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The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is a systematic economic discipline, which theoretically summarises the socialist economic system and the path of economic development with Chinese characteristics. It is a systematic economic theory of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The theoretical system construction for the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is currently a major task.

From the perspective of disciplinary cognition, the theoretical system of the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics includes the disciplinary attributes and connotations, theoretical basis, the origin of thoughts, major principles, logical starting point, main logic and problem-based study of major theoretical and practical issues.

Developing the discipline and building the theoretical system of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, several major principles should be adhered to, including building the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics on the basis of historical materialism; building the theoretical paradigm of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics around the analysis of production relations; adhering to the people-centred principle; taking common prosperity as the main logic of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics; studying the major theoretical and practical issues of building the socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era based on problems; and reflecting the innovative development of the discipline in the textbook, The Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics.

Disciplinary cognition involves the connotations, attributes, mission and development path of the discipline, which is related to how to construct the discipline system and is a significant part of the disciplinary construction.

Increased economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has given rise to increased demand for port development. Given the often scarce availability of national public funding, port institutional reform programmes have been implemented to pave the way for the inclusion of external port investors. Notwithstanding this fact, some sub-Saharan African Governments remain institutionally locked into the notion that state-owned enterprises remain an appropriate vehicle for port terminal operations. This, despite the fact that terminal operational concessions globally and within the continent of Africa are increasingly being managed by global terminal operators. Given this context, this study aims to evaluate different port valuation and funding strategies. Two research questions form the core of this research: what is the financial value of a concession? What is the most cost advantageous funding strategy? The methodology is applied to the development of a two-berth container terminal in SSA.

After reviewing a range of financial valuation and funding techniques, the study presents valuation and funding model applicability-fit tests. Thereafter, a suitable valuation technique is selected and applied to the case study providing a concession valuation. Different funding strategies are applied to the valuation model to determine the cost implications of each funding instrument given the local context and institutional constraints applicable to SSA. Finally, the study discusses the significance of the results to potential SSA port investors by highlighting the impact of each funding approach on key financial metrics.

The study presents a range of financial investment appraisal results for the case study concession in consideration of four specific funding strategies. The highest concession valuation could be attributed to a higher debt ratio as a principal funding strategy. In addition, this funding approach (100% debt) realised the shortest payback period and the highest internal rate of return values. The authors, however, maintain that the optimal funding strategy for a concession depends ultimately on the financial goals of the investor.

This research makes a contribution to the existing literature on port finance and development by presenting a structured approach to the evaluation of the valuation and funding techniques, which can be used in terminal development subject to the specific local context and institutional constraints (in this case applicable to SSA). The study provides practical insight into the potential cost of the considered terminal concession for private or public sector participants and a view of the most cost advantageous funding strategy available for interested investors.

Under the circumstance that the development of developing countries is a major issue that has long been of concern to Marxist scholars, the research is focused on the category of development benefit, which Xi Jinping has mentioned many times.

Based on the Marxist theory of international value, the authors of this paper indicate that development benefit is the result of developing countries' consistently increasing labor productivity, reducing squandering in labor and transforming more labor into real value, and thus the fundamental cause of unequal development in international economics turns from the field of circulation to the area of production.

Also, the authors summarize China's experience of obtaining the development benefit and China's development path featuring common development and criticized the comparative advantage of mainstream Western economics, revealed the path of dependency development represented by mainstream Western economics.

Finally, the authors analyze the essence of the economy and trade conflict between China and the US and the respective strategic goals of the two countries and provide an outlook on the contest between the two roads of development and the evolutionary trend of the relationship between developed and developing countries.

This paper aims to present a model to survey if effective destination management can manage (unsustainable) overtourism from the perspective of residents’ quality of life (QOL).

A constructivist approach, based on factors taken from conceptual overtourism model (Mihalic, 2020), was used to propose an overtourism QOL management model. Relationships among the factors were analysed with a path analyses model with two second-order latent factors. The model was tested in a real setting, the city of Ljubljana.

The proposed theoretical model is comprised of five factors: positive tourism impacts, negative tourism impacts, irritation with overtourism, residents’ QOL and destination management. Empirical tests confirmed the model. Positive tourism impacts positively affected residents’ QOL via destination management. Negative tourism impacts created overtourism-based resident irritation and negatively impacted their QOL.

The model was limited to one group of sustainable tourism stakeholders: residents of a destination. The sustainability performance of tourism was only assessed based on residents’ QOL.

The proposed model adds to the conceptual knowledge of tourism and may be useful for (sustainable) destination managers to monitor the existence and causes of overtourism and may help to focus efforts to manage the causes of overtourism irritation and improve residents’ QOL.

Overtourism is a concern for residents of tourism destinations who become irritated by unsustainable tourism impacts on community resources and their QOL. The suggested model is the first to address destination management’s ability to manage unsustainable overtourism.

