Search results for: china daily newspaper

Authors: Mike Chia-Yu Huang

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China’s port facility construction projects in the Indian Ocean (IO) region, Gwadar Port and Djibouti Port projects in particular, have led to a heated debate among both Chinese and Western strategists over whether the country has literally been carrying out its “string of pearls” strategy, an alleged Chinese plan to challenge America’s military predominance in South Asia. Even though the Chinese government repeatedly denied the existence of such a strategy and highlighted the civilian/commercial nature of its port projects, it has significantly enhanced its strategic cooperation with littoral countries in the IO region since the “One Belt One Road” initiative was introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. Whether China does have a plan to expand its sphere of military influence westward concerns the balance of power in the IO region. If the answer is positive, the security environment there will be changed drastically. This paper argues that rather than simply copying the U.S. model of developing overseas military bases along the IO periphery, Beijing has been deliberating a more sophisticated plan for its physical presence there: creating a new set of “overseas strategic pivots.” These “pivots,” semi-military and semi-commercial in nature, are designed to help Beijing sustain its anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and serve as forward stations for the transportation of China’s imported energy and merchandise. They can support the Chinese Navy’s operations overseas but are not supposed to undertake face-to-face combat missions. This upgraded Chinese scheme can be identified as “string of pearls” strategy 2.0. Moreover, it is expected to help China deepen its roots in the IO region, implying that Beijing has to a large extent scratched its old diplomatic philosophy which highlighted the merits of non-interference and nonalignment. While a full-scale maritime confrontation between China and the U.S.-India security alliance is unlikely to be witnessed in the near future, an ambitious Chinese plan to step into the global maritime domain has been evidently shown.

Keywords: Chinese navy, Djibouti, Gwadar, Indian Ocean, string of pearls strategy

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Authors: Lan Luo

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In China’s construction industry, it is a normal practice to separately subcontract the decoration engineering part from construction engineering, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is also done separately. Application of BIM in decoration engineering should be integrated with other disciplines, but Chinese current practice makes this very difficult and complicated. Currently, there are three barriers in the auditing of BIM application in decoration engineering in China: heavy workload; scarcity of qualified professionals; and lack of literature concerning audit contents, standards, and methods. Therefore, it is significant to perform research on what (contents) should be evaluated, in which phase, and by whom (professional qualifications) in BIM application in decoration construction so that the application of BIM can be promoted in a better manner. Based on this consideration, four principles of BIM auditing are proposed: Comprehensiveness of information, accuracy of data, aesthetic attractiveness of appearance, and scheme optimization. In the model audit, three methods should be used: Collision, observation, and contrast. In addition, BIM auditing at six stages is discussed and a checklist for work items and results to be submitted is proposed. This checklist can be used for reference by decoration project participants.

Keywords: audit, evaluation, dimensions, methods, standards, BIM application in decoration engineering projects

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Authors: Charlotte-Rose Kennedy

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In a political climate divided by Brexit, it is crucial to be critical of the press, as it is the apparatus which political authorities use to impose their laws and shape public opinion. Although large protests have the power to shake and disrupt policy-making by making it difficult for governments to ignore their goals, the British press historically constructs protesters as delegitimate, deviant, and criminal, which could limit protests’ credibility and democratic power. This paper explores how the remain supporting daily UK press (The Mirror, Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian) and the leave supporting daily UK press (The Daily Mail, The Daily Star, The Sun, The Express, The Telegraph) discursively constructed every pro- and anti-Brexit demonstration from 2016 to 2019. 702 instances of the terms ‘protester’, ‘protesters’, ‘protestor’ and ‘protestors’ were analyzed through both transitivity analysis and critical discourse analysis. This mixed-methods approach allowed for the analysis of how the UK press perpetuated and upheld social ideologies about protests through their specific grammatical and language choices. The results of this analysis found that both remain and leave supporting press utilized the same discourses to report on protests they oppose and protests they support. For example, the remain backing The Mirror used water metaphors regularly associated with influxes of refugees and asylum seekers to support the protesters on the remain protest ‘Final Say’, and oppose the protesters on the leave protest ‘March to Leave’. Discourses of war, violence, and victimhood are also taken on by both sides of the press Brexit debate and are again used to support and oppose the same arguments. Finally, the paper concludes that these analogous discourses do nothing to help the already marginalized social positions of protesters in the UK and could potentially lead to reduced public support for demonstrations. This could, in turn, facilitate the government in introducing increasingly restrictive legislation in relation to freedom of assembly rights, which could be detrimental to British democracy.

