lenses provide a structure to organise various indicators and keep them focused on the impact objectives. However, the findings also suggest that the Value Lenses are merely signifiers; their signified meanings change with cultural contexts and should be examined when the Model is applied in a different cultural setting. This research addresses the absence of digital resource IA in China’s heritage sector. It contributes to the field of IA for digital heritage within and beyond the Chinese context by challenging the current target-setting culture in performance evaluation. Moreover, the research ratifies the utility of the BVI Model while modifying it to fit China’s unique cultural setting. This thesis as a whole demonstrates the value of using multidimensional impact indicators for evidence-based decision-making and better museum practices in the digital domain
Deterrence Gap: Avoiding War in the Taiwan Strait
The likelihood China will attack Taiwan in the next decade is high and will continue to be so, unless Taipei and Washington take urgent steps to restore deterrence across the Taiwan Strait. This monograph introduces the concept of interlocking deterrents, explains why deterrents lose their potency with the passage of time, and provides concrete recommendations for how Taiwan, the United States, and other regional powers can develop multiple, interlocking deterrents that will ensure Taiwanese security in the short and longer terms. By joining deterrence theory with an empirical analysis of Taiwanese, Chinese, and US policies, the monograph provides US military and policy practitioners new insights into ways to deter the People’s Republic of China from invading Taiwan without relying exclusively on the threat of great-power war.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1960/thumbnail.jp
Biomedical and Pharmacological Applications of Marine Collagen
Biomimetic polymers and materials have been widely used in a variety of biomedical and pharmacological applications. Particularly, collagen-based biomaterials have been extensively applied in various biomedical fields, such as scaffolds in tissue engineering. However, there are many challenges associated with the use of mammalian collagen, including the issues of religious constrains, allergic or autoimmune reactions, and the spread of animal diseases. Over the past few decades, marine collagen (MC) has emerged as a promising biomaterial for biomedical and pharmacological applications. Marine organisms are a rich source of structurally novel and biologically active compounds, and to date, many biological components have been isolated from various marine resources. MC offers advantages over mammalian collagen due to its water solubility, low immunogenicity, safety, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity, functionality, and low production costs. Due to its characteristics and physicobiochemical properties, it has tremendous potential for use as a scaffold biomaterial in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, in drug delivery systems, and as a therapeutic. In this Special Issue, we encourage submissions related to the recent developments, advancements, trends, challenges, and future perspectives in this new research field. We expect to receive contributions from different areas of multidisciplinary research, including—but not restricted to—extraction, purification, characterization, fabrication, and experimentation of MC, with a particular focus on their biotechnological, biomedical and pharmacological uses
The influence of CEO leadership on organizational learning in internationalizing high-tech companies in China
This research explores how CEO leadership affects the learning process of internationalizing high-tech companies. There has been a growing recognition of the role of leadership in the international learning process. For example, scholars have discussed the influence of several factors, such as leaders’ cognition, decision-making style, and entrepreneurship, on international learning process. Moreover, CEO leadership has been treated as an important factor that can affect a company’s organizational learning. However, very few studies have discussed the role of leadership in the organizational learning process of companies’ internationalization. Based on a review of existing research gaps in the role of leadership in organizational and international learning literature, this research seeks to gain rich insights into how leadership influences organizational learning in high-tech companies’ internationalizing in the Chinese context. This research focused on two common leadership styles in China, authoritarian leadership and empowering leadership. These two leadership styles can be explained through Chinese traditional philosophy and from the lens of power, authoritarian leadership and empowering leadership are deserved to be compared.
This research adopts a qualitative approach based on 8 case studies of Chinese high-tech internationalizing companies. Semi-structured interviews with the CEO and at least two senior managers were carried out in each case. This research contributes to international learning process literature. CEO leadership is proposed as a key factor that can influence each construct associated with the international learning process and cause different international learning processes. This research also contributes to both leadership and internationalization literature as it uses organizational learning as a bridge linking leadership and internationalization. Different leadership styles could cause different internationalization outcomes in performance and management perspectives due to different international learning processes. Moreover, CEO leadership could be changed during companies’ internationalization process
System dynamics simulation and regulation of human-water system coevolution in Northwest China
