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Using recently declassified archival material pertaining to the Chartered Bank of India Australia and China, this article foregrounds quantitative evidence that sheds new light on the history of British banks in Asia. It shows that Hong Kong came to play a critical role in the bank's note issue strategy after the Straits Settlements had moved off the silver standard in 1906. Locally denominated notes issued on mainland China complemented the Hong Kong issue. However, their circulation volume dropped dramatically during the anti-British boycott that followed the May Thirtieth Incident (1925). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the first part of our study, we use a linear statistical technique to examine the impact of the announcement of China's decision to take back Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1982, the Tiananmen Square incident of 4 June 1989, the Asian financial crisis (AFC) of 1997, and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 on Hong Kong's housing market in terms of prices. A total of 11362 residential transactions from a cluster of data for a large private-housing estate, considered to be representative of Hong Kong's private residential market, were used to test four hypotheses that evaluate the impact of shocks on property prices through the use of a hedonic price model. The influences based on the statistical findings, which satisfy the relevant goodness-of-fit tests, are (a) that the sovereignty crisis exerted immediate significant negative price effect, but property prices rebounded after a big decline when open diplomatic dialogue between the Chinese and UK governments began, (b) that the Tiananmen Square (4 June) incident had no significant price effect; (c) that the AFC caused a drastic decline in property prices; and (d) that the impact of the SARS outbreak was significantly negative for Amoy Gardens but not so for estates with fewer reported SARS cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under normal circumstances a nation has to have strength and power to achieve effective diplomacy. However, the year 1942 was far from normal in terms of American-British-Chinese relations. It was a particularly difficult and critical time from Britain’s point of view because of the utter need to sustain China’s war effort against Japan while it concentrated on fighting against Germany, and because of the necessity to address the desire of the United States, on which Britain was heavily dependent for lend-lease materials, to accommodate the ever increasing demand of China. This paper attempts to show how Britain tried to deal with this trying situation, not without reluctance at times, by the employment of symbolism as diplomacy, characterized by praise, flattery, honors of various kinds and so on, to tide itself over the first year of the Pacific War until the war tide began to turn in the Allies’ favor early in 1943. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an international financial center, the banking industry in Hong Kong (HK) plays a significant role. Because of increasingly competitive pressure from domestic and overseas banks, HK banks must tightly control cost and improve quality and efficiency of operations in order to maintain profitability. For this purpose, quality management has emerged as an effective tool in recent years. In fact, it has been regarded as a vital strategic element for meeting the challenge of the new and intensified competition in the financial services industry (Knights & McCabe, 1996b, Managing Service Quality, 6, pp. 18-21). This paper reports the result of a survey on quality management initiatives in HK's banking industry between 1997 and 2000. The trend of changes in these years is analyzed and the results from HK are compared with those from British financial institutions reported by Wilkinson et al. (1996, Total Quality Management, 7, pp. 67-78). The results show that HK banks have gradually adopted quality initiatives and gained significant success in quality management over the past 3 years. They focused more on meeting service standard and providing prompt services while banking institutions in the UK focused more on understanding and meeting customers' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A model of anchorage strength with spread of the root plate as its main input was shown to be applicable for maize. • Increasing plant population reduced the anchorage and stem failure wind speeds, thus increasing lodging risk. • Changes in N fertiliser had a small effect on the lodging associated plant characters. • Stem and root failure wind speed were influenced most by variation in stem strength and root plate spread respectively. • Leaf area index measured at leaf 4, 6 or 8 stages was a good indicator of a crop's future risk of lodging. Lodging is a major constraint to increasing the global productivity of maize (Zea Maize L.). The objectives of this paper are to: i) describe a model for stem and root lodging in maize, ii) calibrate the anchorage strength component of the model, iii) evaluate the model's applicability by assessing its capacity to explain effects of crop husbandry on lodging risk and iv) investigate the potential to further develop the lodging model to predict lodging risk at an early enough growth stage for tactical agronomic action to minimise lodging risk. The study involved a multidisciplinary collaboration between crop scientists, wind engineers and geospatial scientists in the UK and China. Three field experiments with plant population density and nitrogen (N) fertiliser rate treatments were