Keywords: Brexit, critical discourse analysis, protests, transitivity analysis, UK press

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Authors: Zhao Xinlei

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In general, interstate relations are diverse and include economic, political, military, and diplomatic. Therefore, by analyzing the development of the relationship between Malaysia and China, we can better verify how the Hirschman effect works between small countries and great powers. This paper mainly adopts qualitative research methods and uses Malaysia's 2020-2022 political crisis as a specific case to verify the practice of the Hirschman effect between small and large countries. In particular, the interest groups in small countries that are closely related to trade with extraordinary abilities, as the primary beneficiaries in the development of trade between the two countries, although they may use their resources to a certain extent to influence the decisions of small countries towards great powers, they do not fundamentally determine the small countries' response to large countries. In this process, the relative power asymmetry between states plays a dominant role, as small states lack trust and suspicion in political diplomacy towards large states based on the perception of threat arising from the relative power asymmetry. When developing bilateral relations with large countries, small states seek practical cooperation to promote economic and trade development but become more cautious in their political ties to avoid being caught in power struggles between large states or being controlled by them. The case of Malaysia-China relations also illustrates that despite the ongoing political crisis in Malaysia, which saw the country go through the transition from (Perikatan Nasional) PN to (Barisan Nasional) BN, different governments have maintained a pragmatic and proactive economic policy towards China to reduce suspicion and mistrust between the two countries in political and diplomatic affairs, thereby enhancing cooperation and interactions between the two countries. At the same time, the Malaysian government is developing multi-dimensional foreign relations and actively participating in multilateral, regional organizations and platforms, such as those organized by the United States, to maintain a relative balance in the influence of the US and China on Malaysia.

Keywords: Hirschman effect, interest groups, Malaysia, China, bilateral relations

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Authors: Yuchao Yao

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As two of the main characteristics of Chinese demographic trends, increasing divorce rates and decreasing fertility rates both shaped the population structure in the recent decade. Figuring out to what extent can be having a child make a difference in the divorce rate of a couple will not only draw a picture of Chinese families but also bring about a new perspective to evaluate the Chinese child-breeding policies. Based on China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) Data 2010-2018, this paper provides a systematic evaluation of how children influence a couple’s marital stability through a series of empirical models. Using survival analysis and propensity score matching (PSM) model, this paper finds that the number and age of children that a couple has mattered in consolidating marital relationship, and these effects vary little over time; during the last decade, newly having children can in fact decrease the possibility of divorce for Chinese couples; the such decreasing effect is largely due to the birth of a second child. As this is an inclusive attempt to study and compare not only the effects but also the causality of children on divorce risk in the last decade, the results of this research will do a good summary of the status quo of divorce in China. Furthermore, this paper provides implications for further reforming the current marriage and child-breeding policies.

Keywords: divorce risk, fertility, China, survival analysis, propensity score matching

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Authors: Hui-mei Huang, Huei-Jiun Cheng

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Introduction Many patients are aware of the health benefits associated with an active lifestyle, but they are often hindered from engaging in physical activity due to the presence of pain. The majority of patients experience pain, which can fluctuate over time and is influenced by various factors, including gender. Gender differences in clinical pain and pain-related conditions are widely recognized. Existing literature strongly supports the notion that men and women exhibit distinct responses to pain. Previous studies conducted in Taiwan have highlighted gender differences in pain assessment, but only a limited number of studies have investigated the gender-related factors that influence pain during daily activities. The objective of this study was to examine gender differences in pain assessment among inpatients in Taiwan and investigate whether gender and surgical procedures are factors that impact the daily activities of pain. Method In this study, a prospective and structured questionnaire survey method was utilized, employing intentional sampling to gather data from inpatients admitted to a medical center in central Taiwan. The research period covered in this study is from October 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. In this study, participants who were hospitalized within 48 hours were requested to self-assess their pain using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and indicate the impact of pain on their activities. The data were analyzed to explore the potential influence of gender and surgical procedures on daily activities affected by pain. Result A total of 722 cases were included in the study, with the mean age of the subjects is 54.38 years old (SD=16.3), and the range varied from 18 to 93 years old. Among the subjects, 48.23% (n=348) were male, and 62.3% (n=450) of them had received more than 12 years of education., and 56.9% (n=411) underwent surgery. The results indicated that regardless of whether the participants underwent surgery or not, females experienced higher perceived severe pain intensity than males (t=2.248, P < .05). However, in surgical patients, there was no significant difference in gender (t=1.75, P > .05). Regarding the impact of pain on daily activities when pain intensity reached 7 , male subjects experienced a 5-point effect on their daily activities (AUC=0.84, 95% CI 0.79-0.89, P <0.01), while female subjects experienced a 7-point effect (AUC=0.88, 95% CI 0.80-0.87, P <0.01). Discussion Some studies suggest that women experience painful stimuli as more intense than men, this difference has been observed in various types of experimental pain, including mechanical and thermal stimuli. Our study reached the same conclusion, female patients exhibited greater intensity of pain. According to the research findings, The research findings highlight the significant impact of gender on individuals' response to intense pain (NRS>7) during their daily activities, with men showing a higher pain tolerance. The higher pain tolerance often observed in men may be attributed to societal conditioning, which encourages them to conceal outward expressions of pain. Further research in this area could help provide a more comprehensive understanding of the topic in Taiwan.

