Government policy and competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms in the Guangdong province of southern China

This paper investigates the impact of various Chinese government policies on the competitive advantages of foreign-financed manufacturing firms in Guangdong province of southern China. The objectives of various government sector-specific policies are to lubricate the factor markets in labour, capital and products and to facilitate the operation of foreign-financed firms. However, the actual effects are often quite different: the ambiguity, complexity and inflexibility of policies impose higher transaction costs on foreign-financed firms. These disadvantages offset some economic benefits gained under the central government's preferential foreign direct investment policy and thus damages the competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms based in Guangdong. Worse still, the lack of co-ordination among various bureaux further hampers arbitration between government bureaux and foreign investors

What are the impacts of implementing ISOs on the competitiveness of manufacturing industry in China?

Based on the proposed ‘PIE’ analytical framework, this paper argues that the preparation, implementation and evaluation of international standards (ISOs) affect the competitiveness of (foreign-financed) export-oriented manufacturing industry in southern and southeastern China, both in the short- and long-term. During the period of preparation, the decision to adopt ISOs is mainly driven by market demand and/or by the decisions of established competitors. Negative effects due to the diversion of scarce resources and institutional resistance to change during the period of transitional implementation are offset by the overall enhancement of the firm's productivity in the long run. ‘Tailoring for the external audit’ and ‘second-best’ practices are two strategies commonly employed by Chinese firms to lower the transaction costs involved in ISO audits

Does WTO accession matter for the Chinese textile and clothing industry?

Based on field surveys conducted in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Beijing in 2000 and 2001, this paper argues that accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by China will create a new competitive arena for different categories of textile and clothing firms located in that country, partly dependent on the size and ownership of the firm. From the perspectives of reducing import tariffs, eliminating export quotas and the regulations on trade disputes, WTO accession does matter for the majority of Chinese firms in this ‘win–lose’ game. From the perspective of compliance with international standards, this paper argues that accession to the WTO does not really matter for some Chinese firms, as they may not survive the intense competition prior to 2005, when the effects of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing materialise

Language production and implicit statistical learning in typical development and children with acquired language disorders: an exploratory study

Statistical properties of language provide important cues for language learning and may be processed by domain-general cognitive systems. We investigated the relationship between implicit statistical learning (the unconscious detection of statistical regularities in input) and language production. Twenty typically developing (TD) children and nine children with acquired language disorders (ALD) (aged 6–18 years) took part in a Boston Cookie Theft picture description task. Using a computerized analysis, we investigated statistical properties, such as usage frequency of words and collocation strength of word combinations. Participants also completed a non-linguistic serial reaction time (SRT) task, which tested non-verbal, implicit statistical learning in the visual-motor modality. We determined age effects, and compared language production and SRT performance between both groups. Older TD children produced more connected language, more words, less frequent function words, more rare or novel combinations, and showed better statistical learning. Children with ALD produced less connected language, more weakly collocated combinations, displayed less lexical diversity and showed poorer statistical learning. Post-hoc analyses found correlations between statistical learning and statistical properties of spoken language. Given the rarity and heterogeneity of children with ALD, group size was small and the study should be considered exploratory. However, we note that results are compatible with the view that language production draws on statistical learning and that impairment of statistical learning can be related to language disorders

CIB1 protects against MPTP-induced neurotoxicity through inhibiting ASK1.

Calcium and integrin binding protein 1 (CIB1) is a calcium-binding protein that was initially identified as a binding partner of platelet integrin αIIb. Although CIB1 has been shown to interact with multiple proteins, its biological function in the brain remains unclear. Here, we show that CIB1 negatively regulates degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in a mouse model of Parkinson\u27s disease using 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). Genetic deficiency of the CIB1 gene enhances MPTP-induced neurotoxicity in dopaminergic neurons in CIB1(-/-) mice. Furthermore, RNAi-mediated depletion of CIB1 in primary dopaminergic neurons potentiated 1-methyl-4-phenyl pyrinidium (MPP(+))-induced neuronal death. CIB1 physically associated with apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) and thereby inhibited the MPP(+)-induced stimulation of the ASK1-mediated signaling cascade. These findings suggest that CIB1 plays a protective role in MPTP/MPP(+)-induced neurotoxicity by blocking ASK1-mediated signaling

Towards a Realistic, Data-Driven Thermodynamic MHD Model of the Global Solar Corona

