Gathering in a cyber world: internet use of Chinese disabled people and the emergence of disability constituencies

This article examines how Chinese disabled people use the internet to create active constituencies and the potential for this to afford the opportunity for a new form of activism. Based on a content analysis of China’s two largest disability online forums, the article documents disabled people’s online activities. These include the description of everyday activities, the build-up of social relations, and organisation and mobilisation for changes. The analysis suggests the emergence of new disability constituencies. This, the article argues, is starting to reshape dis-ability politics and develop new disability activism

The Impact of the Age Structure of the Population and the Price of Housing on the Savings of the Population: An Empirical Study from China

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between housing prices, population age structure and savings rate by analyzing the variables of housing prices, population age structure and savings rate, which is of great theoretical and practical significance for the formulation of policies to alleviate the aging population and childlessness in China.   Theoretical framework: Most of the studies on the relationship among the consumer price of commercial housing, the old-age dependency ratio, the child dependency ratio, and the savings rate of the residents in China are based on the GMM model, while this study constructs a quadratic VAR model to empirically analyze and test the four variables of the consumer price of commercial housing, the old-age dependency ratio, the child dependency ratio, and the savings rate of the residents, and to study whether there is a long-term stable relationship among these four variables and other general patterns that exist among these four variables. other general laws that exist among these four variables.   Design/Methodology/Approach: This study decides to start from the perspective of residents' saving rates. It conducts descriptive statistical analysis and empirical analysis by using 33 macroeconomic data (samples) from 1990-2022, official data of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and housing price data from Jurassic Data Network (JDN). The hypotheses are initially set up by descriptive analysis, and then the VAR function model is constructed to analyze and test the hypotheses empirically.   Findings: It is found that the sales price of commercial housing is positively correlated with the savings rate of residents; the child dependency ratio is positively correlated with the savings rate of residents; the old-age dependency ratio is insignificantly correlated with the savings rate of residents; and there is a long-term and stable correlation among the four variables of the sales price of commercial housing, the child dependency ratio, the old age dependency ratio and the savings rate of residents.   Research, Practical & Social implications: This study improves the relevant theoretical research of economics, demography, sociology and other interdisciplinary disciplines, complements the existing research paths and methods of empirical analysis, and obtains relevant empirical research conclusions. The significance of the study is to provide assistance to the formulation of national macroeconomic and monetary policies, and to contribute to the adjustment of population policies, the reform of the pension security system, and the revision of the medical security system. It also contributes to the adjustment of the population policy, the reform of the pension security system, and the revision of the medical security system.   Originality/Value: The study is able to enrich the research practices on the sales price of commercial properties, the dependency ratio of young children, the dependency ratio of the elderly and the savings rate of the population, and make a new contribution to the improvement of people's livelihood, the development of the real estate industry's transformation and upgrading, and the formulation of rational population and economic policies

Breaking down the barriers and developing a new mode of citizenship: A sociological analysis of internet use by disabled people in China

This thesis examines how the internet is used by disabled people in China and focusses in particular on whether internet use can improve their lives and by extension advance China towards a more inclusive civil society. Framing this work are three key overriding issues. First is the rapidly changing and evolving Chinese society and economy, as the country moves from a highly centralised regime to ‘socialism with Chinese characters’. Second is the near absence of disability and disabled people from this process and third is the expanding internet use by Chinese people. There has been very little research on either disability or disabled people in post-reform China and one of the aims of this thesis was to start to explore and fill the gap. The study attempts to find a contextualised and practical pathway to research disability in China. There are two key elements to the research. First is a broad overview of the use of the internet and the emergence of disability digital communities, using quantitative data from a content analysis of two popular disability forums in China’s cyberspace. This was followed by a series of in-depth interviews with 34 disabled people from across China. The data presented in this qualitative element of the thesis explores the intersection between internet use and economic participation, political engagement and cultural representation of disabled people and disability. The core issues that emerged from the analysis include a discussion on: 1) The internet as a tool for empowerment; 2) The internet as a mechanism for inclusion; 3) The internet as not only a tool but also a sphere; 4) The possibility of establishing a ‘netizenship’, to help access to, improve, or replace the un-developed citizenship in China. Overall, the study concludes that whilst internet use has significantly improved the lives of disabled people, it cannot change their disadvantaged position or promote the social justice of the reforming, digital China. Throughout the research there were concerns on the tensions between western-dominated literature and the specialties of the Chinese context. The thesis critically engages with western theories and methodologies to develop its own specific, contextualised framework. This framework takes account of the multiple dimensions of the disabled experience, the agency of disabled people, and social changes in the context of China’s reform. Only through this, the thesis argues, can disability in China be fully and properly explored

Biophysical studies on DNA micromechanics and bacterial nucleoid organization

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Проблема зміни наукової парадигми в методиці вивчення іноземної мови в умовах переходу України до інформаційного суспільства