Keywords: pain assessment, gender, surgery, activities of daily living

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Authors: A. Albaridi Najla

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Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum) is well known to have beneficial effect on health. The seeds are rich in protein, α-linolenic fatty acid and dietary fiber. Bakery products are important part of our daily meals. Functional food recently received considerable attention among consumers. The increase in bread daily consumption leads to the production of breads with functional ingredients such as flaxseed The aim of this Study was to improve the nutritional value of bread by adding flaxseed flour and assessing the effect of adding 0, 5, 10 and 15% flaxseed on whole wheat bread rheological and sensorial properties. The total consumer's acceptability of the flaxseed bread was assessed. Dough characteristics were determined using Farinograph (C.W. Brabender® Instruments, Inc). The result shows no change was observed in water absorption between the stander dough (without flaxseed) and the bread with flaxseed (67%). An Increase in the peak time and dough stickiness was observed with the increase in flaxseed level. Further, breads were evaluated for sensory parameters, colour and texture. High flaxseed level increased the bread crumb softness. Bread with 5% flaxseed was optimized for total sensory evaluation. Overall, flaxseed bread produced in this study was highly acceptable for daily consumption as a functional foods with a potentially health benefits.

Keywords: bread, flaxseed, rheological properties, whole-wheat bread

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Authors: Xia Fang

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Arid and semiarid areas of China (ASAC) have experienced significant land-use/cover changes (LUCC), along with intensified climate change. However, LUCC and climate changes and their individual and interactive effects on carbon stocks have not yet been fully understood in the ASAC. This study analyses the carbon stocks in the ASAC during 1980 - 2020 using the specific arid ecosystem model (AEM), and investigates the effects of LUCC and climate change on carbon stock trends. The results indicate that in the past 41 years, the ASAC carbon pool experienced an overall growth trend, with an increase of 182.03 g C/m2. Climatic factors (+291.99 g C/m2), especially the increase in precipitation, were the main drivers of the carbon pool increase. LUCC decreased the carbon pool (-112.27 g C/m2), mainly due to the decrease in grassland area (-2.77%). The climate-induced carbon sinks were distributed in northern Xinjiang, on the Ordos Plateau, and in Northeast China, while the LUCC-induced carbon sinks mainly occurred on the Ordos Plateau and the North China Plain, resulting in a net decrease in carbon sequestration in these regions according to carbon pool measurements. The study revealed that the combination of climate variability, LUCC, and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration resulted in an increase of approximately 182.03 g C/m2, which was mainly distributed in eastern Inner Mongolia and the western Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Our findings are essential for improving theoretical guidance to protect the ecological environment, rationally plan land use, and understand the sustainable development of arid and semiarid zones.

Keywords: AEM, climate change, LUCC, carbon stocks

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Authors: Wangshi Yong, Wei Shi, Jing Zou, Qiang Li, Yilin Tian

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With the advancement of the reform of China’s housing security system, the impact is becoming increasingly profound. This paper explores the relationship between the housing security system and household entrepreneurship on the 2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and conducts a large number of robustness checks, including PSM and IV estimation. The results show that the assistance of the housing security system will significantly promote family entrepreneurship, increasing the probability of entrepreneurship by 2%. Its internal mechanism is mainly achieved by relaxing liquidity constraints and increasing household social capital. However, the risk preference effect has not existed. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive impact of the housing security system on family entrepreneurship is mainly reflected in areas with high housing prices and incomes, as well as households with long-term security and social or commercial insurance. Meanwhile, it also verifies that the positive externalities of the housing security system will also positively affect active entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurial intensity, and entrepreneurial innovation.

Keywords: the housing security system, household entrepreneurship, social capital, liquidity constraints, risk preference

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Authors: Elihasridas, Rusmana Wijaya Setia Ninggrat

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This research aims to study the utilization of ammoniated corn waste complete ration for substitution basal ration of natural grass in Bali cattle. Four treatments (complete feed ration consisted of: R1=40% natural grass + 60% concentrate (control), R2= 50% natural grass+50% concentrate, R3=60% natural grass+40% concentrate and R4=40% ammoniated corn waste+60% concentrate) were employed in this experiment. This experiment was arranged in a latin square design. Observed variables included dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain and feed conversion. Data were analyzed by using the Analysis of Variance following a 4 x 4 Latin Square Design. The DMI for R1was 7,15kg/day which was significantly (P < 0,05) higher than R2 (6,32 kg/day) and R3(6,07 kg/day), but was not significantly different (P < 0,05) from R4 (7,01 kg/day). Average daily gain for R1(0,75 kg/day) which was significantly (P < 0,05) higher than R2(0,66 kg/day) and R3 (0,61 kg/day),but was not significantly different (P > 0,05) from R4(0,74 kg/day). Feed conversion was not significantly affected (P > 0,05) by ration. It was concluded that ammoniated corn waste complete ration (40% ammoniated corn waste + 60% concentrate) could be utilized for substitution natural grass basal ration.

