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1 – 10 of 140
Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Haiyan Deng, Ruifa Hu, Jikun Huang, Carl Pray, Yanhong Jin and Zhonghua Li

Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops…

Abstract

Purpose

Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops. The purpose of this paper is to examine firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and political lobbying activities.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from surveys of 160 managers in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in 2013-2014, this paper employed three probit models to examine the determinants of managers’ attitudes, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities.

Findings

The results show that most Chinese agribusiness managers are concerned about GM foods and oppose its adoption. Nevertheless, one-third of the firms invest in biotechnology R&D and less than 15 percent of managers lobbied the government to change biotechnology policies. The econometric estimation results suggest that profit change expectation is the main factor affecting managers’ attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment decisions, whereas lobbying activities are significantly influenced by their attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment. In addition, managers’ attitudes toward GM foods also significantly influence firms’ decisions to invest in biotechnology R&D.

Originality/value

This paper has improved on previous research in two ways. First, it analyses the determinants of agribusiness firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities. Second, the methodology involves an analysis of agribusiness firm survey data in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries, which is the first time to use such data to research on economic interest group in agricultural biotechnology field.

Details

China Agricultural Economic Review, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-137X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2018

Zhonghua Li, Ibrahim Kucukkoc, David Z. Zhang and Fei Liu

Surface roughness is an important evaluation index for industrial components, and it strongly depends on the processing parameters for selective laser molten Ti6Al4V parts. This…

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Abstract

Purpose

Surface roughness is an important evaluation index for industrial components, and it strongly depends on the processing parameters for selective laser molten Ti6Al4V parts. This paper aims to obtain an optimum selective laser melting (SLM) parameter set to improve the surface roughness of Ti6Al4V samples.

Design/methodology/approach

A response surface methodology (RSM)-based approach is proposed to improve the surface quality of selective laser molten Ti6Al4V parts and understand the relationship between the SLM process parameters and the surface roughness. The main SLM parameters (i.e. laser power, scan speed and hatch spacing) are optimized, and Ti6Al4V parts are manufactured by the SLM technology with no post processes.

Findings

Optimum process parameters were obtained using the RSM method to minimise the roughness of the top and vertical side surfaces. Obtained parameter sets were evaluated based on their productivity and surface quality performance. The validation tests have been performed, and the results verified the effectivity of the proposed technique. It was also shown that the top and vertical sides must be handled together to obtain better top surface quality.

Practical implications

The obtained optimum SLM parameter set can be used in the manufacturing of Ti6Al4V components with high surface roughness requirement.

Originality/value

RSM is used to analyse and determine the optimal combination of SLM parameters with the aim of improving the surface roughness quality of Ti6Al4V components, for the first time in the literature. Also, this is the first study which aims to simultaneously optimise the surface quality of top and vertical sides of titanium alloys.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 November 2022

Jasmine Yu-Hsing Chen

This chapter examines how the breakthrough of Zhang Ziyi's depiction of a female kung fu master in The Grandmaster (2013) transforms the figure of the heroine in Chinese action…

Abstract

This chapter examines how the breakthrough of Zhang Ziyi's depiction of a female kung fu master in The Grandmaster (2013) transforms the figure of the heroine in Chinese action films. Zhang is well known for her acting in action films conducted by renowned directors, such as Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar-wai. After winning 12 different Best Actress awards for her portrayal of Gong Ruomei in The Grandmaster, Zhang announced that she would no longer perform in any action films to show her highest respect for the superlative character Gong. Tracing Zhang's transformational portrait of a heroine in The Grandmaster alongside her other action roles, this analysis demonstrates how her performance projects the directors' distinctive gender viewpoints. I argue that Zhang's characterisation of Gong remodels heroine-hood in Chinese action films. Inheriting the typical plot of a daughter's use of martial arts for revenge for her father's death, Gong breaks from conventional Chinese action films that highlight romantic love during a woman's adventure and the decisive final battle scene. Beyond the propensity for sensory stimulation, Gong's characterisation enables Zhang to determine that women can really act in action films – demonstrating their inner power and ability to create multi-layered characters – not merely relying upon physical action. This chapter offers a relational perspective of how women transform the action film genre not merely as gender spectacles but as embodied figures that represent emerging female subjectivity.

