Judicial Independence and Company Law in the Shanghai People\u27s Courts, 1992-2008

This chapter draws on a detailed study of corporate law adjudication in Shanghai from 1992 to 2008. The purpose of the study was to better understand the demonstrated technical competence, institutional autonomy, and political independence of one court system in the People\u27s Republic of China ( PRC ) in a sector outside of the criminal law. The study consisted of a detailed examination and comparison of full-length corporate law opinions for more than 200 reported cases, a 2003 Shanghai High Court opinion on the 1994 Company Law (describing a decade of corporate case outcomes), a 2007 report on cases implementing the Company Law in zoo6 (more than 760 cases), and extensive interactions with Shanghai court officials handling such disputes - all for a wide diversity of Shanghai jurisdictions and procedural postures. Due to space limitations, this chapter focuses on the demonstrated independence, and to a lesser extent autonomy, of the Shanghai courts when faced with a completely altered Company Law

Italians in the ‘Old Shanghai’: a Preliminary Contribution

Besides other Western nationalities, ‘Old Shanghai’ also hosted an Italian community, which experienced, throughout the years, a slight development, particularly after the establishment there of the consulate of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 (later kept by the new Kingdom of Italy), and the signing, in 1866, of a Sino-Italian Treaty (ratified in Shanghai in 1867). It was a small group, if compared with the English, the Americans or the French (from some dozens to some hundreds between the 19th and the 20th centuries), but it had distinctive spatial and socio-economic urban patterns: in ‘Old Shanghai’, there were specific areas with a high concentration of Italian economic activities (in the International Settlement: Kiukiang Road; Kiangse Road; crossroads between Nanking Road and Szechuen Road; Bubbling Well Road), areas with Italian residences (French Concession), other suburban areas with Italians (Zikawei; in this case, they were priests). Moreover, Italians were involved in specific economic sectors (primarily, silk): as the textile sector was developed mainly in Lombardy at that time, most of the expatriate Italian managers and supervisors in Shanghai mills came from this Italian region. The migration flow from Italy to ‘Old Shanghai’, involving highly educated or highly skilled people mainly from Northern Italy, represented an exception in the general context of the migrations from Italy between the 19th and 20th centuries, which was mostly based, as in the case of the flow of people directed to the USA in that period, on poor and poorly educated people, originally involved in the primary sector, from the Southern regions of Italy

Judicial Independence and Company Law in the Shanghai People\u27s Courts, 1992-2008

This chapter draws on a detailed study of corporate law adjudication in Shanghai from 1992 to 2008. The purpose of the study was to better understand the demonstrated technical competence, institutional autonomy, and political independence of one court system in the People\u27s Republic of China ( PRC ) in a sector outside of the criminal law. The study consisted of a detailed examination and comparison of full-length corporate law opinions for more than 200 reported cases, a 2003 Shanghai High Court opinion on the 1994 Company Law (describing a decade of corporate case outcomes), a 2007 report on cases implementing the Company Law in zoo6 (more than 760 cases), and extensive interactions with Shanghai court officials handling such disputes - all for a wide diversity of Shanghai jurisdictions and procedural postures. Due to space limitations, this chapter focuses on the demonstrated independence, and to a lesser extent autonomy, of the Shanghai courts when faced with a completely altered Company Law

Association Between Education and Health Outcomes Among Adults With Disabilities: Evidence From Shanghai, China