Keywords: ammoniated corn waste, bali cattle, complete feed, daily gain

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Authors: Ling Yu Debbie Tsoi

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After China has just exceeded the USA as the top Hollywood film market in 2018, Hollywood studios have been adapting the taste, preference, casting and even film title translation to resonate with the Chinese audience. Due to the huge foreign demands, Hollywood film directors are paying closer attention to the translation of their products, as film titles are entry gates to the film and serve advertising, informative, aesthetic functions. Other than film directors and studios, comments over quality film title translation also appear on various online clip viewing platforms, online media, and magazines. In particular, netizens in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan seems to defend film titles in their own region while despising the other two regions. In view of the endless debates and lack of systematic analysis on film title translation in Greater China, the study aims at investigating the translation of Hollywood film titles (from English to Chinese) across Greater China based on Venuti’s (1991; 1995; 1998; 2001) concept of domestication and foreignization. To offer a comparison over time, a mini-corpus was built comprised of the top 70 most popular Hollywood film titles in 1987- 1988, 1997- 1998, 2007- 2008 and 2017- 2018 of Greater China respectively. Altogether, 560 source texts and 1680 target texts of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were compared against each other. The three regions are found to have a distinctive style and patterns of translation. For instance, a sizable number of film titles are foreignized in mainland China by adopting literal translation and transliteration, whereas Hong Kong and Taiwan prefer domestication. Hong Kong tends to adopt a more vulgar style by using colloquial Cantonese slangs and even swear words, associating characters with negative connotations. Also, English is used as a form of domestication in Hong Kong from 1987 till 2018. Use of English as a strategy of domestication was never found in mainland nor Taiwan. On the contrary, Taiwanese target texts tend to adopt a cute and child-like style by using repetitive words and positive connotations. Even if English was used, it was used as foreignization. As film titles represent cultural products of popular culture, it is suspected that Hongkongers would like to develop cultural identity via adopting style distinctive from mainland China by vulgarization and negativity. Hongkongers also identify themselves as international cosmopolitan, leading to their identification with English. It is also suspected that due to former colonial rule of Japan, Taiwan adopts a popular culture similar to Japan, with cute and childlike expressions.

Keywords: cultural identification, ethnic identification, Greater China, film title translation

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Authors: Barbora Valockova

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Scholars recommend the establishment of a multilateral coordination mechanism by ASEAN, such as an infrastructure forum, to contain the China-Japan infrastructure financing competition in the region. However, they do not systematically investigate the reasons for its absence. This paper aims to fill the gap by addressing the following question: Why has ASEAN been unable to set up any multilateral coordination mechanism to soften the China-Japan infrastructure financing competition? This paper argues that ASEAN has not been able to set up such a mechanism due to its limited centrality in connectivity. This limited centrality decreases ASEAN’s ability to manage the China-Japan competition in a more comprehensive and coordinated way. Rather, ASEAN acts as a scope setter in connectivity, although this is not completely ineffective. This paper is divided into four sections. The first section explores the key tenets of the concept of ASEAN centrality in connectivity, which is under-examined in the current literature. The second section examines the extent to which ASEAN limited centrality in connectivity is being respected by China and Japan. The third section analyses how various stakeholders, such as ASEAN member states, their leaders and bureaucracy, and foreign private companies prevent ASEAN from attaining stronger centrality. The last section concludes and offers recommendations. Data is gathered using primary sources (official ASEAN, Chinese, and Japanese documents, interviews, etc.) and secondary material. By providing a nuanced analysis of ASEAN centrality in connectivity and developing a new operationalization of the concept, this paper aims to contribute to the international relations literature on ASEAN centrality. Initial findings suggest that while ASEAN limited centrality in connectivity has some effectiveness, it is not sufficient for setting up a multilateral coordination mechanism. While it represents a solid departure point, any potential possessed by ASEAN to evolve beyond a scope setter in connectivity is hampered by stakeholders involved in infrastructure development. While these players and their interactions can have both positive and negative effects on the scope set by ASEAN, it is unlikely that they would allow ASEAN to become the real central player. There can be no stronger ASEAN centrality in connectivity without ASEAN unity and neutrality. However, the last two factors are difficult to attain in the context of infrastructure development since ASEAN member states and stakeholders all have their styles and preferences. All other things being equal, these circumstances favor a loose, vague, and quasi-prescriptive arrangement among the relevant stakeholders.

Keywords: ASEAN centrality, China-Japan infrastructure competition, connectivity, scope setter

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Authors: Chao Fang

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Due to the Confucian emphasis on filial piety and an undeveloped social welfare system in mainland China, adult children are both socially and legally obliged to care for their parents, including financial assistance and physical care as well as emotional and social support. Thus a family-centred care pattern for elderly people has been firmly established in China. However, because of the nationwide ‘One Child Policy’, over one million parents are excluded from such care because of the death of their only child and, therefore, their primary caregiver. Without their child’s support, these parents must manage the day to day challenges of growing old alone, with little support from society. By overturning established expectations of a ‘good’ elderly life, the loss of an only child may be accompanied by social and self-stigmatization, pushing these bereaved parents to the margin of society and threatening their economic, physical, emotional and social well-being. More importantly, since the One Child Policy was implemented from the late 1970s and early 1980s, the first generation of bereaved or ‘Shidu’ parents has reached an age at which those parents need elderly care. However, their predicament has been largely ignored. This paper reports on a qualitative interview study that found elderly care to be the main concern for Shidu parents’ everyday life. The paper identifies and discusses the concerns these bereaved parents raised about the prospect of having nowhere to turn at a time of increased need for financial, physical, social and emotional support in old age. The paper also identifies how Shidu parents have been coming together in grief and negotiate to make their predicament known to the government and wider society and to re-define their elderly life by rebuilding a sense of ‘family’.

