The History of Public Relations in China: A Western Comparison and Beyond

During my six month study abroad expericence in Hong Kong, I became fascinated by the duality of China mainland and its “Special Administrative Region”, (Hong Kong) from a public relations perspective. With its one government, two system approach to politics, I sought to understand how the practice of public relations evolved in these two regions. Through literary analysis, personal interviews with public relations practitioners and personal observations during an internship in Hong Kong, I explore the development of the public relations practice in China and Hong Kong through first a western lens, and then through a global perspective. My first analysis utilizes a western lens of comparison, using public relations models set forth by the alleged forefathers of public relations, James Grunig and James Hunt. I begin this section by defining the four models of public relations evolution as described by Gruing and Hunt. I then explore how public relations in China mainland has progressed through these four models and where it stands now. Similarly, I look at the history of public relations in Hong Kong, also relating to the four western models of the practice. Yet due to Hong Kong’s much younger history, I include both personal observations and interviews with current public relations practitioners as well. Through case studies and other literary analysis I draw the conclusion that both Hong Kong and China have not quite achieved the most evolved or mature level of public relations practice, due to the lack of two-way, symmetrical communication in several key incidents. I then suggest that perhaps this western lens limits a thorough analysis of the public relations in a country that may not adhere to the same cultural, political, and economic contextual factors. In my second perspective of public relations, I analyze the dangers of an ethnocentric approach, or the assumption that all practitioners around the globe should practice a western model of public relations. My analysis calls upon public relations scholars who suggest a more global approach and the main factors that influence its use. I conclude that measuring the evolution of public relations through a western standard does not always accurately capture the practice and meaning of its use in other cultures. It is the global exchange and observation of public relations practiced differently around the world that will continue to develop towards a best practice for each country or culture

Evaluating Population Origins and Interpretations of Identity: a Case Study of the Lemba of South Africa

This study compares genetics and linguistics of the Lemba, a population living primarily in South Africa, as a means to identify any possible correlation between these two sources, to better understand how identity is impacted by ancestry testing, and to examine the Lemba’s claim to Jewish ancestry with this evidence. The methods compare allele frequency data from several populations that were expected, based on Spurdle and Jenkins (1996), Casanova et al (1985), Ritte et al. (1993), Santachiara Benerecetti et al (1993), and Soodyall (2013), to be geographically proximate to and thereby more closely related the Lemban people. Results were clustered by language community to detect possible correlations. The different frequencies considered yielded dissimilar relationships between genetic and linguistic clusters, thus supporting the independence of mechanisms of linguistic and genetic change. These results contribute to the discussion of how identity can be validated or undermined by demonstrating three sources, geographic, linguistic, and genetic, by which to derive an identity and how these can produce contradictory answers

Educación para la Ciudadanía Global a nivel local: un análisis comparado de cuatro distritos urbanos estadounidenses

This paper focuses on exploring how education for global citizenship and competence is being defined and practiced within the U.S. education policy landscape, with a specific focus on the local primary and secondary school level. Against a framework of the multiple conceptions and forms of global citizenship education, including “at home,” “abroad,” and “comprehensive” approaches, the paper explores some select ways in which global citizenship education is developing in select local initiatives. We specifically examine the definitions and practices of global citizenship education in four urban school districts: Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Findings show a focus on global citizenship and global competency in local initiatives, but also illustrate multiple approaches to global citizenship education, revealing diverse system ecologies within the national system. Este artículo se centra en explorar cómo se está definiendo y practicando la educación para la ciudadanía global dentro del panorama de la política educativa de los Estados Unidos, con un enfoque específico en el nivel local de educación primaria y secundaria. En el marco de las múltiples concepciones y formas de educación para la ciudadanía global, incluidos los enfoques “en el hogar”, “en el extranjero” y “el comprensivo”, el trabajo explora algunas maneras en las que se desarrolla la educación para la ciudadanía global a través de una selección de iniciativas locales. Examinamos específicamente las definiciones y prácticas de la educación para la ciudadanía global en cuatro distritos escolares urbanos: Boston, Chicago, Seattle y Washington D.C. Los hallazgos muestran un enfoque epara la ciudadanía global y la competencia global en iniciativas locales, pero también ilustran múltiples enfoques de la educación para la ciudadanía global, revelando diversas ecologías de sistemas dentro del sistema nacional

A watershed approach to recovering salmon in changing climate conditions

The Snohomish Basin Forum adopted the Snohomish Basin Protection Plan in 2015 which clearly stated that the survival of our iconic salmon will be challenged by climate change. From that integrative watershed planning effort the Snohomish Basin Technical Committee investigated how locally predicted impacts of climate change affect salmon recovery in the Snohomish Basin and what key actions can be taken to ameliorate those impacts. As the basin continues to implement the Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Plan, it will be critical to restore and protect areas that preserve the basin’s hydrologic patterns and key habitat functions that support salmon in their various life stages. Restoration and protection actions implemented will need to remain successful as the changing climate shapes our natural system. It will be critical to incorporate what is known about climate change impacts into our salmon recovery plans and strategies