Details

Gender and Action Films
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-514-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 April 2012

Hur‐Li Lee

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the epistemic foundation of the classification applied in the first Chinese library catalogue, the Seven Epitomes (Qilue).

Design/methodology/approach

Originating from a theoretical stance that situates knowledge organization in its social context, the study applies a multifaceted framework pertaining to five categories of textual data: the Seven Epitomes; biographical information about the classificationist Liu Xin; and the relevant intellectual, political, and technological history.

Findings

The study discovers seven principles contributing to the epistemic foundation of the catalogue's classification: the Han imperial library collection imposed as the literary warrant; government functions considered for structuring texts; classicist morality determining the main classificatory structure; knowledge perceived and organized as a unity; objects, rather than subjects, of concern affecting categories at the main class level; correlative thinking connecting all text categories to a supreme knowledge embodied by the Six Classics; and classicist moral values resulting in both vertical and horizontal hierarchies among categories as well as texts.

Research limitations/implications

A major limitation of the study is its focus on the main classes, with limited attention to subclasses. Future research can extend the analysis to examine subclasses of the same scheme. Findings from these studies may lead to a comparison between the epistemic approach in the target classification and the analytic one common in today's bibliographic classification.

Originality/value

The study is the first to examine in depth the epistemic foundation of traditional Chinese bibliographic classification, anchoring the classification in its appropriate social and historical context.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 68 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 November 2023

Yirui Chen, Qianhu Chen, Yiling Xu, Elisa Arrigo and Pantaleone Nespoli

In the post-pandemic era urban ecosystem planning has become critically important. Given the emphasis on relevant issues concerning the complex interactions between human…

Abstract

Purpose

In the post-pandemic era urban ecosystem planning has become critically important. Given the emphasis on relevant issues concerning the complex interactions between human civilizations and natural systems within urban environments in the new normal, this article aims to enrich the field of knowledge management developing a cross-cultural analysis for clarifying the role of knowledge in planning and urban ecosystems.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is conceptual in nature. Based on a theoretical foundation built by a critical literature review and data from the China Statistical Yearbook and China’s National Bureau of Statistics, this paper introduces some emerging real-impact topics regarding the connections between humanistic knowledge and urban planning. A comparative analysis between the capital city of Chang’an in the Tang dynasty of China and the capital city of Athens in Ancient Greek was used for explaining the influence of knowledge on successful urban planning.

Findings

The understanding the role of cross-cultural differences in knowledge management and practices for urban ecosystems offer the opportunities for rethinking consolidated approach to the interaction among social, economic, and environmental dimensions in urban settings.

Originality/value

This paper implies a new inter-disciplinary research field of great interest for the real impact KM community by illuminating how knowledge management is central in urban planning and across cultures.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2020

Feng Li, Zhonghua Yu and Zhensheng Yang

This paper aims to focus on investigating the failure mode of fused deposition modeling (FDM) fabricated parts by using acoustic emission (AE) technique.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on investigating the failure mode of fused deposition modeling (FDM) fabricated parts by using acoustic emission (AE) technique.

Design/methodology/approach

Considering the special prototyping way of FDM, the failure modes of FDM-fabricated parts were investigated experimentally. One test was carried out and the other two describe what has been observed on this basis. Acoustic emissions are obtained during the tensile process. AE features of peak frequency, energy and amplitude are extracted and preliminarily analyzed. Then, the unsupervised clustering method of k-means is applied to explore the relationship between the failure modes and the AE signals.

Findings

Failure modes of filament debonding and breakage can be successfully recognized by the pattern recognition technique of k-means.

Practical implications

The results obtained can help us understand the failure process of FDM printed parts. This will provide an available monitoring method in the application of FDM-fabricated parts.

Originality/value

This paper has investigated and characterized the failure modes of FDM fabricated parts for the first time.

