Die Verrechtlichung von Arbeitsbeziehungen in Joint Ventures und ausländischen Tochterunternehmen in der Volksrepublik China: Ein Zwischenbericht

Up to now, very little is known about human resource policies in Sino-foreign joint ventures and foreign subsidiaries in China. It is, therefore, the aim of this project to study variations in personnel strategies in order to find an economically reasonable explanation for the differing personnel policies. In view of the increasing significance of labour relations law in China, another aim of this project is to examine the relevance of labour regulations in companies with foreign equity participation: When do those concerned rely on legal methods and to what degree are they successful? As only very few studies currently exist, the necessity for collecting our own sample soon became evident. Since not only quantitative, but also qualitative data is required, the case study approach suggests itself as an appropriate starting point. In October 1998 eleven companies in Shanghai were interviewed. This will then be followed up by case studies in two other regions of China in the summer of 1999. The case studies in Shanghai revealed some evidence for the hypothesised dependence of the personnel policy on the product market strategy of the company: The effective use of the redundant cheap labour force in China requires that the firm employs relatively labour intensive production lines. As long as labour laws are not violated, the prices of products manufactured in Shanghai will however often be undercut by Chinese competitors from other regions. Therefore, profits from mass-produced goods can mainly be realised in the export business. In contrast to price-based competition, firms with a differentiation or niche strategy compete on some other dimension that is valued by the market (e.g. product quality, reliability, delivery, service). Whether the company is successful with this strategy depends a lot on its capabilities to implement effective policies to retain qualified employees. Therefore, a differentiation strategy cushions the impact of external market forces more than a mass-production strategy, which tends to be a primarily market-oriented personnel policy. --

Sensory History and Multisensory Museum Exhibits

Drawing from the work of sensory historians, this paper will explore the importance of the senses in understanding one’s surroundings and define what qualifies as sensory experience in a museum setting. Through a combination of research and observations during museum visits, it explores examples of how each sense has been incorporated into museums and exhibits. It presents examples of immersive and interactive exhibits providing multi-sensory experiences, including examples of both effective and non-effective ways in which these elements have been used. It is the author’s premise that the museum should remain artifact-centered, and sensory elements should be used to supplement, not replace, collections. Any sensory or interactive element used should provide context for the objects. However, it is desirable for museums to utilize whatever elements possible, including replicas, to try and recreate the sensations and sensory experiences of the past for visitors

Regulation of Securitised Products post the Financial Crisis

Securitisation has been one of the main reasons for the global financial crisis. The securitisation business has experienced a steep decline for two decades until an even stronger decline in the summer of 2007. This article analyses the regulatory developments in the structured market and the measures taken by legislators since the crisis to address the shortcomings in the securitisation market. The main problems are centred around four areas, which are analysed separately: first, misalignment of interests between investors and originators; second, inadequate capital rules failing to reflect the actual risk exposures; third, insufficient disclosure and information overload of investors; and fourth, credit rating agencies failing to give quality ratings. It concludes that while the adopted regulatory measures might have less corrective effects than envisaged, this is favourable as long as the precise consequences of the adopted measures are not clear

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history

Die Verrechtlichung von Arbeitsbeziehungen in Joint Ventures und ausländischen Tochterunternehmen in der Volksrepublik China: Ein Zwischenbericht

