Government policy and competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms in the Guangdong province of southern China

This paper investigates the impact of various Chinese government policies on the competitive advantages of foreign-financed manufacturing firms in Guangdong province of southern China. The objectives of various government sector-specific policies are to lubricate the factor markets in labour, capital and products and to facilitate the operation of foreign-financed firms. However, the actual effects are often quite different: the ambiguity, complexity and inflexibility of policies impose higher transaction costs on foreign-financed firms. These disadvantages offset some economic benefits gained under the central government's preferential foreign direct investment policy and thus damages the competitive advantages of foreign-financed firms based in Guangdong. Worse still, the lack of co-ordination among various bureaux further hampers arbitration between government bureaux and foreign investors

What are the impacts of implementing ISOs on the competitiveness of manufacturing industry in China?

Based on the proposed ‘PIE’ analytical framework, this paper argues that the preparation, implementation and evaluation of international standards (ISOs) affect the competitiveness of (foreign-financed) export-oriented manufacturing industry in southern and southeastern China, both in the short- and long-term. During the period of preparation, the decision to adopt ISOs is mainly driven by market demand and/or by the decisions of established competitors. Negative effects due to the diversion of scarce resources and institutional resistance to change during the period of transitional implementation are offset by the overall enhancement of the firm's productivity in the long run. ‘Tailoring for the external audit’ and ‘second-best’ practices are two strategies commonly employed by Chinese firms to lower the transaction costs involved in ISO audits

Does WTO accession matter for the Chinese textile and clothing industry?

Based on field surveys conducted in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Beijing in 2000 and 2001, this paper argues that accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by China will create a new competitive arena for different categories of textile and clothing firms located in that country, partly dependent on the size and ownership of the firm. From the perspectives of reducing import tariffs, eliminating export quotas and the regulations on trade disputes, WTO accession does matter for the majority of Chinese firms in this ‘win–lose’ game. From the perspective of compliance with international standards, this paper argues that accession to the WTO does not really matter for some Chinese firms, as they may not survive the intense competition prior to 2005, when the effects of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing materialise

Services for children with neurodevelopmental disorders: the Hong Kong experience

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Addendum to `Fake Projective Planes'

The addendum updates the results presented in the paper `Fake Projective Plane, Invent Math 168, 321-370 (2007)' and makes some additions and corrections. The fake projective planes are classified into twenty six classes. Together with a recent work of Donald Cartwright and Tim Steger, there is now a complete list of fake projective planes. There are precisely one hundred fake projective planes as complex surfaces classified up to biholomorphism.Comment: A more refined classification is given in the new versio

Diagnostic accuracy of mediastinal width measurement on posteroanterior and anteroposterior chest radiographs in the depiction of acute nontraumatic thoracic aortic dissection

We aimed to explore the diagnostic accuracy of various mediastinal measurements in determining acute nontraumatic thoracic aortic dissection with respect to posteroanterior (PA) and anteroposterior (AP) chest radiographs, which had received little attention so far. We retrospectively reviewed 100 patients (50 PA and 50 AP chest radiographs) with confirmed acute thoracic aortic dissection and 120 patients (60 PA and 60 AP chest radiographs) with confirmed normal aorta. Those who had prior history of trauma or aortic disease were excluded. The maximal mediastinal width (MW) and maximal left mediastinal width (LMW) were measured by two independent radiologists and the mediastinal width ratio (MWR) was calculated. Statistical analysis was then performed with independent sample t test. PA projection was significantly more accurate than AP projection, achieving higher sensitivity and specificity. LMW and MW were the most powerful parameters on PA and AP chest radiographs, respectively. The optimal cutoff levels were LMW = 4.95 cm (sensitivity, 90 %; specificity, 90 %) and MW = 7.45 cm (sensitivity, 90 %; specificity, 88.3 %) for PA projection and LMW = 5.45 cm (sensitivity, 76 %; specificity, 65 %) and MW = 8.65 cm (sensitivity, 72 %; specificity, 80 %) for AP projection. MWR was found less useful and less reliable. The use of LMW alone in PA film would allow more accurate prediction of aortic dissection. PA chest radiograph has a higher diagnostic accuracy when compared with AP chest radiograph, with negative PA chest radiograph showing less probability for aortic dissection. Lower threshold for proceeding to computed tomography aortogram is recommended however, especially in the elderly and patients with widened mediastinum on AP chest radiograph. © 2012 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio

