Quantity and quality of China's water from demand perspectives

China is confronted with an unprecedented water crisis regarding its quantity and quality. In this study, we quantified the dynamics of China's embodied water use and chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge from 2010 to 2015. The analysis was conducted with the latest available water use data across sectors in primary, secondary and tertiary industries and input-output models. The results showed that (1) China's water crisis was alleviated under urbanisation. Urban consumption occupied the largest percentages (over 30%) of embodied water use and COD discharge, but embodied water intensities in urban consumption were far lower than those in rural consumption. (2) The 'new normal' phase witnessed the optimisation of China's water use structures. Embodied water use in light-manufacturing and tertiary sectors increased while those in heavy-manufacturing sectors (except chemicals and transport equipment) dropped. (3) Transformation of China's international market brought positive effects on its domestic water use. China's water use (116-80 billion tonnes (Bts))9 and COD discharge (3.95-2.22 million tonnes (Mts)) embodied in export tremendously decreased while its total export values (11-25 trillion CNY) soared. Furthermore, embodied water use and COD discharge in relatively low-end sectors, such as textile, started to transfer from international to domestic markets when a part of China's production activities had been relocated to other developing countries

Nucleus accumbens shell small conductance potassium channels underlie adolescent ethanol exposure-induced anxiety

Alcohol use typically begins in adolescence, increasing the likelihood of adult mental disorders such as anxiety. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying the consequences of adolescent alcohol exposure as well as the behavioral consequences remain poorly understood. We examined the effects of adolescent or adult chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure on intrinsic excitability of striatal medium-sized spiny neurons (MSNs) and anxiety levels. Rats underwent one of the following procedures: (1) light-dark transition (LDT) and open-field (OF) tests to evaluate anxiety levels and general locomotion; (2) whole-cell patch clamp recordings and biocytin labeling to assess excitability of striatal MSNs, as well as morphological properties; and (3) western blot immunostaining to determine small conductance (SK) calcium-activated potassium channel protein levels. Three weeks, but not 2 days, after CIE treatment, adolescent CIE-treated rats showed shorter crossover latency from the light to dark side in the LDT test and higher MSN excitability in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcS). Furthermore, the amplitude of the medium afterhyperpolarization (mAHP), mediated by SK channels, and SK3 protein levels in the NAcS decreased concomitantly. Finally, increased anxiety levels, increased excitability, and decreased amplitude of mAHP of NAcS MSNs were reversed by SK channel activator 1-EBIO and mimicked by the SK channel blocker apamin. Thus, adolescent ethanol exposure increases adult anxiety-like behavior by downregulating SK channel function and protein expression, which leads to an increase of intrinsic excitability in NAcS MSNs. SK channels in the NAcS may serve as a target to treat adolescent alcohol binge exposure-induced mental disorders, such as anxiety in adulthood

The roles of opportunity processes in a social business model: insights from China’s e-commerce villages

A social enterprise connects a social purpose with economic rationality and market-based approaches to solve recognized social needs. However, opportunities often far outstrip the resources available to address these needs, making the design of a social business model challenging. It has been suggested that opportunity processes in a social enterprise enable economic, social, and environmental resources to reinforce one another in novel ways. Based on an in-depth case study of a large social enterprise in China, we find that opportunity processes are important components of a social business model. New opportunities are created deliberately while building a social business model, leading to the large-scale mobilization of participation in e-commerce activities. We differentiate endogenous and exogenous opportunities to clarify the roles of various opportunity processes. This study potentially enriches our knowledge of the relationships between opportunity processes and the construction of a successful social business model in the context of e-commerce

Stock Market Autoregressive Dynamics: A Multinational Comparative Study with Quantile Regression

We study the nonlinear autoregressive dynamics of stock index returns in seven major advanced economies (G7) and China. The quantile autoregression model (QAR) enables us to investigate the autocorrelation across the whole spectrum of return distribution, which provides more insightful conditional information on multinational stock market dynamics than conventional time series models. The relation between index return and contemporaneous trading volume is also investigated. While prior studies have mixed results on stock market autocorrelations, we find that the dynamics is usually state dependent. The results for G7 stock markets exhibit conspicuous similarities, but they are in manifest contrast to the findings on Chinese stock markets

An Information Processing Perspective of Digital Social Innovation: Insights from China’s Taobao Villages