Keywords: culture, bereavement, China, elderly care

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Authors: Xitong Liu, Yutong Huang, Shu-Ching Yang

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The phenomena of hypergamous and hypogamous marriages have become popular due to the imbalanced sex ratio caused by Chinese social preference for sons. Our research explores the spillover effect of husbands' lifestyles on their wives' marital satisfaction in China. Both personal and spouse lifestyle elements are utilized to develop regression models to study husbands' spillover effects on women's marital satisfaction. With data from China Family Panel Study and Stata for analysis, we tested our hypothesis that both smoking and substance use by a spouse will negatively impact women's marital satisfaction. Our empirical findings suggest that substance use has negative implications on marriage satisfaction. In particular, husbands' substance use is more critical to wives' marriage satisfaction than wives' behaviours. Conversely, another behavior indicating bad habits, the number of times the spouse drank alcohol, had no significant effect on the wife's marital satisfaction. We concluded our investigation and provided future implications for scholars in the family economics field.

Keywords: Asian/Pacific Islander families, family economics, housework/division of labor, spillover

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Authors: Lei Liu

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This paper concerns on a special phenomenon of rocketing of bride’s price in rural China after the rural-urban labor migration nowadays. It provides a brief overview of three major prospective on marriage exchange, especially impose the local marriage market due to the post-migration economic environments. Then the author highlights on several factors that influence the rocketing raise of rural marriage gifts using both the primary data from census 2010 and the interviews from the field study, such as one-child policy and the unbalanced sex ratio with the familiar context parents used different strategies in raising their sons and daughters so as to best hold their own interests, causing inequality between females and males. Then this was broken by the independence of rural women and the phenomenon of cross-regional marriage after the free mobility of labor resource between rural areas and urban areas which gives women equal rights to choose their spouses together with some publicly policies that accelerate the decline of patriarchy. In the end, the author spells out a framework of migration influence on rural marriage for some theoretical and policy implications of the findings.

Keywords: rural-urban migration, gender stratification, rural China, bride price, marriage

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Authors: Loulwah Bokhari, Jori Nazer, Hala Sultan

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Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) is used as a foundation for many activities in modern computing applications at home, in vehicles, and in businesses. Many modern machines are built to carry out a specific activity or purpose. This is where the Amazon Alexa application comes in, as it is used as a virtual assistant. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of Amazon Alexa among people and how it has improved and made simple daily tasks easier for many people. We gave our participants several questions regarding Amazon Alexa and if they had recently used or heard of it, as well as the different tasks it provides and whether it successfully satisfied their needs. Overall, we found that participants who have recently used Alexa have found it to be helpful in their daily tasks.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, Echo system, machine learning, feature for feature match

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Authors: Motaz Alshawwa

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This current study aims to know journalists' motives for dealing with electronic journalism more than paper journalism in Palestine. The participants of the study were (250) journalists. To achieve the study objective, a questionnaire was used that was composed of (18) questions. The results of the study showed that the motives dealing with electronic journalism were utilitarian motives that were represented by knowing the local news. We find a statistically significant relationship at the level of significance of 0.05 between the uses of electronic journalism and gender, and there are statistically significant differences at the level of 0.05 in the motives of dealing with electronic journalism. The study recommends the daily paper journals in Palestine should meet the various and different needs of the public.

Keywords: electronic journalism, journalist, paper journalism, utilitarian motives

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Authors: Surajo Ladan

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There is no doubt nowadays, the media plays a crucial role in the development of languages. Media practitioners influence and set our linguistic norms to a greater extent. Their strategic position makes them influential than school teachers as linguistic pacesetters and models. This is so because of the direct access to the general public that media enjoys being public, oriented and at the same time being patronized by the public, the media is regarded as an authority as far as language use is concerned. In the modern world, listening to the news has become part and parcel of our daily lives. Easy communication has made the world a global village. Contact between countries and people are increasing daily. In Nigeria and indeed the whole of West Africa, radio is the most widely spread out of the three types of media (radio, television, and print). This is because of its (radio) cheapness and less cumbersome and flexibility. Therefore, the positive or negative effect of radio on the lives of a typical Nigerian or African cannot be over emphasized. Hausa language, on the other hand, is one of the most widely spoken languages in West Africa and, of course, the lingua franca in the Northern part of Nigeria and Southern Niger. The language has been in use to a large extent by almost all the popular foreign media houses of BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle Radio, Radio France International, Radio China, etc. The many people in Nigeria and West Africa depend so much on the news in this language. In fact even government programmes, mobilization, education and sensitization of the populace are done in this language through the broadcast media. It is against this background, for effective and efficient work of this nature it requires the services of a trained translator for the purpose of translating scientific and technological terms. The main thrust of this paper was necessitated for the fact that no nation develops using foreign or borrowed language. This is in lined with UNESCO declaration of 1953 where it says 'the best Language of Instruction (LOI) is the vernacular or the Mother Tongue (MT) of the learner'. This idea is in the right direction especially nowadays that the developing nations have come to terms with realities that their destiny is really in their own hands, not in the hands of the so-called developed nations.

