The nature of economic development zones in China:an empirical study based on data from the Yangtze River Delta

Development zones, born in the course of China’s economic transition, are the carriers of both the favorable institutions and the foreign advanced technology. They are now at the stage of transferring from the concentration of firms to being industrial clusters. Based on data of firms in development zones along the Yangtze River obtained through micro-level investigation, this paper studies the effects of local factors special to development zones as well as the influence of technology promotion on the economic performance of those firms “locating” in development zones, and thus discloses the nature of firms concentrating into development zones and their trend of transferring into industrial clusters. The empirical study suggests that firms locating on development zones mainly aim at obtaining “policy rents”, which results in that firms concentrating in development zones do not possess the industrial cluster effect in the general sense: the benefits of closing to the supply or demand market. However, although firms in a develop zone do not necessarily concentrate with related firms in space, their technology and market activities are inevitably to produce relations with factors such as local governments and related industrial elements and thus affect the economic performance of firms and nurture the clustering effects of development zones. Therefore, as “policy rents” fade away due to industry transfer and adjustment of favorable economic policies, the key to keep development zones sustainable is to enhance their clustering effects.development zones along the Yangtze River, spatial concentration of firms, industrial clustering effect, technology promotion, policy rents

Technology capacity, product position and firm’s competitiveness: an empirical analysis

Using firm-level data from a 2009 survey conducted in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, this paper examines impacts of technology capacity and value-chain position on firm’s product competitiveness. Both technology capacity and product competitiveness are self-assessed relative to other firms and products in the same industry. The position of value-chain is measured relative to if a firm is an original brand manufacturer or not. Our empirical results show that competitiveness rises with firm’s technology capacity and its position in the global value chain. This finding is consistent with the theoretical prediction. The paper also investigates determinants of technology capacity and value-chain position, including firm’s size, R&D spending, location dummies, education level of technical and management personnel, wages of technical and management personnel, and enterprise ownership. Bootstrapping, Probit, and linear probability regression models are employed.Technology Capacity; Original Brand Manufacturer; Competitiveness; Global Value Chain; Bootstrapping

Precision measurement of the return distribution property of the Chinese stock market index

Systematical and precise analysis on the 1-min datasets over the 17-year period 2005-2021 for both the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange composite index is conducted in this paper. Here we precisely measure the property of return distributions of composite indices over time scale $\Delta t$ ranging from 1 min up to almost 4,000 min, to reveal the difference between the Chinese stock market and the mature stock market in developed countries. The return distributions of composite indices for both exchanges show similar behavior. Main findings in this paper are as follows. (1) The central part of return distribution is well described by symmetrical L$\acute{e}$vy $\alpha$-stable process with stability parameter comparable with the value of about 1.4 extracted in the U.S. stock market. (2) Distinctively, the stability parameter shows a potential change when $\Delta t$ increases, and thus a crossover region located at 15 $< \Delta t <$ 60 min is observed, which is different from the finding in the U.S. stock market where a single value of about 1.4 holds over 1 $\le \Delta t \le$ 1,000 min. (3) Return distributions can be also well described by the student's distribution within wider return range than the L$\acute{e}$vy $\alpha$-stable distribution. (4) The tail distributions of returns at small $\Delta t$ decay as asymptotic power law with exponents being about 3, which is a value widely existed in mature stock markets. However, it decays exponentially for $\Delta t \ge$ 240 min, which is not observed in mature markets. (5) The return distributions slowly converge to Gaussian along with $\Delta t$ increasing, which is also different from the finding of a critical $\Delta t = 4$ days in the U.S. stock market

Heavy-tailed distributions of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in spatiotemporal space

This paper conducts a systematic statistical analysis of the characteristics of the geographical empirical distribution for the numbers of both cumulative and daily confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths at county, city, and state levels over a time span from January 2020 to June 2022. The mathematical heavy-tailed distributions can be used for fitting the empirical distributions observed in different temporal stages and geographical scales. According to the characteristics of the heavy-tailed distributions, the evolution course of the geographical empirical distribution can be divided into three distinct phases, namely the power-law phase, the lognormal phase I, and the lognormal phase II. These three phases could serve as an indicator of the severity degree of the COVID-19 pandemic within an area. The empirical results suggest important intrinsic dynamics of a human infectious virus spread in the human interconnected physical complex network. The findings extend previous empirical studies and could provide more strict constraints for current mathematical and physical modeling studies. In the future, the distribution patterns observed in this study would provide macroscopic implications for the design of containment measures and the allocation of resources among different places if a new pandemic breaks out