The human-water system synergy in Northwest China has become more significant as the ecological civilization construction continues and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in China proceeds. In this study, taking the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region as a typical research region, the human–water system coevolution model was established by coupling SD (System Dynamics) model and coevolution model from the theoretical perspective of complex system synergies, to simulate the human-water system’s coevolution trends from 2010 to 2030 in this region. Five regulation schemes were then designed to enhance the synergy of the human-water system by adjusting sensitive decision variables. The results revealed that the supply to demand ratio of water and the synergy index of the human-water system obtained by the status continuation scheme would decline from 1.02 and 0.39 in 2020 to 0.81 and 0.35 in 2030, respectively, indicating the growing gap between water supply and demand and revealing the worsening human-water relationship. Under the comprehensive optimization scheme, the supply to demand ratio of water and the synergy index of the human-water system would be higher than under the other schemes, demonstrating a substantially improved human-water relationship. Hence, a comprehensive optimization regulation scheme is proposed. This scheme combines improving pro-environmental water consumption, adapting industrial structures, and carrying out water conservation and pollution prevention. This research renders a decision-making basis for regulating regional water resources and finding paths to developing a harmonious relationship between humans and water
Climate change: strategies for mitigation and adaptation
The sustainability of life on Earth is under increasing threat due to human-induced climate change. This perilous change in the Earth's climate is caused by increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, primarily due to emissions associated with burning fossil fuels. Over the next two to three decades, the effects of climate change, such as heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and floods, are expected to worsen, posing greater risks to human health and global stability. These trends call for the implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Pollution and environmental degradation exacerbate existing problems and make people and nature more susceptible to the effects of climate change. In this review, we examine the current state of global climate change from different perspectives. We summarize evidence of climate change in Earth’s spheres, discuss emission pathways and drivers of climate change, and analyze the impact of climate change on environmental and human health. We also explore strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation and highlight key challenges for reversing and adapting to global climate change
Środowisko rozwoju regionalnego, działania władz lokalnych i zrównoważony rozwój: dowody empiryczne z Chin
After the rapid economic growth through reform and opening-up over 40 years, Chinese governments are seeking transformation for high-quality and sustainable development currently. Regional economic development is related to internal and external environments as well as local government’s character behaviors. Employing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Consciousness-Context-Behavior (CCB) theory, we construct a theoretical framework to measure the relationships between regional development environment (RDE), local government’s character behavior (LGCB), and regional sustainable capability (RSC). We collect the data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2001 to 2020 to conduct hypothesis testing and empirical analysis. The results show that both RDE and LGCB are associated with RSC, and LGCB significantly mediates the relationship between RDE and RSC. However, the effects of different RDE elements on RSC are heterogeneous. Our study enriches regional sustainable development theory. It arouses us to better understand LGCB and attach importance to the roles of RDE and LGCB in regional sustainability. The enlightenment is important to global developing countries.Po szybkim wzroście gospodarczym poprzez reformy i otwarcie w ciągu 40 lat, chińskie rządy dążą obecnie do transformacji w celu zapewnienia wysokiej jakości i zrównoważonego rozwoju. Regionalny rozwój gospodarczy jest powiązany z otoczeniem wewnętrznym i zewnętrznym oraz charakterem zachowań samorządu terytorialnego. Wykorzystując teorię programowania neurolingwistycznego (NLP) i świadomość-kontekst-behawior (CCB), konstruujemy ramy teoretyczne do pomiaru relacji między środowiskiem rozwoju regionalnego (RDE), zachowaniem charakteru samorządu lokalnego (LGCB) a zrównoważonym potencjałem regionalnym (RSC). Zbieramy dane z 30 prowincji w Chinach kontynentalnych od 2001 do 2020 roku, aby przeprowadzić testowanie hipotez i analizę empiryczną. Wyniki pokazują, że zarówno RDE, jak i LGCB są powiązane z RSC, a LGCB znacząco pośredniczy w relacji między RDE i RSC. Jednak wpływ różnych elementów RDE na RSC jest niejednorodny. Nasze badanie wzbogaca regionalną teorię zrównoważonego rozwoju. Pobudza nas to do lepszego zrozumienia LGCB i przywiązania wagi do roli RDE i LGCB w zrównoważonym rozwoju regionalnym. Oświecenie jest ważne dla globalnych krajów rozwijających się
Effects of Volcanic Activity on Organic Matter Enrichment in the Sediments and its Implications for Oil and Gas Exploration and Development
Volcanic activity is an important geological phenomenon in the evolution and development of the earth and brings rich resources to benefit human society, such as geothermal resources, valuable minerals, petroleum, and natural gas, although volcanic eruptions cause serious threats to the ecological environment of our planet. The co-development of oil and gas and volcanic activity in the same basin is a common phenomenon globally. Volcanic activity can bring abundant nutrients into the basins, conducive to the development of algae and other microorganisms in the water body. After the death of organisms, their remaining settles down to the water bottom and accumulate in the sediments. Meanwhile, reducing gases, releasing along with the volcano eruption, including H2S, CO2, etc., result in anoxia in the water body, benefiting the preservation of organic matter at the bottom and brings a large amount of material basis for the generation of oil and gas. Additionally, volcanic activity and hydrothermal fluids are rich in acid substances, will dissolve part of the minerals in the formation, generates a large number of migration channels for oil and gas migration. Some volcanic rocks are rich in pores, making them natural tanks for oil and gas storage. However, volcanic activity also has destructive effects on oil and gas accumulation. High hydrothermal/volcanic input can dilute primary productivity or reduce the abundance of organic matter due to high deposition rates, while excessive volcanic activity or hydrothermal fluid input can introduce large amounts of sulfate into the water, causing strong bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR). The high consumption of organic matter can hamper the organic matter enrichment. Therefore, how to define appropriate volcanic activity conducive to organic carbon preservation, and to establish the relationship model between volcanic activity and organic matter enrichment, are key scientific issues
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