conducted in the UK and China to develop and test the lodging model. Plant characteristics associated with lodging were measured in the experiments after flowering. An existing model of cereal anchorage strength that uses the spread of the root plate as its primary input was demonstrated to be applicable for maize and calibrated for this crop species. The lodging model's predictions of the effects of plant population and N fertiliser on lodging risk were consistent with published observations. The lodging model calculated that increasing the plant population significantly reduced the anchorage and stem failure wind speeds in all experiments, thus increasing the risk of lodging. This effect was primarily due to increased plant population reducing the spread of the root plate and the stem strength. Changes in N fertiliser had a smaller effect on the lodging associated plant characters. A sensitivity analysis showed that stem failure wind speed was influenced most by variation in stem strength and root failure wind speed was influenced most by variation in the spread of the root plate. This study has shown that the leaf area index measured at leaf 4, 6 or 8 stages is a good indicator of a crop's future risk of lodging, which demonstrates the potential to develop the model into a practical tool for predicting lodging risk in time for tactical agronomic decisions to be made during the crop's growing period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to review the total collection of literature on the 'residential satisfaction' concept used in social research from 1961 to 2020, and provides a complete overview on how social research concerning 'residential satisfaction' has emerged and developed in the last 60 years. We follow the theoretical framework of bibliometric analysis and use the bibliometric datasets retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus's online resources. After compiling and processing the datasets, we used a final dataset containing 877 documents on residential satisfaction. The open-source statistical and visualisation software packages R and VOSviewer were used mainly for processing and analysing datasets. The results visualise information on the top authors, the most influential documents by citation, the most productive countries, and other criteria. The lexical network analysis shows that residential satisfaction has a strong co-occurrence association with the two frequently occurring terms 'neighbourhood' and 'satisfaction'. The majority of research on residential satisfaction has been conducted in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. The top three most influential journals for residential satisfaction research are 'Social Indicators Research', 'Environment and Development', and 'Habitat International'. This bibliometric analysis frames the future research demand for residential satisfaction in social research. • This paper presents how the 'residential satisfaction (RS)' concept used in social science since its inception in 1961. • Bibliometric issues, e.g. lexical, temporal and spatial network of residential satisfaction concepts are discussed. • Bibliometric methodology is employed in open-source statistical and visualisation software packages R and VOSviewer. • 'Neighbourhood' and 'satisfaction' are the two frequently occurring terms in co-occurring association. • Majority of research on RS has been conducted in the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. • Top journals for RS research are 'Social Indicators Research', 'Environment and Development', and 'Habitat International'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly visible across the globe, awareness of the need for cleaner energy and demand reduction is growing. Energy literacy offers a strong potential for explaining and predicting energy-related behaviours, yet research and policies focused on this topic remain limited. In this study, energy literacy was measured in a sample of 2806 university students in the United Kingdom and China, in addition to their wider environmental attitudes using the New Ecological Paradigm scale. Findings indicate that energy literacy was relatively high overall, but there were significant differences between the knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions of participants in the two countries. Whilst the UK respondents rated themselves significantly more highly on perceived knowledge of energy issues, Chinese respondents provided significantly more correct answers in a knowledge test. UK respondents demonstrated more positive attitudes towards energy conservation than those from China, and were more likely to report energy-saving behaviours. However, Chinese respondents exhibited higher levels of trust in government and businesses to take action on energy issues. This paper provides a novel insight into cultural differences which may be crucial to policy and practice, and evidences the potential benefits of utilising a combination of educational and structural change to support transition to a cleaner, low-energy society. Image 1 • Significant differences in energy literacy arose in 1806 students in UK and China. • Chinese respondents demonstrated more knowledge about energy than UK respondents. • UK respondents demonstrated more positive attitudes and energy saving behaviours. • Cultural context, including trust in government impacts on energy-saving behaviours. • Combining educational and structural change will aid transition to a cleaner world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has reviewed the international research from the 20th century to the first half of 2019 on the terms "efficiency" and "local government". For this purpose, a bibliometric and a cluster analysis by fractional accounting have been carried out using two of the most important databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The research found and studied 1222 documents from the WoS Core Collection and 2264 from Scopus. The results show a continuous increase in the number of published articles and citations during the whole period. It also found that the U.S., U.K, and China are the most productive countries with a predominance of North American and Asian organizations supporting and fostering researches. The principal contribution of this article is the analysis of keywords from 2011 to the first half of 2019. The trend shows a convergence on the concepts of efficiency and local government over the last few years, which are related to sustainability and natural environment. Future research in this field should address the relationship between efficiency in the allocation of local resources and the environmental sustainability of municipalities. • A bibliometric review of local government efficiency was conducted. • The paper identifies publications that serve as a guide to the local policymakers. • A recent worldwide trend in this field is based on environment. • A pending subject of local government efficiency is a geopolitical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement on climate change has calls for urgent, radical, and transformative actions in mitigation and adaptation, particularly in terms of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. There are many terms used to describe the process of reducing GHGs, including decarbonization, low carbon development (LCD) or low carbon transition (LCT). The conceptualization of these terms remains puzzling and there has not been any consensus to explain the meaning and their interrelationship. Clearer definition and conceptual boundaries are necessary to improve the coherence of overarching practices to cut CO 2 emission. The paper aims to review key concepts related to climate change mitigation related to the reduction of CO 2 and efforts toward net-zero emission in the academic literature, by (1) examining progress of the literature over time, (2) identifying geographical locus and sectoral focus of the literature, (3) determining the interrelationships between the key concepts. We use a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method for data collection by selecting peer-reviewed literature from Scopus and analyzing the data with content analysis and bibliometric analysis. The findings are, firstly, the publications of the literature are influenced by global and national climate change policies and the interest of scholars affiliated to institutions from major emitter countries. Therefore, the literature is mostly originating from countries that emit the most CO 2 while also implement mitigations to reduce CO 2 emission. Secondly, China is the country where studies are mostly focused and also where the authors are affiliated/located. However, publications from the United Kingdom are cited the most. Thirdly, there are three clusters of literature found, namely that LCD and LCT are the terms used to identify visions for climate mitigation, while decarbonization is the actions and processes to achieve either LCD or LCT (as the visions). • The dynamic of climate change policies influence the literature trend. • The literature is mostly originating from major CO 2 emitter. • Low carbon development and low carbon transition are visional terms. • Decarbonization indicates the processes of decoupling CO 2 to achieve the visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the celebrations marking its Centenary, the Biochemical Society held a joint meeting in Shanghai with the Chinese Protein Society to commemorate the many long-standing collaborations between biochemists from the U.K. and China. Under the overall theme of structural biology of proteins, presentations covering both historical and current research were given by a number of leading biochemists from both countries. Papers based on these talks have been prepared for this issue of Biochemical Society Transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses governmental incentives for researchers to publish their findings in international journals, arguing that the lack of increase in the number of articles published by U.S. scientists is attributable to international competition created by changes in incentives. The authors of the study looked at the number of papers submitted to the journal "Science" by scientists in the U.S. as well as in countries such as Great Britain, New Zealand, and China which reward publications with cash bonuses, funding, and career-based incentives. They conclude that such incentives are positively correlated with the number of both submissions and publications.

Presents news briefs related to various scientific explorations around the world as of June 6, 2003. Explanation provided by a team at the University of Manchester in England regarding creation of a powerful, reusable adhesive tape; Events associated with rescue of Boxgrove, the site of the oldest human fossil ever found in Great Britain from reburial; Effect of creation of the Great Wall of China on gene flows between plants.

The article presents books, papers, and articles related to higher education. They include the "British Universities in China: The Reality beyond the Rhetoric" for British involvement in China, the "University Dynamics and European Integration," by P. Maassen and J. Olsen, and the "British Universities: Past and Present," by R. Anderson.