Up to now, very little is known about human resource policies in Sino-foreign joint ventures and foreign subsidiaries in China. It is, therefore, the aim of this project to study variations in personnel strategies in order to find an economically reasonable explanation for the differing personnel policies. In view of the increasing significance of labour relations law in China, another aim of this project is to examine the relevance of labour regulations in companies with foreign equity participation: When do those concerned rely on legal methods and to what degree are they successful? As only very few studies currently exist, the necessity for collecting our own sample soon became evident. Since not only quantitative, but also qualitative data is required, the case study approach suggests itself as an appropriate starting point. In October 1998 eleven companies in Shanghai were interviewed. This will then be followed up by case studies in two other regions of China in the summer of 1999. The case studies in Shanghai revealed some evidence for the hypothesised dependence of the personnel policy on the product market strategy of the company: The effective use of the redundant cheap labour force in China requires that the firm employs relatively labour intensive production lines. As long as labour laws are not violated, the prices of products manufactured in Shanghai will however often be undercut by Chinese competitors from other regions. Therefore, profits from mass-produced goods can mainly be realised in the export business. In contrast to price-based competition, firms with a differentiation or niche strategy compete on some other dimension that is valued by the market (e.g. product quality, reliability, delivery, service). Whether the company is successful with this strategy depends a lot on its capabilities to implement effective policies to retain qualified employees. Therefore, a differentiation strategy cushions the impact of external market forces more than a mass-production strategy, which tends to be a primarily market-oriented personnel policy

Future of the NOSAMS Tandetron AMS system

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268 (2010): 854-857, doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.048.The NOSAMS 3 MV Tandetron AMS system will soon reach its 20th anniversary of operation. A critical review of all aspects of the system is necessary to assess the analytical, economic, and operational factors that enter into the consideration of either an upgrade or a replacement of the instrument. Recent in‐house experience with the design and construction of a large‐acceptance 14C AMS system gives us a benchmark with which to compare the expected outcome of an upgrade. The present ion analysis efficiency of our Tandetron system is roughly 1%, well below the 4% value of our new system. This affects the lower limit of analyzable sample size, speed of analysis, exposure to systematic errors, and the upper limit of achievable single‐sample counting statistics. At first glance it may seem obvious that a replacement (even at higher cost) would be preferable to an upgrade. However, it will be shown that there are good reasons to consider the latter. One of the most compelling is the fact that the Tandetron is a state‐of‐the‐art and superior high‐current accelerator design with minimal signs of aging and very low maintenance. Ion beam modeling calculations show that the main transmission limitation of the instrument is caused by the design of our injector, a four‐magnet “Recombinator”, making it difficult to perform reliable AMS with negative currents exceeding 80 μA. To be acceptable, an upgrade should bring the Tandetron to at least 3% ion efficiency by replacing the injector with a properly matched high‐transmission device.This work has been supported by the United States National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreements OCE-0228996 and OCE-0753487

Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies

The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires.The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections.Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history

Erwerbs- und Verkehrs-Statistik des Königstaats Preußen : in vergleichender Darstellung

Mit der Darstellung des Preußischen Staats, welche ich jetzt der Oeffentlichkeit übergebe, ist in der vergleichenden Statistik abermals eine neue, bisher nicht betretene Bahn eröffnet. ..

Design and reality : continuous-flow accelerator mass spectrometry (CFAMS)

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 269 (2011): 3176–3179, doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2011.04.019.In 2007 we published the design of a novel accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system capable of analyzing gaseous samples injected continuously into a microwave plasma gas ion source. Obvious advantages of such a system are drastically reduced processing times and avoidance of potentially contaminating chemical preparation steps. Another paper in these proceedings will present the progress with the development of the microwave gas ion source that has since been built and tested at the National Ocean Sciences AMS Facility in Woods Hole. In this paper we will review the original design and present updates, reflecting our recent encouraging experience with the system. A simple summary: large acceptance ion beam optics design is beneficial to accelerator mass spectrometry in general, but essential to AMS with plasma gas ion sources

Progress with a gas-accepting ion source for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 269 (2011): 3192–3195, doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2011.04.017.The National Ocean Sciences AMS (NOSAMS) facility at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has developed a novel, gas-accepting microwave-plasma ion-source. The source is a key component of a compact Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) system built for the analysis of 14C in a continuously flowing gas stream. The gas source produces carbon currents from a stream of CO2 with currents typical of a traditional graphite source. Details of the gas source, including ion current achieved, optimal flow rate, efficiency, and memory are presented. Additionally, data obtained from coupling a gas chromatograph to the source to will be shown