Predicting China’s Land-use Change and Soil Carbon Sequestration under Alternative Climate Change Scenarios

This paper examines and predicts the effects of climate change and climate extremes on China’s land use conversion and soil carbon sequestration under two alternative climate change scenarios. It intends to investigate the following three questions. 1) How did climate factors affect land-use conversion in China from 1988 to 2000 and what was the relative importance of these factors? 2) How would the predicted future climate change pattern affect land-use choice under alternative climate change scenarios? 3) How would the predicted future climate pattern change the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon in China? The study makes two contributions to the literature. First, it integrates climate change, land use conversion, and soil carbon sequestration into a whole model, which facilitates a comprehensive, systematic analysis. Second, it employs a unique dataset, consisting of high-quality Geographic Information System (GIS) data on climate, land use, and soil properties. To the best of our knowledge, no one has used such detailed Chinese data for economic research.Land-use change, soil carbon sequestration, climate change, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

NATURE OF THE FIRM: A STUDY ON DEVELOPERS IN CHINA AND HONG KONG

In Hong Kong, dwellings are fitted with neat and tidy paintings, well decorated floor and wall tiles. Equipped with world�renowned kitchen and bathroom appliance, housing owners can move in with a bag of cloths. Builders in China, however, only provide fundamental elements such as windows, doors, ironmongery and grayish wall. By the time home purchasers receive their dwellings, they need to do a lot of shopping before they can move in. They need to buy water closet, tiles, towel rings and so on. Scope of services provided by Hong Kong developers is much wider than those in China�s. Ronald Coase, Nobel economist 1991 addresses two questions in his 1937 paper: why firms exist and what determines their scale and scope. What are the major determining factors which affect the size of the developers and their scope of services? Few or even no paper has studied this issue. This paper reviews that unpredictable rules and regulations couple with poor law drafting decrease firms� incentive in vertical integration.firm, developers, Hong Kong, China

Laozi benyi: politische Philosophie für die letzte Phase der Zeit

A classic offers us a multitude of possibilities for interpretation. The Laozi (老子), sometimes also titled Dao De Jing (道德經), is no doubt one of the most influential and controversial philosophical Chinese classics, and it has inspired numerous annotations and interpretations ever since pre-Qin times (221 B.C.–206 B.C.). This paper aims to analyse the interpretation and annotation of the Laozi by Wei Yuan, a scholar from the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), written roughly two thousand years after the original text was created.Klasik nam nudi mnoštvo mogućnosti za interpretaciju. Laozi (老子), ponekad zvan Dao De Jing (道德經), bez sumnje je jedan od najutjecajnijih i najkontroverznijih kineskih filozofskih klasika, te je inspirirao brojne komentare i tumačenja još od vremena prije Qin dinastije (221.– 206. pr. Kr.) Ovaj članak nastoji analizirati komentar i tumačenje Laozia od strane Wei Yuana, učenjaka iz razdoblja dinastije Qing (1644.–1911.), napisane gotovo dvije tisuće godina nakon originalnoga teksta.Un classique nous offre une multitude de possibilités pour l’interprétation. Laozi (老子), connu également sous le nom de Dao De Jing, est sans aucuns doutes l’un des philosophes classiques chinois les plus influents et controversés qui a inspiré un nombre important de commentaires et d’interprétations avant la dynastie Qin (221–206 av. J.-C). Cette article tente d’analyser le commentaire et l’interprétation de Laozi par Wei Yuana, étudiant durant la période de la dynastie Qing (1664–1911), écrit pratiquement deux mille ans après le texte original.Der Klassiker bietet uns eine Vielfalt an Interpretationsmöglichkeiten. Laozi (老子), manchmal auch Daodejing (道德經) betitelt, ist zweifellos einer der einflussreichsten und umstrittensten chinesischen philosophischen Klassiker, und hat zahlreiche Anmerkungen und Interpretationen noch seit der Vor-Qin-Zeit (Qin-Dynastie.: 221 v. Chr. – 206 v. Chr.) inspiriert. Dieser Artikel setzt sich zum Ziel, Wei Yuans (ein Gelehrter aus der Zeit der Qing-Dynastie, 1644–1911) Interpretation von und Anmerkung über Laozi abzuhandeln, die ungefähr zweitausend Jahre nach der Verfassung des ursprünglichen Textes geschrieben wurde

Improved web page traverse using genetic algorithm

Correct navigational behavior of a web application is essential to its reliability. An effective means to improving our confidence in the correct behavior of a web application is to test it by exploring the possible navigation among the web pages at the client side: The tester carries out the testing by consecutively clicking the hyperlinks along with some possible search parameters and checking whether the returned web pages are as expected. Traditional conformance testing techniques based on graph can be adopted in this setting to automatically generate suitable test sequences to traverse among client pages. In this thesis, we present an improvement on T-method for test sequence generation to reduce considerably its length by making use of a genetic algorithm. Our experiments show a 340%-68% saving on the test sequence lengths compared to the direct application of T-method

Analysis of the Teacher Appointment System in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The trait combining Chinese and western characteristics of Hong Kong under the impact of protestant ethic and the traditional Confucian culture is a successful example of localization of Western universities. The author conducts a system text analysis of the academic organizational structure, teacher recruitment and promotion, and academic accreditation system of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and finds that Hong Kong University of Science and Technology emphasizes the separation of powers, the balance of the rule o flow and the rule of man and the implementation of the spirit of professor governing the university in its teacher appointment system. Universities in mainland China should take the opportunity to establish a university charter and set up a university professor Council in the personnel system reform; use the guiding concept of professor governing the university and transfer from executive-led to academic-led; and take the personnel reform as the starting point to explore effective ways of academic accreditation