Tibetan Market Participation in China

Since the Chinese government began implementing economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has experienced profound economic change and growth. Like other parts of China, Tibetan areas of China have also experienced wide-ranging economic change with growth even higher than the China-wide average in certain years. Though China s strategic policy of developing the West provided many opportunities for economic and business activities, Tibetans have proven poorly equipped to respond to and take advantage of these opportunities. This study is about people, about market participation and specifically about why Tibetans do not effectively participate in the market in the context of China s economic development process. Many political, social, cultural and environmental factors explain the difficulties met by Tibetan communities. However, this study focuses on three factors: the social and culture context, government policy and education. The Buddhistic nature of Tibetan communities, particularly the political and economic system in traditional Tibetan society, explains this, especially after implementation of new national economic policies. An inclusive economic development policy that promotes local people s participation in the market demands serious consideration of local conditions. Unfortunately, such considerations often ignore local Tibetan realities. The economic development policy in Tibetan areas in China is nearly always an attempt to replicate the inland model and open up markets, even though economic and sociopolitical conditions in Tibet are markedly unlike much of China. A consequence of these policies is increasing numbers of non-Tibetan migrants flowing into Tibetan areas with the ensuing marginalization of Tibetans in the marketplace. Poor quality education is another factor contributing to Tibetan inability to effectively participate in the market. Vocational and business education targeting Tibetans is of very low quality and reflective of government failing to consider local circumstances when implementing education policy. The relatively few Tibetans who do receive education are nearly always unable to compete with non-Tibetan migrants in commercial activity. Encouraging and promoting Tibetan participation in business development and access to quality education are crucial for a sustainable and prosperous society in the long term. Particularly, a localized development policy that considers local environmental conditions and production as well as local culture is crucial. Tibet s economic development should be based on local environmental and production conditions, while utilizing Tibetan culture for the benefit of creating a sustainable economy. Such a localized approach best promotes Tibetan market participation. Keywords: Tibet cultural policy education market participationSen jälkeen, kun Kiinan kansantasavallan hallinto alkoi 1970-luvun lopulla toteuttaa talousuudistuksia maassaan, on taloudellinen muutos ja kasvu ollut syvällistä. Kuten Kiinan muissakin osissa, tiibetiläisten asuttamilla alueilla on tapahtunut ajoittain jopa valtakunnallista keskiarvoa vahvempaa taloudellista kasvua. Kiinan strateginen ohjelma länsiosiensa kehittämiseksi on luonut lisää mahdollisuuksia liiketoimintaan ja yrittämiseen näillä alueilla. Tiibetiläiset eivät itse kuitenkaan ole olleet kovin valmiita näiden mahdollisuuksien hyödyntämiseen. Tämä tutkimuksen aiheena on ihmiset, heidän markkinoihin osallistumisensa ja erityisesti se, miksi tiibetiläiset eivät pysty osallistumaan tehokkaasti Kiinan kasvaviin markkinoihin. Tutkimus keskittyy kolmeen näitä vaikeuksia selittävään tekijään: sosiaaliseen ja kulttuuriseen kontekstiin, hallituksen ajamaan politiikkaan sekä koulutukseen. Ongelman taustalla voidaan nähdä tiibetiläisten yhteisöjen buddhalainen perusluonne sekä etenkin perinteisen tiibetiläisen yhteiskunnan poliittinen ja taloudellinen järjestelmä suhteessa keskushallinnon uusiin taloudellisiin linjauksiin. Vain paikalliset olosuhteet huomioiva talouspolitiikka voisi edistää paikallisen väestön osallistumista markkinoihin. Valitettavasti Kiinan taloudellinen kehityspolitiikka tiibetiläisellä alueilla on yleensä vain yritys toistaa Kiinan ydinalueilla toteutettua mallia avaamalla markkinoita, vaikka Tiibetin taloudelliset ja sosiaalipoliittiset olosuhteet ovat merkittävästi erilaiset kuin varsinaisessa Kiinassa. Näiden poliittisten toimenpiteiden seurauksena tiibetiläisille alueille on saapunut yhä enemmän ei-tiibetiläisiä siirtolaisia, mistä puolestaan on seurannut tiibetiläisten marginaalistuminen markkinoilla. Toinen tekijä, joka vaikuttaa tiibetiläisten heikkoon markkinoihin osallistumiseen, on matala koulutustaso. Tiibetiläisille suunnattu ammatillinen ja liiketaloudellinen koulutus on heikkolaatuista heijastaen hallinnon kyvyttömyyttä ottaa koulutuspolitiikassaan huomioon paikalliset olosuhteet. Ne harvat tiibetiläiset, jotka koulutuksen piirissä ovat, eivät yleensä pysty kilpailemaan ei-tiibetiläisten siirtolaisten kanssa kaupallisessa toiminnassa. Kestävän kehityksen ja hyvinvoinnin kannalta olisi pitkällä aikavälillä tärkeää edistää tiibetiläisten osallistumista liike-elämään. Paikallisolosuhteisiin sovellettu ja kulttuuritekijät huomioiva kehitysstrategia olisi ratkaisevan tärkeä. Tiibetin taloudellisen kehityksen tulisi perustua paikallisiin luonnonolosuhteisiin ja elinkeinorakenteeseen. Myös tiibetiläisestä kulttuuriperinnöstä voitaisiin ottaa vaikutteita kestävän talouden luomiseen. Tällainen lokalisoitu lähestymistapa parhaiten edistäisi tiibetiläisten osallistumista markkinoihin. Avainsanat: Tiibet, kulttuuripolitiikka, koulutus, markkinoihin osallistumine