Digital social innovation describes new IT-enabled solutions that simultaneously meet a social need and enhance capacity to act. It is an emergent stream of social innovation research and a response to growing social, environmental and demographic challenges. Despite its importance, academic literature is still undeveloped, with ill-defined theoretical boundaries and no coherent knowledge. To address this gap, this study examines how information processing capabilities enable digital social innovation. We conduct an empirical case study on Qing Yan Liu, China’s leading Taobao e-commerce village, an emerging digital social innovation and economic phenomenon in China. From interview data collected from netrepreneurs, we construct a research model that posits information literacy, information immediacy and information liberty, as the required information processing capabilities to achieve digital social innovation. The model represents the first step to better understanding the interrelationships between digital social innovation, netrepreneurs, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship

Soldier system assessment under uncertainty with evidential reasoning

Along with the increasing of new equipment based capabilities, the physiological burden on the dismounted soldier keeps on growing, which leads to the limitation in the quantity and types of missions that can be carried out. In this research, a methodology is developed to solve the burden problem from the system assessment point of view. Comparing with other relevant research, the new methodology not only provides quantitative performance estimate of the soldier with the capability of handling fragmentary and incomplete data with hybrid format in nature (qualitative and quantitative), but also restrains the assessment complexity to an acceptable level

DIGITALLY ENABLED GRASSROOTS ENTERPRENEURSHIP FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

ICT has been promoted as a way out of deprivation for rural residents who continue to suffer from a limited access to social-economic developments. However, less is understood about how a marginalized community can drive its own development. Simultaneously, the focus on ICT in developing context has eclipsed the study of ICT for development in existing literature. These observations underscore the need for this study that explores the use of ICT for grassroots entrepreneurship through the phenomenal rise of China Taobao E-commerce Village. Through an in-depth case study, we propose the concept of digitally enabled grassroots entrepreneurship that (1) contributes to the existing ICT4D literature by explicating the roles of ICT (e-commerce) in driving the grassroots entrepreneurship through the emergence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem for a self-driven development, and (2) delineates the process of digitally enabled development beyond the provision of the Internet and infrastructure by presenting the development stages of digitally enabled grassroots entrepreneurship through the opportunity exploitation and opportunity exploration of business, knowledge, and institutional entrepreneurship. The findings also provide a reference point for practitioners to reconsider the external intervention-based development approach

Strategy, resource orchestration and e-commerce enabled social innovation in rural China

E-commerce enabled social innovation is becoming increasingly important as a way of reducing poverty in developing countries and yet has not been studied much by the IS community. We utilize the concept of resource orchestration as a theoretical lens to develop a fit model that explicates how resources are orchestrated under the guidance of either an indigenous, exogenous or collaborative strategy to achieve e-commerce enabled social innovation. The findings show how resources are orchestrated through the following specific resource-focused actions (collaborating, linking and enriching), which are influenced by the types of strategies applied. Our study also identifies different resource portfolios that influence the type of e-commerce enabled social innovation that can be achieved. This research benefits both academics and practitioners by contributing to cumulative theoretical developments related to e-commerce enabled social innovation and the resource orchestration perspective, and by offering corresponding practical insights to achieve fit between strategy, resource orchestration and social innovation

IT-Enabled Social Innovation in China’s Taobao Villages: The Role of Netrepreneurs

We present a model of IT-enabled social innovation. Our model draws on the theoretical lens of social shaping of technology and the role of villagers-turned-netrepreneurs, as reference actors in the context of rural e-commerce development. The model is built on stage-wise observations of intermediary roles that villagers play and how these roles enhance or decrease in importance in the biography of rural to e-commerce villages’ transformations across China in recent years. In this research-in-progress paper, we present a case study of Daji, China’s first “Taobao performance costumes town”, located in rural Shandong province. Our preliminary model prescribes three mechanisms− advancing, authenticating and attaching−that are enacted by reference actors in the process of negotiating rural e-commerce development and resurrecting heritage in their communities. Our model builds on conjectural discussion in recent IS research on the expanding role of the users in influencing the development of IT-enabled social innovation

A Comparison of Emergency Management Social Media Use in the United States and England

A survey was distributed to U.S. county-level emergency managers in 2014 which included questions exploring the importance of barriers to use of Social Media (SM) for dissemination and collection of information during disasters. Key questions were replicated in a survey of emergency responders in England in 2015-2016. There are many similarities in the perceived importance of various specific barriers, but also many significant differences in results. For example, in both samples, trustworthiness of data and information overload are among the top barriers to collecting SM data. However, agencies in England are more likely to have official policies prohibiting the use of SM (58% in England vs. 25% in the U.S.). The differences suggest that software enhancements to deal with the technical problems of trustworthiness and information overload may be universally useful, but other barriers to use need to be addressed through organizational and policy measures