The Rise of a New Mental Health Epidemic: TikTok and Social Media, and Their Negative Impact on Young Adults

The effects of TikTok and social media are explored to understand how detrimental social networking sites are to one\u27s mental health. The research and literature show how the overuse of social media contributes to social media addiction, mental health issues, body dysmorphia, and cyberbullying. A study is analyzed that reports how many are affected by cyberbullying and whether they received counseling for their mental health. It was concluded that social media does much more harm than good, and users could try altering their lives by reducing the amount of time spent on social networking sites

Early Post-Fire Recovery on a Heavily Visited Mojave Desert Burn: Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, Nevada

Wildfire has become widespread in southwestern USA deserts. In a record 2005 fire season in the Mojave Desert, for example, more than 385,000 hectares burned (Brooks and Matchett 2006). This burned area is approximately 3% of the entire Mojave Desert. Fueled in large part by exotic annual grasses, these fires burned desert ecosystems thought to have only burned infrequently historically. Burns now occupy significant portions of desert landscapes, posing prominent management challenges. Improving our understanding of plant recovery on desert burns is important for evaluating future fire hazard, whether natural revegetation will meet management objectives, and for planning active revegetation if this becomes a management goal. Desert burns may afford an opportunity for intervention in the grass-fire cycle immediately following a burn if exotic grass competition is temporarily reduced while available nutrients liberated by the fire increase. However, post-fire recovery of plant communities is not a well understood process in desert ecosystems

Early post-fire plant establishment on a Mojave Desert burn

Fire has become more extensive in recent decades in southwestern United States arid lands. Burned areas pose management challenges and opportunities, and increasing our understanding of post-fire plant colonization may assist management decision-making. We examined plant communities, soils, and soil seed banks two years after the 2005 Loop Fire, located in a creosote-blackbrush community in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in southern Nevada’s Mojave Desert. Based on a spring sampling of 20, 0.01-ha plots, live + dead cover of the exotic annual Bromus rubens averaged nine times lower on the burn than on a paired unburned area. Perennial species composition shifted from dominance by late-successional native shrubs (e.g., Coleogyne ramosissima) on the unburned area, to dominance by native perennial forbs (e.g., Sphaeralcea ambigua, Baileya multiradiata) on the burn. Species richness of live plants averaged 26% (100 m2 scale) and 239% (1 m2 scale) greater on the burn compared to the unburned area. Only 5% of Larrea tridentata individuals resprouted, compared to 64% of Yucca schidigera and baccata. Fire and microsite (interspace, below L. tridentata, or below Yucca) interacted to affect several 0–5 cm soil properties, with higher pH, conductivity, and total P and K on burned Yucca microsites. Bromus rubens density in 0–5 cm soil seed banks was four times lower on the burn, and its distribution among microsites reversed. Below-shrub microsites contained the most B. rubens seeds on the unburned area, but the least on the burned area. Intense fire below shrubs may have increased seed mortality, an idea supported by .3-fold decreases we found in emergence density after heating seed bank samples to 100uC. Our study occurred after a post-fire period of below-average precipitation, underscoring a need for longer term monitoring that characterizes moister years

Understanding the Issues of Coparenting in Indonesia

Family plays an important role in children’s growth and development. The mechanism of co-parenting is empirically proven to have an impact in marital relationship and child development. However, the number of empirical studies on co-parenting in Indonesia is still very limited. The purpose of this study is to examine the issue of co-parenting among parents in Indonesia and to understand ways to develop effective co-parenting. This study uses a qualitative method approach. The data collection method used in this study is focused group discussion to 30 participants, including 15 fathers and 15 mothers. The study found that imbalances in the division of roles between partners and the difficulties in finding agreements are the biggest challenges for fathers and mothers. This study also found that there are four factors to implement an effective co-parenting, which are discussion, agreement in task division, giving appreciation, and good parenting references.

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Spring 2008

Post-fire restoration, fire chronosequence study, Joint Fire Science update, Weed Sentry program and DNWR survey

HST/WFC3 Observations of an Off-Nuclear Superbubble in Arp 220

We present a high spatial resolution optical and infrared study of the circumnuclear region in Arp 220, a late-stage galaxy merger. Narrowband imaging using HST/WFC3 has resolved the previously observed peak in H$\alpha$+[NII] emission into a bubble-shaped feature. This feature measures 1.6" in diameter, or 600 pc, and is only 1" northwest of the western nucleus. The bubble is aligned with the western nucleus and the large-scale outflow axis seen in X-rays. We explore several possibilities for the bubble origin, including a jet or outflow from a hidden active galactic nucleus (AGN), outflows from high levels of star formation within the few hundred pc nuclear gas disk, or an ultraluminous X-ray source. An obscured AGN or high levels of star formation within the inner $\sim$100 pc of the nuclei are favored based on the alignment of the bubble and energetics arguments.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 12 pages, 10 figure