(uk) У цій статті автор ставить проблему зміни наукової парадигми в методиці вивчення вивчення іноземних мов. Це потрібно для створення нових сітьових технологій вивчення іноземних мов в умовах зародження інформаційного суспільства в Україні.(en) The author of paper rises the problem of modifying scientific paradigm of foreign languages teaching methods. It is necessary for creating up-to-day Net-technologies for teaching foreign languages in the circumstances of formation of the information society in Ukraine

Technologies of authoritarian statecraft in welfare provision: contracting services to social organizations

In 2013 the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party adopted a nationwide policy to contract out welfare services to social organizations. This presented the Party/state with a conundrum: how best to foster service-oriented social organizations whilst retaining control over politically sensitive groups. Using a Foucauldian framework of analysis, this article explores the rationalities and technologies of statecraft deployed to navigate this tension. It argues that contracting welfare services is a form of governmentality linked to economic efficiency, welfare provision and social stability, requiring subtle ways of governing society. In implementing this policy, the Party/state seeks to foster a service-oriented civil society and stymie rights-based and politically sensitive groups

Effects of government contracting of services on NGOs in China: convergence and divergence with international experience

The government of the Communist Party of China (CPC) rolled out a national policy to contract out social and welfare services to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2013. This study explores how government contracting of services affects NGOs. We examine three areas: marketization, financial dependency, and autonomy. We find significant convergence of the effects of contracting on NGOs in China with NGOs’ experiences in liberal democratic countries, despite divergent political regimes. Found effects are explained by the combination of the authoritarian government of the CPC with the neoliberal governance structures introduced by contracting. Convergence with international experience despite divergent political regimes is attributed to the neoliberal essence of the policy of contracting of services

Government contracting services to social organisations in China: a review of research for future enquiry

Contracting of social services has been adopted in China as an innovation in welfare provision. This article reviews the emerging literature on contracting of services to social organisations in China in order to identify lines of further enquiry. It reviews research published in the English and Chinese languages up to 2018. We identify three distinct narratives: public sector reform, improvement of welfare service quality and capacity, and transformation of state-society relations. We contrast the identified narratives with the empirical evidence produced for the Chinese case. We demonstrate that, despite contradictory empirical evidence, the premise that contracting improves public sector efficiency and quality of services predominates. The narrative that contracting transforms state-society relations is contested. This article contributes to the understanding of how contracting of services is justified in theory and practice, and proposes an agenda for future social policy research on contracting of services to social organisations in China

Efficient subspace skyline query based on user preference using MapReduce

Subspace skyline, as an important variant of skyline, has been widely applied for multiple-criteria decisions, business planning. With the development of mobile internet, subspace skyline query in mobile distributed environments has recently attracted considerable attention. However, efficiently obtaining the meaningful subset of skyline points in any subspace remains a challenging task in the current mobile internet. For more and more mobile applications, subspace skyline query on mobile units is usually limited by big data and wireless bandwidth. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a system model that can support subspace skyline query in mobile distributed environment. An efficient algorithm for processing the Subspace Skyline Query using MapReduce (SSQ) is also presented which can obtain the meaningful subset of points from the full set of skyline points in any subspace. The SSQ algorithm divides a subspace skyline query into two processing phases: the preprocess phase and the query phase. The preprocess phase includes the pruning process and constructing index process which is designed to reduce network delay and response time. Additionally, the query phase provides two filtering methods, SQM-filtering and ε-filtering, to filter the skyline points according to user preference and reduce network cost. Extensive experiments on real and synthetic data are conducted and the experimental results indicate that our algorithm is much efficient, meanwhile, the pruning strategy can further improve the efficiency of the algorithm

Biodegradation and Biotransformation of Indole: Advances and Perspectives

Indole is long regarded as a typical N-heterocyclic aromatic pollutant in industrial and agricultural wastewater, and recently it has been identified as a versatile signaling molecule with wide environmental distributions. An exponentially growing number of researches have been reported on indole due to its significant roles in bacterial physiology, pathogenesis, animal behavior and human diseases. From the viewpoint of both environmental bioremediation and biological studies, the researches on metabolism and fates of indole are important to realize environmental treatment and illuminate its biological function. Indole can be produced from tryptophan by tryptophanase in many bacterial species. Meanwhile, various bacterial strains have obtained the ability to transform and degrade indole. The characteristics and pathways for indole degradation have been investigated for a century, and the functional genes for indole aerobic degradation have also been uncovered recently. Interestingly, many oxygenases have proven to be able to oxidize indole to indigo, and this historic and motivating case for biological applications has attracted intensive attention for decades. Herein, the bacteria, enzymes and pathways for indole production, biodegradation and biotransformation are systematically summarized, and the future researches on indole-microbe interactions are also prospected