Environmental advertising in China and the USA: the desire to go green

Book Review Environmental advertising in China and the USA: the desire to go green, by Xinghua Li, London and New York, NY, Routledge, 2016, 158 pp., £90.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-415-74413-

The Re-imagining of China under President Xi Jinping

This article explains how Xi Jinping is consolidating an identity for China, at home and abroad, which draws upon the country’s past more than upon its recent revolutionary history. In so doing, he appears to be acknowledging the desire of many, perhaps the majority, of Chinese people, to defend their culture against conversion; he is also providing an ideology to inspire the young and the servants of the state, offering an alternative to ‘westernisation’ and, in effect, replacing the now discredited Marxism-Leninism of his predecessors. Rather than rejecting China’s past as they did, Xi speaks of a renaissance of it. The implications for international relations are substantial. The writer suggests that Westerners should welcome this, as the ideology is not missionary or universalist, but advances stability and respect for difference as fundamentals of its approach to the wider world

The Return of the Repressed: three examples of how Chinese identity is being reconsolidated for the modern world

After setting the scene for an examination of the changes in culture and self-perception in China today, the authors explore three areas of activity which can be interpreted as illustrating these changes: (1) the current treatment of Confucius, as compared to the recent past; (2) the enthusiasm for the Chinese canon, which has developed from a grassroots movement into government policy; and (3) the way in which the presentation and content of public slogans have changed to, apparently, reflect the substitution of Communist nostrums for Confucian mores. In the first and second cases, the authors suggest that the authorities are acceding to the aspirations and prejudices of the people; rather than leading, they are following, and this has the effect of reinforcing the trend. The third—the gradual abandonment of the use of Marxist shibboleths in propaganda, and their replacement by Confucian adages—is not yet an established fact but, again, the trend is evident. China has revised and modernised its traditional culture and the first fruits of that can be seen in the words and behaviour of its political and intellectual leaders

The Emerging Chinese Theory and Practice of Media

Since the foundation of the People\u2019s Republic of China, the country has developed its own model of media management and journalism. This model, which traditionally encompasses a very strong relation between politics and media practices, has evolved over the last 40 years of reforms. At the national level, it has transformed into a much more complex and nuanced system based on the mediation between political, commercial and professional interests. At the international level, the ambition of China to contribute to the media agenda and flow of information has grown significantly. These transformations are reflected in the discursive representations of the Chinese media coming from the political, academic and media realms, and in the practice of media production in the country. This issue is aimed at providing original and up-to-date explorations and reflections on the role and functions of the media in today\u2019s China as well as on journalism values and products

Emerging Chinese Theory and Practice of Media = Media in Cina: nuove teorie e nuove pratiche

Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the country has developed its own model of media management and journalism. This model, which traditionally encompasses a very strong relation between politics and media practices, has evolved over the last 40 years of reforms. At the national level, it has transformed into a much more complex and nuanced system based on the mediation between political, commercial and professional interests. At the international level, the ambition of China to contribute to the media agenda and flow of information has grown significantly. These transformations are reflected in the discursive representations of the Chinese media coming from the political, academic and media realms, and in the practice of media production in the country. This issue is aimed at providing original and up-to-date explorations and reflections on the role and functions of the media in today’s China as well as on journalism values and products

Rapid Reservoir Sedimentation of Four Historic Thin Arch Dams in Australia

Waters flowing in streams and rivers have the ability to scour channel beds, to carry particles (heavier than water) and to deposit materials. This phenomenon of sediment transport can affect substantially the design of reservoirs. The paper describes four case studies of siltation which rendered useless water storage structures in less than 25 years. Although each dam had advanced structural features, the hydrology of the catchment and sediment transport processes were not properly taken into account. The study highlights practical situations in which a reservoir must be analysed as a complete system, taking into account structural features, hydraulics, hydrology, sediment transport, catchment erosion and catchment management. The case studies may used as teaching examples to increase student interest on the significance of sediment transport problems and to emphasise the design procedure to professionals. They may serve also to alert the community at large to basic errors caused by improper soil conservation policy and the inability to predict sediment-load process

Forecasting the extreme rainfall, low temperatures, and strong winds associated with the northern Queensland floods of February 2019

From late January to early February 2019, a quasi-stationary monsoon depression situated over northeast Australia caused devastating floods, killing an estimated 625,000 head of cattle in northwest Queensland, and inundating over 3 000 homes in the coastal city of Townsville. The monsoon depression lasted ~10 days, driving daily rainfall accumulations exceeding 200 mm/day, maximum temperatures 8–10 °C below normal, and wind gusts above 70 km/h. In this study, the atmospheric conditions during the event and its predictability on the weekly to subseasonal range are investigated. Results show that during the event, the tropical convective signal of the Madden-Julian Oscillation was over the western Pacific, and likely contributed to the heavy rainfall, however the El Niño-Southern Oscillation was not in the usual phase for increased rainfall over Queensland. Over the northern Tasman Sea, an anticyclone helped maintain a positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode and promote onshore easterly flow. Somewhat consistent with these climate drivers, the monthly rainfall outlook for February issued by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on 31 January provided no indication of the event, yet forecasts, not available to the public, of weekly-averaged conditions by the Bureau's dynamical subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction system were more successful. For the week of 31 January to 6 February the prediction system forecast a more than doubling of the probability of extreme (highest quintile) weekly rainfall a week prior to the event, along with increased probabilities of extremely low (lowest quintile) maximum temperatures and extreme (highest quintile) wind speeds. Ensemble-mean weekly rainfall amounts, however, were considerably underestimated by the prediction system, even in forecasts initialised at the start of the peak flooding week, consistent with other state-of-the-art dynamical S2S prediction systems. Despite this, one of the individual ensemble members of the Bureau's prediction system did manage to forecast close to 85% of the magnitude of the rainfall across the most heavily impacted region of northwest Queensland a week before the event. Predicting this exceptional event beyond two weeks appears beyond our current capability despite the dynamical system forecasts showing good skill in forecasting the broad-scale atmospheric conditions north of Australia a week prior

Discovery of the first symbiotic star in NGC6822

We report the discovery of the first symbiotic star (V=21.6, K_S=15.8 mag) in the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC6822. This star was identified during a spectral survey of Ha emission-line objects using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) during its performance-verification phase. The observed strong emission lines of HI and HeII suggest a high electron density and T* < 130 000 K for the hot companion. The infrared colours allow us to classify this object as an S-type symbiotic star, comprising a red giant losing mass to a compact companion. The red giant is an AGB carbon star, and a semi-regular variable, pulsating in the first overtone with a period of 142 days. Its bolometric magnitude is M_bol=-4.4 mag. We review what is known about the luminosities of extragalactic symbiotic stars, showing that most, possibly all, contain AGB stars. We suggest that a much larger fraction of Galactic symbiotic stars may contain AGB stars than was previously realised.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted to MNRA