Regional Government Competition

This monograph provides a coherent and systematic explanation of China’s regional economic development from the perspective of regional government competition. It gives an almost unknown exposition of the mechanisms of China's regional economic development, with numerous supporting cases drawn from both China and elsewhere. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested to learn more particularly the development and transformation of China’s regional economy from both the Chinese and global perspectives

Regional Government Competition

This monograph provides a coherent and systematic explanation of China’s regional economic development from the perspective of regional government competition. It gives an almost unknown exposition of the mechanisms of China's regional economic development, with numerous supporting cases drawn from both China and elsewhere. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested to learn more particularly the development and transformation of China’s regional economy from both the Chinese and global perspectives

The Role of Dealers in Electronic Markets: Empirical Insights from Online Auctions

This study examines the impact of intermediaries (dealers) in online Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) market. Online C2C transactions, such as the Internet auctions on eBay, are one of the most successful forms of electronic commerce (e-commerce). It has been suggested by many scholars that the Internet or electronic markets will eliminate intermediaries by lowering search cost and allowing direct and efficient interactions between sellers and buyers. However, a close examination of the market mechanism indicates that many functions provided by intermediaries are indispensable. Specifically, we consider intermediaries’ role in price discovery and trust building in electronic markets. Intermediaries provide a buffer for temporary misalignment between supply and demand by buying low and selling high, which provides product liquidity to buyers and sellers in online markets. Intermediaries also help build trust by engaging in transactions with risk-averse buyers and sellers who otherwise will not participate in the market. Using a dataset from eBay’s online auctions, we examine empirically these two functions in online C2C auction markets. We find that the presence of dealers has a significant impact on market liquidity, resulting in more successful trades and higher auction prices. In addition, we find that dealers are more likely to engage in transactions with less established sellers. Their presence reduces the reputation penalty faced by these players and further facilitates the success of auctions

An Empirical Investigation of Herding on the Internet: The Case of Software Downloading

Online shopping often requires consumers to choose among multiple products without detailed information about the quality. Herding is common in such situations which require consumers to infer product quality from other consumers’ choices and incorporate that information into their own decision-making process. The Internet affects the herding phenomenon in two ways. On the one hand, it provides more information about other consumers’ choices, making herding more feasible. On the other hand, the Internet provides more details about product quality, thus making herding less desirable. In this paper, we empirically examine those two effects in the context of online software downloading. We collected data on daily software downloads and studied how the daily download market share is related to the cumulative number of downloads and to the professionals’ and users’ ratings. We find significant herd behavior in our analysis of customers’ software choices. Surprisingly, the provision of professional product reviews or user reviews does not have a significant influence on the herding phenomenon. Our results suggest that consumers are in favor of information inferred from others’ behavior, but choose to ignore other sources of information. Such results are consistent with the predictions of the informational cascades literature. Our results also indicate that the vast amount of information provided on the Internet may not have as great an impact on consumer decision-making as previously expected. This paper contributes to e-commerce and Internet marketing research by investigating and offering a more in-depth understanding of online consumer behavior. This paper also contributes to the emerging literature on the impact of virtual communities

Analysis of Herding on the Internet - An Empirical Investigation of Online Software Download

Online shopping often requires consumers to choose among multiple products without detailed information about the quality. Herding is common in situations where consumers infer product quality from other consumers’ choices and incorporate that information into their own decision-making process. The Internet affects the herding phenomenon in two ways. On the one hand, it provides more information about other consumers’ choices, therefore making herding more feasible. On the other hand, it provides more details about product quality, thus making herding less desirable. This paper empirically examines those two effects in the context of online software downloading. We find significant herd behavior in our analysis, and, surprisingly, the provision of professional product reviews or user reviews does not significantly influence the herding phenomenon. This study contributes to the E-Commerce and the Internet marketing research by investigating online consumer behavior. This paper also contributes to the emerging literature of studying the impact of virtual communities

The Dynamic Effects of Perceptions of Dread Risk and Unknown Risk on SNS Sharing Behavior During Emerging Infectious Disease Events: Do Crisis Stages Matter?

In response to the increasing prevalence of emerging infectious disease (EID) threats, individuals are turning to social media platforms to share relevant information in ever greater numbers. In this study, we examine whether risk perceptions related to user-generated content have dynamic impacts on social networking site (SNS) sharing behavior in different crisis stages. To answer this question, we applied psychometric analysis to evaluate how dread risk and unknown risk can characterize EID threats. Drawing broadly on the literature of risk perceptions, self-perception theory, and crisis stages, we relied on microblogs collected from Sina Weibo, utilizing the vector autoregression model to analyze dynamic relationships. We found that perceptions of dread risk have a dominant and immediate impact on SNS sharing behavior in the buildup, breakout, and termination stages of EID events. Perceptions of unknown risk have a dominant and persistent impact on sharing behavior in the abatement stage. The joint effect of these two types of risk perception reveal an antagonism impact on SNS sharing behavior, and perceptions of dread- and unknown risk have interaction effects from the buildup to termination stages of EID events. To check robustness, we analyzed keywords related to perceptions of dread- and unknown risk. The results of this study support the empirical application of Slovic’s risk perception framework for understanding the characteristics of EID threats and provide a picture of how perceptions of dread- and unknown risk exert differential time-varying effects on SNS sharing behavior during EID events. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications for the crisis management of EID threats. This study is among the first that uses user-generated content in social media to investigate dynamic risk perceptions and their relationship to SNS sharing behavior, which may help provide a basis for timely and efficient risk communication

What Is the Aesthetics in China?