Background Adults with disabilities often have worse health outcomes than do their peers without disabilities. While education is a key determinant of health, there is little research available on the health disparities across education levels among adults with disabilities in developing countries. We therefore examined the association between health outcomes and education among adults with disabilities in Shanghai, China. Methods We used the health examination records of 42,715 adults with disabilities in Shanghai in 2014. Five health outcomes, including two diseases (fatty liver and hemorrhoids) and three risk factors (overweight [body mass index ≥ 24]), high blood glucose, and high blood lipid), were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and Pearson\u27s chi-square test were used to assess differences in participants\u27 demographic and disability characteristics. Pearson\u27s chi-square test and Fisher\u27s exact test were conducted to compare the prevalence of each health outcome among the different education levels. Finally, logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore the association between education and health outcomes after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Results People with an elementary school or lower degree had the highest prevalence of overweight (52.1%) and high blood glucose (20.8%), but the lowest prevalence of hemorrhoids (18.6%) and fatty liver (38.9%). We observed significant differences in the association between education and health outcomes across disability types. For example, in physically disabled adults, higher education was related to higher odds of hemorrhoids (p \u3c 0.001); however, there were no significant disparities in hemorrhoids across the education levels among adults with intellectual disabilities. Discussion: Compared with people without disabilities, adults with disabilities in Shanghai have relatively poor health. The association between education and health outcomes differed according to the health condition and disability type. To reduce the prevalence rate of overweight and high blood glucose among people with disabilities, tailored health promotion initiatives must be developed for people with lower education levels. In contrast, specific attention should be paid to the prevention of hemorrhoids and fatty liver among more-educated people with disabilities. Our study provides important evidence for targeting educational groups with specific disability types for health promotion and intervention

Study of pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of liposomal brucine for dermal administration

Bai-Can Yang1, Zhi-Feng Chu1, Sha Zhu1, Li-Jun Wang1, Yu-Hong Feng1, Feng-Hua Li1, Chang-Sheng Liu2, Yuan Yuan21Pharmacy Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials of Ministry of Education, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaObjective: To evaluate the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of liposomal brucine (LB) for dermal application.Methods: Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution were studied by in vivo animal testing. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the concentration of brucine in rats’ skin, plasma and various tissues.Results: After dermal administration, LB was absorbed rapidly in the skin and could be detected after 0.5 hours. After 36 hours, levels were too low to be detected. In plasma, levels were also too low to be detected after 36 hours. The concentration of LB reached 50% of the maximum in all tissues except the brain, peaking after 1.5 hours but still detectable after 12 hours.Conclusion: The concentration of LB was high in skin at the application site. LB was quickly absorbed into tissues through the blood circulation and widely distributed throughout the whole body. There was no obvious toxicity and LB did not readily accumulate in tissues and organs. It showed local potency but low overall systemic toxicity.Keywords: liposomal brucine, dermal administration, pharmacokinetics, tissue distributio

Lodging capacity optimization: Application of an inventory model to China\u27s lodging industry

Since China decided to promote tourism in 1978, the rapidly increasing number of foreign visitors has continuously put pressure on China\u27s tourism infrastructure and service facilities. To keep up with the demand, China\u27s hotel industry has been expanding at a growth rate that is faster than that of foreign visitors. In 1990s, the overdevelopment became a problem confronting the China\u27s hotel industry. However, the hotel supply has continuously been increasing beyond the demand. Severe over-capacity is likely to occur in China\u27s hotel industry time series analysis and single-period inventory model, this dissertation estimates the optimal capacity for both China\u27s and Shanghai\u27s high-end hotel segment for future four years. The estimated optimal capacity is then compared with the expected room capacity to explore the possibility and magnitude of future over-capacity or under-capacity; Data required for this study are collected from Yearbook of China Tourism Statistics, China Hotel Industry Study, and other related publications from the National Tourism Administration of People\u27s Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission; The estimated optimal capacity for future four years suggests that both Shanghai\u27s and China\u27s high-end hotel segments are experiencing over-capacity, and will continue for approximate one and half years. After the demand catches up with the supply, both China\u27s and Shanghai\u27s high-end hotel segment needs to expand at a slightly higher rate. In addition, the forecasted future demand of both China\u27s and Shanghai\u27s three-star rated hotels also shows an upward trend in future four years; The results of the study are expected to provide investors, hospitality practitioners, and local government with a useful tool for scientific capacity planning to avoid unnecessary future under- or overdevelopment. It is also expected that this study will address the gap in the literatures of destination capacity optimization

Human excreta as a stable and important source of atmospheric ammonia in the megacity of Shanghai