Giant edge state splitting at atomically precise zigzag edges

Zigzag edges of graphene nanostructures host localized electronic states that are predicted to be spin-polarized. However, these edge states are highly susceptible to edge roughness and interaction with a supporting substrate, complicating the study of their intrinsic electronic and magnetic structure. Here, we focus on atomically precise graphene nanoribbons whose two short zigzag edges host exactly one localized electron each. Using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, the graphene nanoribbons are transferred from the metallic growth substrate onto insulating islands of NaCl in order to decouple their electronic structure from the metal. The absence of charge transfer and hybridization with the substrate is confirmed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), which reveals a pair of occupied / unoccupied edge states. Their large energy splitting of 1.9 eV is in accordance with ab initio many-body perturbation theory calculations and reflects the dominant role of electron-electron interactions in these localized states.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Strengths-based leadership and employee work engagement:A multi-source study

Strengths-based leadership helps employees identify, utilize, and develop their strengths. Does such leadership facilitate employee work engagement and performance? In this study, we integrate Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theories to hypothesize that strengths-based leadership is positively related to employee task performance through employee work engagement, and that this effect is moderated by LMX quality. We collected survey data at two time points – with one month interval – from 556 Chinese workers and their managers (N = 104 teams). The results of path modelling showed that strengths-based leadership was positively related to supervisor-ratings of employee task performance via employee work engagement. As predicted, the positive relation between strengths-based leadership and employee work engagement was stronger when LMX was of high-quality. However, the predicted moderated-mediation effect was not supported. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on strengths-based leadership, as well as the practical implications.</p

Gamma-irradiation induces matrix metalloproteinase II expression in a p53-dependent manner