Um projeto urbano na zona compreendida entre a praça José Afonso e o tribunal

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitetura, com a especialização em Urbanismo apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre.É certo que os portos representaram um papel fundamental no crescimento e desenvolvimento das cidades, tanto a nível urbano, económico e social, como, também, consistiram em elementos importantes no estabelecer da relação da cidade com o rio. Porém, no período industrial, devido à forte ocupação das frentes de água essa relação deixou de existir. Atualmente, estes territórios encontram-se bastante marcados por esse período, através de espaços devolutos e edifícios degradados, tornando-se assim objeto de elevado interesse a revitalizar, a fim de devolvê-los à cidade. Muitas destas revitalizações consistem em propor espaços públicos em áreas que sofreram grandes transformações provocadas pelas constantes alterações dos paradigmas da cidade e da sua população. A preocupação atual prende-se com a sua flexibilidade e sustentabilidade, por forma a garantir espaços alternativos e viáveis para funções distintas e agradáveis. Como tal, o presente trabalho pretende ser uma ferramenta para melhorar as necessidades atuais dos espaços públicos e da população, onde se procura que o espaço público se torne impulsionador de novas dinâmicas de apropriação e de novos comportamentos que contribuam para a promoção e atratividade quer da população quer dos visitantes.ABSTRACT: Ports have played a pivotal role in both the growth and development of cities, with regards to urban landscape, economics and indeed society; beyond this however, they have been fundamental in establishing the deep relationship between cities and their rivers. Unfortunately, as a result of the industrial period, and due to the oppressive and relentless occupation of water fronts, this relationship has been severed. Nowadays, these territories are predominantly characterized by vacant spaces and degraded buildings, often becoming objects of 'revitalization' potential - in an attempt to return them to the cities and people to whom they once belonged. These attempts frequently constitute a proposition of a series of public spaces upon these riverfront territories that have undergone great transformations over time, as a result of the ceaseless changes and adaptations of the paradigms of the city and its population. The contemporary concern of this approach is flexibility and sustainability, as one attempts to guarantee alternative and viable spaces for distinct and pleasant functions. The following work aims to improve the availability of public space, allowing it to become the engine of new dynamics of appropriation and new behaviors whilst contributing to the promotion and attractiveness of the city, its population and visitors.N/

Comparative analysis of differential gene expression in two species of crucian carps in response to Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) infection

We assessed the expressions of MHCI, LYZC, keratin8, MPO, DUSP1, IκBα, Rab21, and Rac2 between two species of carps (Erqisi river crucian carp and allogynogenetic crucian carp) after Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) infection. The relative expressions of MHCI, LYZC, and keratin8 in the virus-challenged groups were significantly higher than control groups. Moreover, the expression of IκBα in the virus-challenged groups was significantly lower than in the control groups. Compared with the virus-challenged ERO group, the expression of IκBα in the virus-challenged ZHO group decreased. The expression of Rab21 in the virus-challenged groups gradually increased and was significantly higher than in the control groups, and then its expression began to decrease after 24 h. At 72 h, the expression of IκBα in both virus-challenged groups was significantly lower than in the control groups. In addition, the expression of Rab21 in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than the virus-challenged ERO group at all time points except for 72 h. Before 24 h, the expression of Rac2 remained unchanged in these four groups, and its expression in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than in the other three groups. Nevertheless, its expression began to decrease after 24 h but was still slightly higher than the control group at 72 h. MPO showed a similar expression pattern as Rac2. The expression of DUSP1 in the four groups was the same at 0 h. However, its expression in the virus-challenged ZHO group was significantly higher than in the other three groups at other time points

Just Looking: Tourist Gaze and the Theme Park Experience

What makes a memorable theme park experience? New research led by UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management\u27s Assistant Professor Wei Wei looks at how visitor experience is influenced by the \u27tourist gaze\u27—the consumption of visual experiences, as well as other services, in a tourism destination. With important implications for theme park operators and managers, the study focuses on visitors\u27 visual interactions with fellow visitors and finds they have a significant impact on visitors\u27 emotions and the quality of their overall experience