Keywords: translation, scientific, technological, language, radio, media

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Authors: Bright E. Owusu, Nittaya McNeil

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Rainfall is one of the most essential quantities in meteorology and hydrology. It has important impacts on people’s daily life and excess or inadequate of it could bring tremendous losses in economy and cause fatalities. Population increase around the globe tends to have a corresponding increase in settlement and industrialization. Some countries are affected by flood and drought occasionally due to climate change, which disrupt most of the daily activities. Knowledge of trends in spatial and temporal rainfall variability and their physical explanations would be beneficial in climate change assessment and to determine erosivity. This study describes the spatial-temporal variability of daily rainfall in Australia and their corresponding long-term trend during 1950-2013. The spatial patterns were investigated by using exploratory factor analysis and the long term trend in rainfall time series were determined by linear regression, Mann-Kendall rank statistics and the Sen’s slope test. The exploratory factor analysis explained most of the variations in the data and grouped Australia into eight distinct rainfall regions with different rainfall patterns. Significant increasing trends in annual rainfall were observed in the northern regions of Australia. However, the northeastern part was the wettest of all the eight rainfall regions.

Keywords: climate change, explanatory factor analysis, Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope test, rainfall.

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Authors: Andrew Clark

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McCauley, Bassler, and Gunaratne show that integration I(d) processes as used in economics and finance do not necessarily produce stationary increments, which are required to determine causality in both the short term and the long term. This paper follows their lead and shows I(d) aluminum cash and futures log prices at daily and weekly intervals do not have stationary increments, which means prior causality studies using I(d) processes need to be re-examined. Wavelets based on undifferenced cash and futures log prices do have stationary increments and are used along with transfer entropy (versus cointegration) to measure causality. Wavelets exhibit causality at most daily time scales out to 1 year, and weekly time scales out to 1 year and more. To determine stationarity, localized stationary wavelets are used. LSWs have the benefit, versus other means of testing for stationarity, of using multiple hypothesis tests to determine stationarity. As informational flows exist between cash and futures at daily and weekly intervals, the aluminum market is efficient. Therefore, hedges used by producers and consumers of aluminum need not have a big concern in terms of the underestimation of hedge ratios. Questions about arbitrage given efficiency are addressed in the paper.

Keywords: transfer entropy, nonstationary increments, wavelets, localized stationary wavelets, localized stationary wavelets

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Authors: Xiping Wang，Shuran Yao, Liqin Dai

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Many studies report the winter is getting warmer and the minimum air temperature is obviously rising as the important climate warming evidences. The exacerbated air temperature fluctuation tending to bring more severe weather variation is another important consequence of recent climate change which induced more disasters to crop growth in quite a certain regions. Hebei Province is an important winter wheat growing province in North of China that recently endures more winter freezing injury influencing the local winter wheat crop management. A winter wheat freezing injury assessment Bayesian Network framework was established for the objectives of estimating, assessing and predicting winter wheat freezing disasters in Hebei Province. In this framework, the freezing disasters was classified as three severity degrees (SI) among all the three types of freezing, i.e., freezing caused by severe cold in anytime in the winter, long extremely cold duration in the winter and freeze-after-thaw in early season after winter. The factors influencing winter wheat freezing SI include time of freezing occurrence, growth status of seedlings, soil moisture, winter wheat variety, the longitude of target region and, the most variable climate factors. The climate factors included in this framework are daily mean and range of air temperature, extreme minimum temperature and number of days during a severe cold weather process, the number of days with the temperature lower than the critical temperature values, accumulated negative temperature in a potential freezing event. The Bayesian Network model was evaluated using actual weather data and crop records at selected sites in Hebei Province using real data. With the multi-stage influences from the various factors, the forecast and assessment of the event-based target variables, freezing injury occurrence and its damage to winter wheat production, were shown better scoped by Bayesian Network model.

Keywords: bayesian networks, climatic change, freezing Injury, winter wheat

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Authors: Li Qiaoming

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The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in early 2020 brought new opportunities to the development of the digital creative industry in China. Based on the realistic foundation of the development of the digital creative industry in China, an analysis was conducted on the mechanism of action of the pandemic on this industry from both sides of supply and demand by sorting out its concept, connotation, and related theories. To be specific, the demand side experienced changes due to the changes in the consumption habits of residents, the sharp increase in gross domestic time (GDT), the satisfaction of the psychological needs of users, search for substitutes for offline consumption, and other factors. An analysis was carried out on the mechanism of action of the pandemic on the digital creative industry from the production link, supply subjects, product characteristics, and transmission link of the supply side. Then, a detailed discussion was held on the manifestation forms of the impact of the pandemic from the dimensions of time and space. Finally, this paper discussed the main development focuses of the digital creative industry in the post-pandemic era from the aspects of the government, industries, and enterprises.

