Renewing Strategie Transformation in Asia - Pacific

From introduction: "The year 2005 began with a series of attempts for a strategie new modelling in East Asia. The US President George Bush has been well into his second term and started to shape up a new regional strategie environment. In the light of the incessant Iraqi as well as the North Korean issue, at this moment the US obviously need to make a more diplomatic effort rather than rely purely on the military superiority in intemational affairs. This was clearly highlighted by the new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, at her eonfirmation hearing at the Senate on 18 January, 2005. She indicated: “we must use American diplomacy to help create a balance of power in the world that favors freedom. And the time for diplomacy is now.”"(...

External incentives, industrial development and regional economic integration

The revival of regional integration in the European Community (EC) in the early 1980s has brought about profound implications for the development of regional integration and its related theory. Firstly, European industry searching to promote its competitiveness highlighted the need for a "European-level" solution to European economic decline and contributions to the relaunching of European integration. Secondly, as a result of the renewed momentum for regional integration, external factors which were neglected by previous efforts in theory-exploration, have become more noticeable in the process of regional integration.The purpose of this thesis about external factors is to analyse to what extent the progress of regional integration is driven by the private sector. The relaunching of European integration which brought about the successful  passage of the Single European Act has demonstrated the crucial contribution of the business community to  accelerating  the progress of integration.This thesis further offers an analysis of the proposition that the impact of external factors on industrial development is the key to understanding the process of creating the Chinese Economic Area (CEA). It explores the argument  that instead of being motivated by political factors, the process of regional integration is primarily stimulated by  industrial development in the private sector. It concludes by suggesting a new focus for the study of regional  integration - the "external incentives-industrial development" approach, and comparative insights into the EC and  the CEA

Human Security Policy Initiative on Catastrophic Disaster and Crisis Response in Indonesia

This paper discusses the internalization of global ideas in a country’s national policies. This paper reviews the application of the human security concept to Indonesia’s domestic policies, especially on the issue of catastrophic disaster and crisis response. This topic arises as Indonesia has historically experienced various crises, such as the 1997 financial crisis, the health crisis due to the 2002 SARS pandemic outbreak, and the humanitarian crisis caused by the 2004 tsunami disaster. In addition, Indonesia is threatened by other issues, such as domestic conflict, separatism, terrorism, and environmental problems. All of these issues, according to experts, have an equivalent impact on conflict and significantly affect the security of citizens. Therefore, this article intends to discover the capacity and ability of Indonesia to apply human security ideas in its domestic policies. This paper uses two approaches to achieve its objective: the human security approach according to the global perspective and the policy network approach in public policy studies. This paper argues that the idea of human security has not yet become a platform in the formulation of security policy in Indonesia. However, the basic principles of the concept of human security are contained in the national constitution. Besides, in the disaster and crisis management context directly related to human security, the state is still working alone. It has not optimized all the resources and non-governmental actors to work together to produce the community’s specific policies. Keywords: Human Security, Policy Network, Crisis, Disaster, Indonesi

Upgrading school efficiencies and learning interests through innovative teaching of digital mobile e-learning

Abstract. Assessing the digital mobile e-learning whether to affect school efficiency is an important yet complex issue. Consequently, this study goal of this research is to evaluate the innovative teaching to affect school efficiency (total efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) estimated by the data envelopment analysis (DEA) through using digital mobile e-learning of high school in Taiwan. Additionally, the Tobit regression model (TRM) is employed to discuss whether the other determinants affect using digital mobile e-learning of school efficiency. The findings can briefly be concluded as follows. The empirical results of this research indicate the following results: (1) Importing digital mobile e-learning can really enhance the efficiency of school management. (2) technical Efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE) in the TRM analysis, it also indicates that school size, teacher-student ratio, school high-vocational attribute, especially the numbers of technical teachers in teaching or consulting about digital mobile e-learning knowledge and numbers of Tablet PC (the proxy for digital mobile e-learning) an important role in affecting these three efficiency of school management. Besides, the results show of total equipment expenses associated with tablet PC has a small negative influence on school management efficiency. Due to increasing costs for network equipment small effects on teaching and learning among teachers and students. The results of this research can also be the reference for educational authorities when formulating policies and regulations for promoting digital mobile e-learning.Keywords. Technical efficiency, Pure technical efficiency, Scale efficiency, Digital mobile e-Learning, Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Tobit regression model (TRM),Vocational and senior high school.JEL. I21, I25, I28

The factors affecting of digital mobile e-learning on development in senior high schools