Sensitivity to sentiment: News vs social media

© 2019 We explore the rapidly changing social and news media landscape that is responsible for the dissemination of information vital to the efficient functioning of the financial markets. Using the sheer volume of social and news media activity, commonly known as buzz, we document three distinct regimes. We find that between 2011 and 2013 the news media coverage stimulates activity in social media. This is followed by a transition period of two-way causality. From 2016, however, changes in levels of social media activity seem to lead and generate news coverage volumes. We uncover similar evolution of lead-lag pattern between sentiment measures constructed from the tonality contained in textual data from social and news media posts. We discover that market variables exert stronger impact on investor sentiment than the other way around. We also find that return responses to social media sentiment almost doubled after the transition period, while return responses to news-based sentiment almost halved to its pre-transition level. The linkage between volatility and sentiment is much more persistent than that between returns and sentiment. Overall, our results suggest that social media is becoming the dominant media source

Routine Continuous Cold Perfusion of the Kidneys during Elective Juxtarenal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

ObjectivesSurgical treatment of JAAs (juxtarenal aortic aneurysms) requires suprarenal aortic cross-clamping, causing temporary renal artery occlusion. We implemented a standardized protocol of hypothermic renal perfusion for all elective JAA operations.DesignRetrospective study.Materials and methodsOver a period of 6 years, 23 consecutive patients received a 300ml bolus followed by an infusion (20ml/minute) of cold (4°C) saline to each kidney during suprarenal aortic clamping. We assessed outcome in terms of rise in serum creatinine, new onset of dialysis and mortality.ResultsNone of the patients suffered from postoperative acute renal failure and in-hospital mortality was zero. Five patients did not show any rise in serum creatinine level, whereas in the others rises were <25% in comparison with the admission level, except for one patient (38%). Postoperative rise in serum creatinine level was not related to renal ischemia time (Spearman rank correlation=0.24, p=0.27), preoperative renal function, total aortic clamping time or renal re-implantation. There were no renal complications at 6 months.ConclusionsOur results suggest that a standardized strategy to apply renal hypothermia during the ischemic period of elective JAA surgery may reduce postoperative renal failure

State of research in automatic as-built modelling

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2015.01.001Building Information Models (BIMs) are becoming the official standard in the construction industry for encoding, reusing, and exchanging information about structural assets. Automatically generating such representations for existing assets stirs up the interest of various industrial, academic, and governmental parties, as it is expected to have a high economic impact. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the as-built modelling process, with focus on the geometric modelling side. Relevant works from the Computer Vision, Geometry Processing, and Civil Engineering communities are presented and compared in terms of their potential to lead to automatic as-built modelling.We acknowledge the support of EPSRC Grant NMZJ/114,DARPA UPSIDE Grant A13–0895-S002, NSF CAREER Grant N. 1054127, European Grant Agreements No. 247586 and 334241. We would also like to thank NSERC Canada, Aecon, and SNC-Lavalin for financially supporting some parts of this research

Genomic Structure and Chromosomal Location of the Rat Gene Encoding the Zinc Finger Transcription Factor Kid-1

We have previously cloned and sequenced a novel zinc finger cDNA, Kid-1 , from the rat. Because of its developmentally regulated expression pattern and its suppression after renal injury, as well as its kindey-predominant expression, we propose that Kid-1 is likely to play an important role in renal gene regulation. Kid-1 encodes a predicted protein with 13 zinc fingers at the carboxy end and Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) A and B regions at the amino terminus. Expression of a Kid-1-GAL4 chimeric protein results in strong transcriptional repression of cotransfected constructs containing GAL4 binding sites and a chloramphenicol acetyl transferase gene driven by either a minimal promoter or a SV40 enhancer. We now report the cloning, structural organization, and chromosomal localization of the Kid-1 gene. The Kid-1 gene is composed of four exons and three introns, closely reflecting the organization of the Kid-1 protein. The KRAB A and B regions are encoded by the second and third exons, respectively. The entire zinc finger region is encoded by the fourth exon. Using a combination of linkage analysis and somatic cell hybrid analysis, Kid-1was mapped to rat chromosome (RNO) 10. Kid-1, Il3, and Sparc form a tight linkage group on RNO10. Regional sublocalization to RNO10q21.3-q22 was established by fluorescence in situ hybridization.