Details

Rapid Prototyping Journal, vol. 26 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2546

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2016

Lingyun Zhou, Jie Wu, Dong Mu, Yachao Wu and Zhonghua Gu

As a crucial element of city planning, an adequately planned logistics center for agricultural products can improve the circulation efficiency of agricultural products, thereby…

Abstract

As a crucial element of city planning, an adequately planned logistics center for agricultural products can improve the circulation efficiency of agricultural products, thereby contributing to a convenient lifestyle of urban residents. First, this study analyzed the functional zones of urban green logistics centers for agricultural products based on low-carbon idea. A method was also proposed to calculate the area of each functional zone. Moreover, this study proposed a layout planning innovation method of urban green logistics centers for agricultural products based on logistics motion line analysis and logistics intensity calculation. Lastly, this study analyzed the application processes of the layout planning methodology according to the topographical conditions of Huai’an logistics center project case in China. Results of the case study show that the construction innovation method proposed in this study is scientific, reasonable, and practical. The construction innovation method can be also used for the planning and designing of similar urban logistics centers.

Details

Open House International, vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2020

Kwun-fu Chan

This study aims to examine the problems encountered during the establishment of the Central Police Academy (CPA) under the Nationalist regime from 1936 to 1949. While the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the problems encountered during the establishment of the Central Police Academy (CPA) under the Nationalist regime from 1936 to 1949. While the authoritarian party-state unified the police academies by forceful means, this catalyzed the cleavage between the schools of police studies and resulted in power struggles over police education, intellectual thought, collectivity and even the national reform of police administration. More than narrating the progress of power consolidation, this study attempts to identify the problems underlying the factional strife and to reveal the interwoven pattern of these power struggles, exploring the confusion regarding what the police is, a question that troubled Chinese policemen from the mainland to Taiwan.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explains the emergence of the factional strife from the beginning of the preliminary growth of the Police Academies in Nanking and Chekiang. It widely makes use of the official archives from Japan Center for Asian Historical Records and Historica Academia to show the dynamic situation in police education and administration. Rather, the official publications of the Police Academies and their affiliated associations reveal the hidden political agenda behind a unified framework as the party-state claimed. Moreover, official gazettes, memorials and newspapers are also used to strengthen the core argument of this study.

Findings

This paper examines the impact of the factional strife between the police leaders Dai Li and Li Shizhen on the CPA from 1936 to 1949. It illustrates that the establishment of the CPA ostensibly unified the nationwide police force but triggered power struggles over the control of the police administration. More importantly, it also shows how the factions strove for larger shares of power under the supreme doctrines that Chiang Kai-shek and the party-state imposed.

Originality/value

The failure of police education to become powerful was a special case among other more typical institutions. The governors coercively merged the police academies and created robust conditions for growth under the shelter of state authority. The police force did not follow the same path of national monopoly as what recent studies found but drifted apart with its vested interests and incompatible beliefs. Hence, the greater the demand for centralized control by the state, the greater the tension of the factional strife.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 January 2021

Yao Lixia

Abstract

Details

Energy Security in Times of Economic Transition: Lessons from China
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-465-4

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2000

Xinmin Dai, Amy H. Lau and Ji‐liang Yang

Explains why, following China‘s implementation of a market economy, public accounting firms were required to affiliate (hook‐up) with existing government or educational…

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Abstract

Explains why, following China‘s implementation of a market economy, public accounting firms were required to affiliate (hook‐up) with existing government or educational institutions until 1993 when partnerships and limited liability firms were also allowed. Describes the rules relating to independent accounting firms and changes which should foster their development but reports that, in fact, most firms are still affiliated. Discusses the reasons for this and the resulting problems, e.g. lack of competition and independence, low quality of service and increases in fraud, misrepresentation and under‐disclosure. Reveals that despite the 1995 exposure draft on eliminating the hooking‐up structure few de‐affiliations have taken place and identifies four problems which need solving if full de‐affiliation is to be achieved.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 26 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

1 – 10 of 140