本文采用建构主义的方法, 基于概念性的过度旅游模型（Mihalic, 2020年）中的因素, 提出了过度旅游中居民生活质量（QOL）管理模型。这些因子之间的关系是通过对包含两个二阶潜在因子的模型的路径分析得到的。该模型在卢布尔雅那市的真实情况中进行了测试。

本文提出了这样一个模型, 从居民的生活质量（QOL）角度出发, 调查有效的目的地管理是否可以管理（不可持续的）过度旅游。

理论模型由五部分组成：正面的旅游影响, 负面的旅游影响, 过度旅游带来的恼怒, 居民的生活质量和目的地管理。实证检验证实了该模型。积极的旅游业通过目的地管理对居民的生活质量产生了积极影响。负面的旅游影响造成了基于过度旅游的居民恼怒情绪, 并对其生活质量产生了负面影响。

该模型仅基于一个可持续的旅游业利益相关者：目的地居民。旅游业的可持续发展绩效仅根据居民的生活质量来评估。

社会和实际意义： 提出的模型增加了旅游的概念性知识, 并且可能有助于（可持续）目的地管理者监督过度旅游的存在和原因, 并且集中精力管理过度旅游引起的居民恼怒情绪, 并改善居民的生活质量。

对于旅游目的地的居民来说, 过度旅游是一个令人担忧的问题, 他们因不可持续的旅游业对社区资源及其生活质量的影响而感到不快。本模型是第一个解决目的地管理机构管理不可持续的过度旅游的能力的模型。

Para proponer un modelo de gestión del sobreturismo QOL, se utilizó un enfoque constructivista, basado en factores tomados del modelo conceptual de sobreturismo (Mihalic, 2020). Las relaciones entre los factores se analizaron con un modelo de análisis de rutas con dos factores latentes de segundo orden. El modelo se probó en un escenario real, la ciudad de Ljubljana.

En este documento se presenta un modelo para estudiar si una gestión eficaz del destino puede gestionar el exceso de turismo (insostenible) desde la perspectiva de la calidad de vida de los residentes (QOL).

El modelo teórico propuesto comprende cinco factores: impactos positivos del turismo, impactos negativos del turismo, irritación por el exceso de turismo, calidad de vida de los residentes y gestión del destino. Las pruebas empíricas confirmaron el modelo. Los impactos positivos del turismo afectaron positivamente la calidad de vida de los residentes a través de la gestión del destino. Los impactos negativos del turismo crearon una irritación de los residentes basada en el exceso de turismo y tuvieron un impacto negativo en su calidad de vida.

El modelo se limitaba a un grupo de interesados en el turismo sostenible: los residentes de un destino. El desempeño de la sostenibilidad del turismo sólo se evaluó en base a la calidad de vida de los residentes.

Implicaciones sociales y prácticas: El modelo propuesto contribuye al conocimiento conceptual del turismo y puede ser útil para que los gestores de destinos (sostenibles) vigilen la existencia y las causas del exceso de turismo y pueda ayudar a centrar los esfuerzos en la gestión de las causas de la irritación del exceso de turismo y mejorar la calidad de vida de los residentes.

El exceso de turismo es una preocupación para los residentes de los destinos turísticos que se irritan por los impactos insostenibles del turismo en los recursos de la comunidad y su QOL. El modelo sugerido es el primero que aborda la capacidad de la gestión del destino para gestionar el sobreturismo insostenible.

The purpose of this study is to find the optimum design of Reinforced Concrete (RC) pile foundation to enable efficient use of structural concrete with greater consequences for global environment and economy.

A non-linear optimisation technique based on the Generalised Reduced Gradient (GRG) algorithm was implemented to find the minimum cost of RC pile foundation in frictional soil. This was achieved by obtaining the optimum pile satisfying the serviceability and ultimate limit state requirements of BS 8004 and EC 7. The formulated structural optimisation procedure was applied to a case study project to assess the efficiency of the proposed design formulation.

The results prove that the GRG method in Excel solver is an active, fast, accurate and efficient computer programme to obtain optimum pile design. The application of the optimisation for the case study project shows up to 26% cost reduction compared to the conventional design.

The design and formulation of design constraints will be limited to provisions of BS 8004 and EC 7.

Since the minimum quantity of concrete was attained through optimisation, then minimum cement will be used and thus result in minimum CO₂ emission. Therefore, the optimum design of concrete structures is a vital solution to limit the damage to the Earth's climate and the physical environment resulting from high carbon emissions.

The current study considers the incorporation of different soil ground parameters in the optimisation process rather than assuming any pile capacity value for the optimisation process.

This paper presents a generic framework on port logistics development and its interaction with hinterland regions. Although earlier work on the topic (e.g. by Ferrari et al., 2006; Kuipers and Eenhuizen, 2004) offers valuable insights in the subject, it contains limitations in geographical applicability. Ports indeed face dissimilarities in, for instance, locational characteristics (a.o. distance from the sea and nautical accessibility) and hinterland connections. Only when a model for determining seaport-located logistics activities takes into account these issues of dissimilarity among ports, the framework could be applied to a variety of seaport ranges worldwide. In this paper we aim to provide a first version of such a framework. More particularly, by means of a survey conducted in the Port of Busan the shortcomings of traditional approaches are illustrated. We then propose a more encompassing model, which seems to explain fairly well the attractiveness of Busan in terms of logistics activities. This framework explicitly adds port and hinterland characteristics to the list of factors decisive in the choice of the location of logistics activities. Finally, we would like to remark that our research on this topic is still ongoing and results for surveys planned in New York and Antwerp will be reported in a later stage.

The awarding of terminals to private operators is considered a prime task of landlord port authorities. Yet, terminal concessions in seaports have only recently gained interest in academic circles. The awarding process poses a complex set of managerial challenges to port authorities, one of the key issues being the determination of the duration of the concession.

Despite the importance of the duration of terminal concessions in seaports, the issue has not received much attention in academic circles. Factors impacting on the duration of contracts, leases or concessions have, however, been studied extensively in other research areas, such as agriculture, coal contracts, franchising and natural gas. This paper uses insights from these academic studies to obtain a better understanding of the impact of concession duration on the stakeholders involved and relates them to empirical evidence on concession length in European seaports. The paper then proposes a classification scheme for the exogenous determination of concession duration, based on techniques developed for Public-Private-Partnerships in large infrastructure projects. In the last section the paper discusses the importance of concession durations to various stakeholders in seaports and illustrates these principles using a case study.