In this work we describe our implementation of a thermodynamic energy equation into the global corona model of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), and its development into the new Lower Corona (LC) model. This work includes the integration of the additional energy transport terms of coronal heating, electron heat conduction, and optically thin radiative cooling into the governing magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) energy equation. We examine two different boundary conditions using this model; one set in the upper transition region (the Radiative Energy Balance model), as well as a uniform chromospheric condition where the transition region can be modeled in its entirety. Via observation synthesis from model results and the subsequent comparison to full sun extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-Ray observations of Carrington Rotation (CR) 1913 centered on Aug 27, 1996, we demonstrate the need for these additional considerations when using global MHD models to describe the unique conditions in the low corona. Through multiple simulations we examine ability of the LC model to asses and discriminate between coronal heating models, and find that a relative simple empirical heating model is adequate in reproducing structures observed in the low corona. We show that the interplay between coronal heating and electron heat conduction provides significant feedback onto the 3D magnetic topology in the low corona as compared to a potential field extrapolation, and that this feedback is largely dependent on the amount of mechanical energy introduced into the corona.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, Submitted to ApJ on 12/08/200

3D Structure of Microwave Sources from Solar Rotation Stereoscopy vs Magnetic Extrapolations

We use rotation stereoscopy to estimate the height of a steady-state solar feature relative to the photosphere, based on its apparent motion in the image plane recorded over several days of observation. The stereoscopy algorithm is adapted to work with either one- or two-dimensional data (i.e. from images or from observations that record the projected position of the source along an arbitrary axis). The accuracy of the algorithm is tested on simulated data, and then the algorithm is used to estimate the coronal radio source heights associated with the active region NOAA 10956, based on multifrequency imaging data over 7 days from the Siberian Solar Radio Telescope near 5.7 GHz, the Nobeyama Radio Heliograph at 17 GHz, as well as one-dimensional scans at multiple frequencies spanning the 5.98--15.95 GHz frequency range from the RATAN-600 instrument. The gyroresonance emission mechanism, which is sensitive to the coronal magnetic field strength, is applied to convert the estimated radio source heights at various frequencies, h(f), to information about magnetic field vs. height B(h), and the results are compared to a magnetic field extrapolation derived from photospheric magnetic field observations obtained by Hinode and MDI. We found that the gyroresonant emission comes from the heights exceeding location of the third gyrolayer irrespectively on the magnetic extrapolation method; implications of this finding for the coronal magnetography and coronal plasma physics are discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, ApJ accepte

Antithrombotic Therapy To Prevent Cognitive Decline In People With Small Vessel Disease On Neuroimaging But Without Dementia

Protocolpublished_or_final_versio

Adiabatic thermal Child-Langmuir flow

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-212).A simulation model is presented for the verification of the recently developed steady-state one-dimensional adiabatic thermal Child-Langmuir flow theory. In this theory, a self-consistent Poisson equation is developed through the use of the fluid-Maxwell equations and an adiabatic equation of state. The adiabatic equation of state is also a statement of normalized rms thermal emittance conservation. Solving the self-consistent Poisson equation with the appropriate boundary conditions yields the current density, electrostatic potential, fluid velocity, equilibrium density, temperature, and pressure profiles at a given cathode temperature. A one-dimensional simulation model has been developed. It consists of the initial loading, the charged-sheet model algorithm, and the post-processing of the results. Great care has been taken in the initial loading of the beam, with the beam loaded as close to the equilibrium values as possible. Because there is no known solution for the interface problem between the quantum mechanical flow of electrons inside the solid material and the classical flow of electrons in the cathode vacuum, a reinjection scheme is proposed in which the initial phase space near the cathode be maintained throughout the simulation. Three one-dimensional beams are simulated at dimensionless cathode temperatures of 0.1, 0.01, and 0.001. Great success is achieved at validating the theory at the dimensionless cathode temperature of 0.1. The simulation results for the dimensionless cathode temperature of 0.01 and 0.001 cases are consistent with the theoretical prediction. Because of the good agreement between the simulation and theory, the use of the adiabatic equation of state is justified. A strategy to extend the one-dimensional adiabatic thermal Child-Langmuir theory into two-dimensions is presented. Because two-dimensional adiabatic equation(s) of state are currently unknown, a two-dimensional simulation is used to both investigate and help formulate the adiabatic equation(s) of state. A two-dimensional simulation model has been developed to simulate flows in a Pierce gun slab geometry. The two-dimensional simulation consists of the meshing of the domain, the initial loading, the particle-in-cell algorithm, and the post-processing of the results. An estimate on the two-dimensional form of the equilibrium density is used to initially load the beam. Like the one-dimensional case, the proposed particle boundary condition for the two-dimensional simulation is that the initial phase space near the cathode be preserved throughout the simulation. Preliminary results from the two-dimensional simulation model are presented.by Rachel V. Mok.S.M

Myocardial thickness by gated PET and SPECT variability and bias

Proceedings of the 40th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 8-11, 1993Publicad