Abstract. The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model ignores the cooperative relationship among decision-making units (DMUs), so it is difficult to evaluate the DMUs efficiency reasonably. In this study, we use a cross-efficiency and bootstrap truncated regression (BTR) model to analyze the determining factors of digital mobile e-learning. The empirical results of this research indicate the following results: (1) Importing digital mobile e-learning can really enhance the efficiency of school management. (2) The school size, tablet PC numbers, total equipment expenses associated with tablet PC and school location are important determinants for affecting the efficiency of school management. Owing to the government is full implementation of the new learns model, that is, to be where the students able to experience the authentic joy of new learning model and attract students join. The result of the study suggested that in order to increase the school’s cross-efficiency model efficiency. The first assist the school in upgrading the Wi-Fi technology and network equipment. In general, the school adds to the Wi-Fi technology and network equipment. That would enlarge the school network and as to attract more school will adopt the new learning. It is where the students able to experience the authentic joy of new learning model and attract students join. Thus, the schools will increase school size. However, it should be noted that total equipment expenses associated with tablet PC have the negative influence on school management efficiency due to the increasing costs for furnishing the related internet and network equipment or device to facilitate for teaching and learning among teachers and students by digital mobile e-learning. The results of this research can also be the reference for educational authorities when formulating policies and regulations for promoting digital mobile e-learning in high school in Taiwan.Keywords. Operating efficiency, Digital mobile e-Learning, Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Truncated bootstrapped regression (TBR), Cross efficiency model.JEL. I21, I25, I28

On the use of colour reflectivity plots to monitor the structure of the troposphere and stratosphere

The radar reflectivity, defined as the range squared corrected power of VHF radar echoes, can be used to monitor and study the temporal development of inversion layer, frontal boundaries and convective turbulence. From typical featurs of upward or downward motion of reflectivity structures, the advection/convection of cold and warm air can be predicted. High resolution color plots appear to be useful to trace and to study the life history of these structures, particularly their persistency, descent and ascent. These displays allow an immediate determination of the tropopause height as well as the determination of the tropopause structure. The life history of warm fronts, cold fronts, and occlusions can be traced, and these reflectivity plots allow detection of even very weak events which cannot be seen in the traditional meteorological data sets. The life history of convective turbulence, particular evolving from the planetary boundary layer, can be tracked quite easily. Its development into strong convection reaching the middle troposphere can be followed and predicted

Knowledge-based View in the Franchising Research Literature

Abstract. This study was conducted to understand the state of research on applications of Knowledge-based View in franchise systems. First, we used SALSA (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis), a simple systematic data search method, to obtain 61 sample papers. Second, the citations of authors and publications were analyzed using the bibliometric method to understand the authors and the publications that had the most impact as well as the trend of current studies in the field of knowledge-based theory application in franchise systems. The results showed that the journals that had the most publications on the topic were Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Research; the most cited author was S.A. Shane, who had an average rate of 1.016 citations per article, and the most cited study was a paper published by Darr, Argote, & Epple (1995), which was cited by 18 of the 61 sample papers (18/61, 29.51%). Third, we categorized the topic of knowledge-based theory application in franchise systems into six categories, i.e., knowledge transfer, knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge application, organizational learning, and knowledge exchange, to provide references for future studies.Keywords. Knowledge-based view; Franchising; Bibliometrics.JEL. L10

The first operation and results of the Chung-Li VHF radar

The Chung-Li Very High Frequency (VHF) radar is used in the dual-mode operations, applying Doppler beam-swinging as well as the spaced-antenna-drift method. The design of the VHF radar is examined. Results of performance tests are discussed

The preprophase band-associated kinesin-14 OsKCH2 is a processive minus-end-directed microtubule motor.

In animals and fungi, cytoplasmic dynein is a processive minus-end-directed motor that plays dominant roles in various intracellular processes. In contrast, land plants lack cytoplasmic dynein but contain many minus-end-directed kinesin-14s. No plant kinesin-14 is known to produce processive motility as a homodimer. OsKCH2 is a plant-specific kinesin-14 with an N-terminal actin-binding domain and a central motor domain flanked by two predicted coiled-coils (CC1 and CC2). Here, we show that OsKCH2 specifically decorates preprophase band microtubules in vivo and transports actin filaments along microtubules in vitro. Importantly, OsKCH2 exhibits processive minus-end-directed motility on single microtubules as individual homodimers. We find that CC1, but not CC2, forms the coiled-coil to enable OsKCH2 dimerization. Instead, our results reveal that removing CC2 renders OsKCH2 a nonprocessive motor. Collectively, these results show that land plants have evolved unconventional kinesin-14 homodimers with inherent minus-end-directed processivity that may function to compensate for the loss of cytoplasmic dynein

Noninvasive prediction of Blood Lactate through a machine learning-based approach.

We hypothesized that blood lactate concentration([Lac]blood) is a function of cardiopulmonary variables, exercise intensity and some anthropometric elements during aerobic exercise. This investigation aimed to establish a mathematical model to estimate [Lac]blood noninvasively during constant work rate (CWR) exercise of various intensities. 31 healthy participants were recruited and each underwent 4 cardiopulmonary exercise tests: one incremental and three CWR tests (low: 35% of peak work rate for 15 min, moderate: 60% 10 min and high: 90% 4 min). At the end of each CWR test, venous blood was sampled to determine [Lac]blood. 31 trios of CWR tests were employed to construct the mathematical model, which utilized exponential regression combined with Taylor expansion. Good fitting was achieved when the conditions of low and moderate intensity were put in one model; high-intensity in another. Standard deviation of fitting error in the former condition is 0.52; in the latter is 1.82 mmol/liter. Weighting analysis demonstrated that, besides heart rate, respiratory variables are required in the estimation of [Lac]blood in the model of low/moderate intensity. In conclusion, by measuring noninvasive cardio-respiratory parameters, [Lac]blood during CWR exercise can be determined with good accuracy. This should have application in endurance training and future exercise industry