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of proteinases that degrade the basement membrane and have been implicated in promoting tumor metastasis. MMP-2, one member of this family, was recently found to be a p53 target and subject to p53 upregulation. In this study, we examined the correlation between the expression of MMP-2 and the increased expression of p53 after γ-irradiation. Three human p53-positive cell lines that express wild-type p53, including U2-OS (osteosarcoma), RKO (colon carcinoma), MCF-7 (breast carcinoma), one mouse p53 positive cell line and HepG2 (liver carcinoma), and two p53-negative human cell lines, SAOS-2 (osteosarcoma) and RKO-E6 (colon carcinoma), were used in this study. The MMP-2 activity was analyzed by using gelatin zymography. The p53 level was measured by western blot analysis. Our results show that wild-type p53 induced by ionizing radiation caused a subsequent increase of MMP-2 activity in U2-OS and RKO cells but not in MCF-7, HepG2, SAOS-2, or RKO-E6 cells. These results suggest that the γ-radiation–induced expression of MMP-2 is dependent on the cell type and presence of functional p53. Thus, ionizing radiation could activate MMP-2 activity in a subset of human cancer cells and may lead to an increase in their metastatic potential. Mol. Carcinog. 27:252–258, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35060/1/2_ftp.pd

FM-test: a fuzzy-set-theory-based approach to differential gene expression data analysis

Abstract Background Microarray techniques have revolutionized genomic research by making it possible to monitor the expression of thousands of genes in parallel. As the amount of microarray data being produced is increasing at an exponential rate, there is a great demand for efficient and effective expression data analysis tools. Comparison of gene expression profiles of patients against those of normal counterpart people will enhance our understanding of a disease and identify leads for therapeutic intervention. Results In this paper, we propose an innovative approach, fuzzy membership test (FM-test), based on fuzzy set theory to identify disease associated genes from microarray gene expression profiles. A new concept of FM d-value is defined to quantify the divergence of two sets of values. We further analyze the asymptotic property of FM-test, and then establish the relationship between FM d-value and p-value. We applied FM-test to a diabetes expression dataset and a lung cancer expression dataset, respectively. Within the 10 significant genes identified in diabetes dataset, six of them have been confirmed to be associated with diabetes in the literature and one has been suggested by other researchers. Within the 10 significantly overexpressed genes identified in lung cancer data, most (eight) of them have been confirmed by the literatures which are related to the lung cancer. Conclusion Our experiments on synthetic datasets show that FM-test is effective and robust. The results in diabetes and lung cancer datasets validated the effectiveness of FM-test. FM-test is implemented as a Web-based application and is available for free at http://database.cs.wayne.edu/bioinformatics

Edge Disorder in Bottom-Up Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons: Implications for Magnetism and Quantum Electronic Transport

We unveil the nature of the structural disorder in bottom-up zigzag graphene nanoribbons along with its effect on the magnetism and electronic transport on the basis of scanning probe microscopies and first-principles calculations. We find that edge-missing m-xylene units emerging during the cyclodehydrogenation step of the on-surface synthesis are the most common point defects. These "bite'' defects act as spin-1 paramagnetic centers, severely disrupt the conductance spectrum around the band extrema, and give rise to spin-polarized charge transport. We further show that the electronic conductance across graphene nanoribbons is more sensitive to "bite" defects forming at the zigzag edges than at the armchair ones. Our work establishes a comprehensive understanding of the low-energy electronic properties of disordered bottom-up graphene nanoribbons

Zebrafish Peptidoglycan Recognition Proteins Are Bactericidal Amidases Essential for Defense against Bacterial Infections

SummaryPeptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) are structurally conserved through evolution, but their functions in innate immunity are different in invertebrates and vertebrates. We asked what the functions of PGRPs in fish are and whether they are indispensable for defense against infection because fish are the first vertebrates that developed adaptive immunity, but they still rely solely on innate immunity during early development of embryos. We identified and cloned three zebrafish PGRPs and showed that they are highly expressed in eggs, developing embryos, and adult tissues that contact external environment. Zebrafish PGRPs have both peptidoglycan-lytic amidase activity and broad-spectrum bactericidal activity, which is a unique feature. Furthermore, we demonstrated that in the developing zebrafish embryo, one of these PGRPs is essential for defense and survival during bacterial infections. These data demonstrate an absolute requirement for innate immunity in defense against infections in fish embryos and for a PGRP protein for survival in vertebrates