Professional ethics: a life-long pursuit by an engineer

After an engineering student has finished the studies in a college, he (or she) is prepared to, usually with much enthusiasm and high hopes, embark into a new world to make use of what he has learnt for the betterment of the society and the engineering profession. The pursuit of the “Real”, the “Good”, and the “Beautiful” has been the highest goal. With the dawning of the e-Commerce and “Dot-Com” era, with the IT (Information Technology) heat sweeping through the world and catching everyone by surprise, and with the rapid replacement of traditional materialistic substances by their electronic and cyber counterparts, we will witness a new economic order and have to adapt ourselves to changes in the engineering discipline. An important goal of continual and life-long education for an engineer is coping with changes around us while discharging various responsibilities required by the profession. This paper discusses, from the perspective of the IT profession and with reference to IT-related scenarios, the issues about professional ethics and the various expectation and requirements made on its members by a professional body

Protectionism Actually Hurts U.S. Jobs And Economy: An Investigation Of Proponents And Opponents

Outsourcing is an issue that is generating a lot of debate in the Pacific Northwest, often in response to stories about job cuts and fears that workers will get left out in the cold. However, much of what we read and hear about outsourcing is based on misinformation, no information, or just plain politics. Every major national study confirms that outsourcing creates more jobs than it destroys in the U.S. One of the most persistent complaints against globalization is that it destroys jobs. Many people believe that, the more shoes or cars or steel beams we import to the U.S., the fewer we produce ourselves and the fewer Americans with jobs in those industries. Anxiety about trade and jobs is especially acute about imports from poor countries, where workers typically earn a fraction of the wages earned by American workers. The most ardent proponents of free trade will grant that its benefits are not universally distributed, while it almost always outweighs the costs. Along with the many winners come smaller but still real numbers of losers: people whose jobs are indeed put in jeopardy and even eliminated by competition from imports. For those people, the benefits of lower prices, higher quality, and wider consumer choices can be swamped, at least temporarily, by the trauma of losing their jobs. The purpose of this research is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of protectionism and its impacts on U.S. jobs and the economy

Do Chinese Stock Markets React To The Newspaper Recommendations?

This paper studies how the stock prices in Chinese stock markets react to the stock recommendations from a Chinese business newspaper Zhong Guo Zheng Quan Bao (China Security). Using event study methodology and market model as a benchmark, we calculate abnormal returns to ascertain the impact of published recommendations. We find that there are no statistically significant long-term abnormal returns associated with the published recommendations. However, there are profitable opportunities if investors act prior to the published recommendations. We also find that the recommendations from the newspaper causes a significant short term movement two days after the publication day, suggesting a delayed response from the investors who act on the recommendation. The delayed response shows the gradual dissemination of the information in Chinese stock markets. In summary, these results indicate that press recommendations of Chinese stocks contain no useful economic information for investors who act on the published recommendations. The possible abnormal returns for investors who buy the stocks before the recommendations are made public are evidence of a market that is strong-form inefficient and the delayed response from investors to the newspaper recommendations is most likely the evidence of a market that is semi-strong-form inefficient

Economic Growth And FDI In China

This paper studies the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in economic development in China. By analyzing the data from China and comparing China with other developed and developing countries, the paper finds that FDI becomes a force in economic growth, especially in the later stage of industrialization; Specifically, the paper finds that a country’s foreign trade is the engine in the initial stage of the economic development, while FDI is the main force in the post-industrialization stage

Can Collaborative Knowledge Building Promote Both Scientific Processes and Science Achievement?

This study investigated the role of collective knowledge building in promoting scientific inquiry and achievements among Hong Kong high-school chemistry students. The participants included 34 Grade 10 (15-16 years old) students who engaged in collective inquiry and progressive discourse, using Knowledge Forum@, a computer-supported learning environment. A comparison class of 35 students also participated in the study. The instructional design, premised on knowledge-building principles including epistemic agency, improvable ideas and community knowledge, consisted of several components: developing a collaborative classroom culture, engaging in problem-centered inquiry, deepening the knowledge-building discourse, and aligning assessment with collective learning. Quantitative findings show that the students in the knowledge-building classroom outperformed the comparison students in scientific understanding with sustained effects in public examination. Analyses of knowledge-building dynamics indicate that the students showed deeper engagement and inquiry over time. Students’ collaboration and inquiry on Knowledge Forum significantly predicted their scientific understanding, over and above the effects of their prior science achievement. Qualitative analyses suggest how student’s knowledge-creation discourse, involving explanatory inquiry, constructive use of information and theory revision,can scaffold scientific understanding

UNDERSTANDING THE DETERMINANTS OF BLOCKCHAIN ADOPTION IN SUPPLY CHAINS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN CHINA

This study adopts affordance approach to understand how supply chain managers interpret the possible benefits that can be performed within blockchain-enabled supply chain applications. With a focus on governance efficiency improvement, the impacts of traceability and transparency affordance on uncertainty reduction were examined from the perspective of transaction cost theory in supply chain industry. Partial least squares – structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data collected from 364 experienced supply chain managers in China. The results revealed that traceability affordance exerted significant impacts on environmental and trading partner uncertainty rather than transparency affordance, which in turn affected the adoption intention. This study contributes to the extant literature by embedding transaction cost in blockchain affordances. The findings are useful in guiding practitioners to improve blockchain system design for reducing uncertainties in supply chain environment, leading to a higher adoption rate of blockchain technology

Oseltamivir- and Amantadine-Resistant Influenza Viruses A (H1N1)

Surveillance of amantadine and oseltamivir resistance among influenza viruses was begun in Hong Kong in 2006. In 2008, while both A/Brisbane/59/2007-like and A/Hong Kong/2652/2006-like viruses (H1N1) were cocirculating, we detected amantadine and oseltamivir resistance among A/Hong Kong/2652/2006-like viruses (H1N1), caused by genetic reassortment or spontaneous mutation