Keywords: COVID-19, demand and supply relationship, digital creative industries, industry shocks

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Authors: Gagandeep Kaur, Yadwinder Singh Brar, D. P. Kothari

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The paper has an aggregate analysis of animal dung for converting it into renewable biomass fuel source that could be used to help the Indian state Punjab to meet rising power demand. In Punjab district Bathinda produces over 4567 tonnes of animal dung daily on a renewable basis. The biogas energy potential has been calculated using values for the daily per head animal dung production and total no. of large animals in Bathinda of Punjab. The 379540 no. of animals in district could produce nearly 116918 m3 /day of biogas as renewable energy. By converting this biogas into electric energy could produce 89.8 Gwh energy annually.

Keywords: livestock, animal dung, biogas, renewable energy

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Authors: Khaldoon G. Albitar, Hassan Y. Kikhia, Jin P. Zhang

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Since 2007, all companies listed on both Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This study investigates the impact of adopting IFRS on accounting quality for a sample of listed on Chinese companies during the period 2003-2013 with sample of 10846 observations over a four-year period before and a five-year period after the adoption of IFRS. This study tests whether the level of earnings management is significantly lower after the adoption of IFRS, and reported earnings is more value relevant during the IFRS period by using the Ohlson model and Jones model, as modified by Dechow. The empirical results show that accounting quality improved with lower earnings management and higher value relevant after the adoption of IFRS in China. The current study contributes to the literature on IFRS adoption and earning quality in two ways. First, As most of the existing studies on earnings quality and IFRS have been conducted on data from the U.S and European countries, this study fills a gap in the existing literature by studying the effect of adoption of IFRS on earnings quality in an emerging market. Second, the findings of our study have important implications for policymakers, auditors, multinational firms, and users of financial reports. As the rapid growth of China's economy gains global recognition, the Chinese stock market is capturing the attention of international investor.

Keywords: international financial reporting standards (ifrs), accounting quality, earnings management, value relevance, china

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Authors: V. A. Vieira, M. P. Sforcini, V. Endo, G. C. Magioni, M. D. S. Oliveira

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The main goal of this paper was evaluate the effect of diets containing different levels of probiotic on performance and milk composition of lactating cows. Eight Holstein cows were distributed in two 4x4 Latin square. The diets were based on corn silage, concentrate and the treatment (0, 3, 6 or 9 grams of probiotic/animal/day). It was evaluated the dry matter intake of nutrients, milk yield and composition. The use of probiotics did not affect the nutrient intake (p>0.05) neither the daily milk production or corrected to 4% fat (p>0.05). However, it was observed that there was a significant fall in milk composition with higher levels of probiotics supplementation. These results emphasize the need of further studies with different experimental designs or improve the number of Latin square with longer periods of adaptation.

Keywords: dairy cow, milk composition, probiotics, daily milk production

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Authors: Ajibade T., Omotesho O. A., Ayinde O. E, Ajibade E. T., Muhammad-Lawal A.

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This study was carried out to examine the extent and magnitude of food security amongst farming rural households in Nigeria. Data used for this study was collected from a total of two hundred and forty rural farming households using a two-stage random sampling technique. The main tools of analysis for this study include descriptive statistics and a constructed food security index using the identification and aggregation procedure. The headcount ratio in this study reveals that 71% of individuals in the study area were food secure with an average per capita calorie and protein availability of 4,213.92kcal and 99.98g respectively. The aggregated household daily calorie availability and daily protein availability per capita were 3,634.57kcal and 84.08g respectively which happens to be above the food security line of 2,470kcal and 65g used in this study. The food insecure households fell short of the minimum daily per capita calorie and protein requirement by 2.1% and 24.9%. The study revealed that the area is food insecure due to unequal distribution of the available food amongst the sampled population. The study recommends that the households should empower themselves financially in order to enhance their ability to afford the food during both on and off seasons. Also, processing and storage of farm produce should be enhanced in order to improve on availability throughout the year.

Keywords: farming household, food security, identification and aggregation, food security index

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Authors: Jiantao Weng, Yujie Zhao

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With the improvement of living quality and demand for nighttime activities in China, the current situation of outdoor lighting environment at night needs to be assessed. Lighting environment at night plays an important role to guarantee night safety. Two typical residential communities in Hangzhou were selected. A comprehensive test method of outdoor lighting environment at night was established. The road, fitness area, landscape, playground and entrance were included. Field measurements and questionnaires were conducted in these two residential communities. The characteristics of residents’ habits and the subjective evaluation on different aspects of outdoor lighting environment at night were collected via questionnaire. A safety evaluation system on the outdoor lighting environment at night in the residential community was established. The results show that there is a big difference in illumination in different areas. The lighting uniformities of roads cannot meet the requirement of lighting standard in China. Residents pay more attention to the lighting environment of the fitness area and road than others. This study can provide guidance for the design and management of outdoor lighting environment at night.