It could be said that chinese aesthetics merges together three cornerstones (capisaldi) of the western tradition. It might be intended as the study of beauty in the Platonic sense, because of the vaste debate on the topic rooted back in chinese’s ancient times; it could match the sense of aesthetics as intended by Baumgarten, because of the long tradition of chinese perceptual studies, and it may also be compared to the Hegelian philosophy of art, given the abundance of chinese artistic manufacts and theories. Chinese aesthetics is distinctive and very different from the western one. While the latter tries to grasp the inner beauty of things by breaking them and accounts for beauty as an object, chinese aesthetics considers beauty as a subject, rather aiming at feeling the beauty of things for what they are. Compared to the occidental tradition, which is rooted in sensation but deviates from sensation to pursue a rational goal, chinese aesthetics originates from the sensation and adheres to it all the time. Therefore, the chinese stance makes for a unique and genuine approach to the discipline

Indirect Reciprocity in Contributions to a Peer-to-Peer Music Sharing Network - An Empirical Analysis of Individual Level Data

This study assesses the influence of indirect reciprocity on individual contribution to a peer-to-peer network. We find that individuals’ level of contributions increases with number of contributors in the peer-to-peer network but decrease with number of free riders in the networks, indicating that individual contributions are reciprocal in nature. Moreover, we show that individuals have strong incentive to punish free riders and reward contributors in the peer-to-peer network. They do so through the setting of servers that allows discrimination among downloaders. When number of free riders increases, individuals are more likely to change the server settings to provide priority services to contributors and lesser services to free riders. The phenomena are consistent with findings from economic experiments which suggest that reciprocity and the ability to punish free riders could sustain contribution to pubic goods. The findings have important implications on the design and practical management of peer-to-peer networks

Artemisinin derivative SM934, influences the activation, proliferation, differentiation and antibody-secreting capacity of β-cells in systemic lupus erythematosus mice via inhibition of TLR7/9 signaling pathway

Purpose: To study the influence of artemisinin derivative, SM934 on activation, proliferation, differentiation and antibody-secreting capacity of B cells of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) mice, and the underlying mechanism. Methods: Female MRL/lpr mice (n = 60) were randomly assigned to four groups of 15 mice each: SLE, 2.5 mg/kg SM934; 5 mg/kg SM934, and 10 mg/kg SM934 groups. Serum levels of interleukins 6, 10, 17 and 21 (IL-6, IL-17, IL-10 and IL-21) were determined. The secretions of immunoglobulins G and M (IgG and IgM) by B cells were determined. The population of B lymphocyte subtypes was determined flow cytometrically. The expressions of Blimp-1 and Bcl-6, Toll-like receptors 7 and 9 (TLR7 and TLR9) mRNAs were determined. Results: SLE-induced upregulation of serum IL-10, IL-6, IL-17 and IL-21 was significantly and dosedependently reduced following a 2-month treatment with SM934 (p < 0.01). Treatment with SM934 significantly and dose-dependently accentuated B cell germinal center B cell populations, but significantly and dose-dependently decreased the populations of plasma and activated B cells (p < 0.01). The splenic levels of IgG and IgM were decreased in a dose-dependent fashion after 8 weeks of treatment (p < 0.01). Artemisinin derivative SM934 decreased the expression of Blimp-1, and upregulated the expression of Bcl-6, both in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.01). Moreover, SM934 decreased the mRNA expressions of TLR7 and TLR9 in a dose-based manner (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Artemisinin derivative SM934 mitigates LSE syndromes by suppressing the TLR-induced B-cell stimulation and plasma cell generatio

Explaining the differences of gait patterns between high and low-mileage runners with machine learning

Running gait patterns have implications for revealing the causes of injuries between higher-mileage runners and low-mileage runners. However, there is limited research on the possible relationships between running gait patterns and weekly running mileages. In recent years, machine learning algorithms have been used for pattern recognition and classification of gait features to emphasize the uniqueness of gait patterns. However, they all have a representative problem of being a black box that often lacks the interpretability of the predicted results of the classifier. Therefore, this study was conducted using a Deep Neural Network (DNN) model and Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP) technology to investigate the differences in running gait patterns between higher-mileage runners and low-mileage runners. It was found that the ankle and knee provide considerable information to recognize gait features, especially in the sagittal and transverse planes. This may be the reason why high-mileage and low-mileage runners have different injury patterns due to their different gait patterns. The early stages of stance are very important in gait pattern recognition because the pattern contains effective information related to gait. The findings of the study noted that LRP completes a feasible interpretation of the predicted results of the model, thus providing more interesting insights and more effective information for analyzing gait patterns