Although human excreta as a NH3 source has been recognized globally, this source has never been quantitatively determined in cities, hampering efforts to fully assess the causes of urban air pollution. In the present study, the exhausts of 15 ceiling ducts from collecting septic tanks in 13 buildings with 6 function types were selected to quantify NH3 emission rates in the megacity of Shanghai. As a comparison, the ambient NH3 concentrations across Shanghai were also measured at 13 atmospheric monitoring sites. The concentrations of NH3 in the ceiling ducts (2809 μg m-3) outweigh those of the open air (~10 μg m-3) by 2–3 orders of magnitude, and there is no significant difference between different seasons. δ15N values of NH3 emitted from two ceiling ducts are also seasonally consistent, suggesting that human excreta may be a stable source of NH3 in urban areas. The NH3 concentration levels were variable and dependent on the different building types and the level of human activity. NH3 emission rates of the six residential buildings (RBNH3) were in agreement with each other. Taking occupation time into account, we confined the range of the average NH3 emission factor for human excreta to be 2–4 times (with the best estimate of 3 times) of the averaged RBNH3 of 66.0±58.9 g NH3 capita-1 yr-1. With this emission factor, the population of ~21 million people living in the urban areas of Shanghai annually emitted approximately 1386 Mg NH3, which corresponds to over 11.4% of the total NH3 emissions in the Shanghai urban areas. The spatial distribution of NH3 emissions from human excreta based on population data was calculated for the city of Shanghai at a high-resolution (100×100 m). Our results demonstrate that human excreta should be included in official ammonia emission inventories

Seismic hazard and risk in Shanghai and estimation of expected building damage

The People's Republic of China is in the process of rapid demographic, economic and urban change including nationwide engineering and building construction at an unprecedented scale. The mega-city of Shanghai is at the centre of China's modernisation. Rapid urbanisation and building growth have increased the exposure of people and property to natural disasters. The seismic hazard of Shanghai and its vicinity is presented from a seismogenic free-zone methodology. A PGA value of 49 cm s-2 and a maximum intensity value of VII for the Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale (a scale similar to the Modified Mercalli) for a 99% probability of non-exceedance in 50 years are determined for Shanghai city. The potential building damage for three independent districts of the city centre named Putuo, Nanjing Road and Pudong are calculated using damage vulnerability matrices. It is found that old civil houses of brick and timber are the most vulnerable buildings with potentially a mean probability value of 7.4% of this building structure type exhibiting the highest damage grade at intensity VII

Variation of household electricity consumption and potential impact of outdoor PM2.5 concentration: a comparison between Singapore and Shanghai

The auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach was used to study the relationships between the monthly household electricity consumption and outdoor PM2.5 concentration with the consideration of ambient temperature and the number of rainy days for Singapore and Shanghai. It is shown that there are significant long-run relationships between the household electricity consumption and the regressors for both Singapore and Shanghai. For Singapore, a 20% increase in the PM2.5 concentration of a single month is in the long-run significantly related to a 0.8% increase in the household electricity consumption. This corresponds to an electricity overconsumption of 5.0 GWh, a total of 0.7–1.0 million USD in electricity cost, and 2.1 kilotons of CO2 emission associated with electricity generation. For Shanghai, a 20% decrease in the PM2.5 concentration of a single month is in the long-run significantly related to a 2.2% decrease in the household electricity consumption. This corresponds to a 35.0 GWh decrease in the overall household electricity consumption, 1.6–5.1 million USD decrease in electricity cost, and 17.5 kilotons of CO2 emission. The results suggest that the cost of electricity consumption should be included in the economic cost analysis of PM2.5 pollution in the future. A 1 °C increase in the monthly temperature is in the long-run significantly related to a 13.6% increase in the monthly electricity consumption for Singapore, while a 30 degree days increase in heating & cooling days (HCDD) is in the long-run significantly related to a 24.9% increase in the monthly electricity consumption for Shanghai. A 5-day increase in the number of rainy days per month is in the long-run significantly related to a 3.0% and 5.8% increase in the monthly electricity consumption for Singapore and Shanghai, respectively