Rapid Advance: High Technology in China in the Global Electronic Age

This study examines how a critical high technology industry in China, the semiconductor industry, advanced from being an isolated, centrally planned industry in the mid 1980s to being an important participant in the competitive global semiconductor industry after 2000. The research examines the most important trends, projects, and enterprises in China, with attention to China's global partners and China's rapidly growing role in the world economy. In the 1990s, semiconductor enterprises in China proactively made key structural changes and global linkages that set the stage for the industry's growth after 2000. The study thus provides an industry level assessment of how reforms and technological upgrading occurred in contemporary China, including the degree and character of so-called state led development. This research also shows that the development of this high technology industry had direct and positive effects on China's larger business environment and trade policies. Finally, this study compares the development of the semiconductor industry in China with its development in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, identifying differences in national approaches and the effects of the global information revolution

Rapid Advance: High Technology in China in the Global Electronic Age

This study examines how a critical high technology industry in China, the semiconductor industry, advanced from being an isolated, centrally planned industry in the mid 1980s to being an important participant in the competitive global semiconductor industry after 2000. The research examines the most important trends, projects, and enterprises in China, with attention to China's global partners and China's rapidly growing role in the world economy. In the 1990s, semiconductor enterprises in China proactively made key structural changes and global linkages that set the stage for the industry's growth after 2000. The study thus provides an industry level assessment of how reforms and technological upgrading occurred in contemporary China, including the degree and character of so-called state led development. This research also shows that the development of this high technology industry had direct and positive effects on China's larger business environment and trade policies. Finally, this study compares the development of the semiconductor industry in China with its development in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, identifying differences in national approaches and the effects of the global information revolution

Assessing organisational readiness for change:Use of diagnostic analysis prior to the implementation of a multidisciplinary assessment for acute stroke care

BACKGROUND: Achieving evidence-based practice in health care is integral to the drive for quality improvement in the National Health Service in the UK. Encapsulated within this policy agenda are challenges inherent in leading and managing organisational change. Not least of these is the need to change the behaviours of individuals and groups in order to embed new practices. Such changes are set within a context of organisational culture that can present a number of barriers and facilitators to change. Diagnostic analysis has been recommended as a precursor to the implementation of change to enable such barriers and facilitators to be identified and a targeted implementation strategy developed. Although diagnostic analysis is recommended, there is a paucity of advice on appropriate methods to use. This paper addresses the paucity and builds on previous work by recommending a mixed method approach to diagnostic analysis comprising both quantitative and qualitative data. METHODS: Twenty staff members with strategic accountability for stroke care were purposively sampled to take part in semi-structured interviews. Six recently discharged patients were also interviewed. Focus groups were conducted with one group of registered ward-based nurses (n = 5) and three specialist registrars (n = 3) purposively selected for their interest in stroke care. All professional staff on the study wards were sent the Team Climate Inventory questionnaire (n = 206). This elicited a response rate of 72% (n = 148). RESULTS: A number of facilitators for change were identified, including stakeholder support, organisational commitment to education, strong team climate in some teams, exemplars of past successful organisational change, and positive working environments. A number of barriers were also identified, including: unidisciplinary assessment/recording practices, varying in structure and evidence-base; weak team climate in some teams; negative exemplars of organisational change; and uncertainty created by impending organisational merger. CONCLUSION: This study built on previous research by proposing a mixed method approach for diagnostic analysis. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data were able to capture multiple perspectives on barriers and facilitators to change. These data informed the tailoring of the implementation strategy to the specific needs of the Trust

Policies Regarding the Prosecution of Juvenile Murderers: Which System and Who Should Decide?

The fate awaiting the juvenile charged with murder varies considerably from state to state. In some jurisdictions the youth (depending on age) would have to be prosecuted in juvenile court and receive at worst the most severe sanction available in that forum. In other locations the juvenile could have to be tried in adult court or could be sent there by either a judge or a prosecutor, and would be eligible for an adult sentence, including possibly the death penalty. This study examines the country\u27s various policies regarding the prosecution of juvenile murderers, as well as the implications behind both using the juvenile versus the adult court for these prosecutions and extending the transfer power to the prosecutor versus the judge. © 1996 Wiley. All rights reserved