Keywords: residential community, lighting environment, night, field measurement

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Mi Jianing

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The lack of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure in African countries is hampering the successful adoption, development and implementation of e-government in Africa. Electronic government is the use of ICTs to modernize government public administration processes and to provide government services to citizens with a purpose to enhance efficiency, accountability, and transparency in government’s interaction with the citizenry. ICT application in public administration has the potential to modernize and create smarter government and improvement in public service delivery. China’s Internet Plus policy and One Belt One Road strategy present a golden opportunity for countries in Africa to attract the huge financial investment through Chinese IT companies to develop and close Africa’s ICT infrastructure gap. This study recommends the establishment of One Belt One Road ICT Infrastructure Fund for Africa (OBOR ICT Fund for Africa) to enable countries in Africa to source solely for the purpose of ICT infrastructure development in the public sector/government machinery which would in turn promote the adoption and development of e-government in the public sectors of respective countries in Africa.

Keywords: e-government, public service delivery, internet plus, one belt one road initiative, China, Africa

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Authors: Yifeng Shi, Xingping Wang

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The Soviet Union-style of urban planning has produced a broad and profound influence on China’s urban planning system. The study on extendibility and development experience of Soviet planning in China helps to change the current embarrassing situation 'one-hand planning practice, second-hand planning theory', and also beneficial to facilitate the establishment of China's domestic urban planning theory from the planning source, especially the overseas cooperation parks rich in 'Chinese characteristics'. In practice, as the world’s major infrastructure country, China is exporting to the world especially countries along 'the Belt and Road' a development model featuring cooperation parks as Chinese characteristics. This is of great significance to evaluate and summarize the experiences of Soviet Union-style of planning for China's development objectively and rationally, from removing ideological factors and extracting positive factors to carry them forward in overseas cooperation parks. This article briefly reviews the Soviet influence on urban planning after the founding of China and divided the influences stages into 'guidance, internalization and absorption, selective learning, decline' four periods. The impact includes production-oriented planning and planning concepts continue to be implemented, the establishment of the regional planning, master planning, detailed planning of the basic framework of urban planning, and homogenized cellular structure of the space, as well as planning techniques, professional training, planning techniques and so on. China and even most socialist countries now still carry such planning genes. At present, in the process of implementing 'the Belt and Road' strategy, the planning and construction of China’s overseas cooperation parks generally encounter many problems as lack of strategic planning and systematic planning, lack of top-level design, uncoordinated planning and layout in parks, and redundant construction in some areas. After sublating the planning genes of the Soviet Union-style of urban planning for the development of the socialist countries, especially the industrial planning system, this paper puts forward some views as follows to realize the overseas output and development of China's planning model and technology. Firstly the future development of overseas cooperation park should be from a rational planning point of view. Secondly the government should not only rigidly and equitably allocate the resources of the parks but also closely integrate the national economic plans or economic development strategies. Lastly management department should frame the threshold of development rationally, give full play to the pragmatic planning style in accordance with the local land system and planning system. It has an important guiding and reference role for the development of China's overseas cooperation park under the 'go global' strategy, after objectively evaluating the impact of the Soviet Union-style urban planning and absorbing the beneficial components on China. However, we should also recognize that the cooperation parks and the urban industrial system behind it are only part of urban development. More attention should be payed on the design of the local and the general rules of urban development to take the lead effect of cooperation parks suitable. Foundation item: Under the auspices of the Specific Plan for Strategic International Cooperation in Scientific and Technological Innovation, the National Key Research and Development Plan 'Research Cooperation and Exemplary Application in Planning of Development of Overseas Industrial Parks' (No 2016YFE0201000).

Keywords: China cooperative parks, history of urban planning, output mode, The Soviet Union

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Authors: Xiaofei Zhu

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As a 'weapon of the weak', the Public Interest Law can provide a better perspective for the cause of gender justice. In recent years, the legal practice of single female reproductive rights in China has already possessed the elements of public interest law activities and the possibility of public interest law operation. Through the general operating procedures of public interest law practice, that is, from the choice of subject, the planning of the case, the operation of the strategy and the later development, the paper analyzes the gains and losses of the legal practice of single female reproductive rights in China, and puts forward some ideas on its possible operation path. On this basis, it is believed that the cause of women's rights should be carried out under the broad human rights perspective; it is necessary to realize the particularity of different types of women's rights protection practice; the practice of public interest law needs to accurately grasp the constituent elements of all aspects of the case, and strive to find the opportunities of institutional and social change; the practice of public welfare law of gender justice should be carried out from a long-term perspective.

Keywords: single women’s reproductive rights, public interest law, gender justice, legal strategies, legal change

Procedia PDF Downloads 119