Search

In this paper, we examine how robot adoption and Chinese import competition shaped employment patterns in 352 cities across the United Kingdom. We find that cities whose initial industry composition exposed them to industrial robots and China's integration into the world economy experienced significant employment declines. When pitched against other capital and technologies, the impact of robots remains distinct. Our findings suggest that one more robot per thousand workers reduced the employment-to-population ratio by 0.5 percentage points, while an increase of $1,000 imports from China per worker reduced the employment-to-population ratio by 0.11 percentage points. We also show that while these are sizable effects, penetration of both robots and Chinese imports are too small to account for Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous countries, such as the US, UK, and China, have rapidly expanding industries and are prioritizing the development of renewable energy by offshore wind turbines. The safe operation and maintenance of such slender structures having a large mass at top depends on their response against critical environmental loadings and seismic loadings in seismic prone areas. The critical aspects in designing such structure are discussed in brief that includes fixing natural frequency, site selection, load analysis, seismic considerations, design specifications, and standards used. The major geotechnical concerns such as soil-structure interaction, soil-liquefaction, scouring, and development of negative skin friction are well discussed. The issue of damping from various sources, structural health monitoring, and aeroelastic analysis are well discussed, and the necessity of their incorporation is highlighted. The article addresses the creation of various computational models and experimental studies, as well as the key findings. Further, this study makes an effort to propose such a model to incorporate all the parameters from the real field scenario to have an idea about various parameters and their effect on the response of the offshore wind turbine structure by making design iterations, if possible, in a simplified way. • Wind turbine is a source of green energy with out any side effect. • Safety of this structure has received relatively little attention. • The present paper provides a thorough literature survey and future challenges to be faced in this area. • The study focuses on both the aspects of modelling and loading. • At the end, immediate future needs of the studies are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bibliometrics overview of ZEB publications. • Draw of the collaboration networks from ZEB research publications. • Brought out thematic trend of the development ZEB over the time. • Discussions of the main challenges and solutions for ZEB studies. Zero Energy Building (ZEB) is gaining more attention as a solution to significantly mitigate the environment concerns. However, a bibliometric analysis of the topic, a very useful method to analyze the database of published publications and reviews, is lacking. Especially, to provide when and how this concept has been brought out, insights into the state-of-art technology, the findings of the collaboration networks and the challenges of ZEB. To address this gap, in this paper, ZEB studies have been reviewed using multiple perspectives and analytical tools, such as VOSviewer and Biblioshiny to analyze the collaboration networks and the thematic trends of ZEB publications. The original data was retrieved in Scopus, a total of 1051 documents including research articles and reviews published from 1976 to 2020. The analysis of the number of publications over the years shows that the development of Zero energy building research has gone through three stages: a slow development period from 1076 to 1999, followed by a development from 2000 to 2010 and finally a rapid development from 2011 to 2020. The study also reveals different rankings, including the most widely collaborated scholars, the most cited scholars, the most published countries, etc. Therein, the United State, United Kingdom and China have the most research on ZEB. Based on the analysis of co-occurrence network and evolution of thematic keywords, it is found that energy efficiency and life cycle assessment (LCA) are the main challenges for the achievement of ZEB target. Finally, these challenges have been discussed and solutions provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dietitian has qualifications in nutrition and dietetics and applies the science of food and nutrition to improve the health of individuals, groups, and communities. The Registered Dietitian (RD) credential has gained recognition over the years for its expertise. The accreditation systems were developed and have been used to ensure quality of this profession. Accreditation systems set standards for academic and professional training in nutrition and dietetics and reflect current research-based information. The purpose of this paper is to review a few countries that have a RD accreditation system including China and several other countries, e.g. the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The aims are to introduce the newly established RD system in China and to compare the differences among the countries' systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings consume large amounts of energy and resources and have a significant impact on environment. In 2010 buildings accounted for 32% of total global final energy use and 19% of energy-related GHG emissions. This energy use and related emissions may double or potentially even triple by mid-century. China is the world's largest energy consumer and CO 2 emitter. With the process of urbanization, China has been entering into a period of great prosperity for construction, about 1.6–2.0 billion m 2 buildings are constructed each year, which accounts for about 40% of the world's total new buildings. It is predicted that China’s building energy use and related emissions will continue to increase over the next 15 years. Therefore, promoting green building development has become an urgent issue in China. However, green building is a highly complicated system engineering, its promotion needs evaluation standards as technical support. Many countries had issued a series of green building evaluation standards since 1990. Currently, there are some representative green building assessment schemes. Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) has been fully implemented as the national authoritative standard of the UK since 2010. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) developed by the USA, was revised and updated regularly with the latest version issued in 2013. China enacted its national evaluation standard for green building in 2006, and revised the standard in 2014. Based on introducing the latest evaluation standards for green buildings in China, Britain and United States, the paper compared these standards from 5 aspects including energy-saving, water-saving, material-saving, site selection and the outdoor and indoor environmental quality. The comparison mainly focuses on evaluation methods and evaluation indicators in the three standard systems. Besides, the characteristics of each standard system were summarized and some suggestions for improving China’s evaluation standard for green building were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food technologies often have an ambivalent effect on customer value perceptions toward innovative food products. While objective benefits may contribute positively to customer value perceptions, subjective negative evaluations may subtract value. In this paper we propose a model and provide empirical evidence on how customer value is constructed and its relationship with willingness to pay in the context of innovative food products. We test our model in a cross-sectional study across two international markets (the UK and China; N = 1004) and two innovative food products. Our results show that, in the context of innovative food products, customer value is constructed as a trade-off between perceived values that individuals assign to the product and perceived costs that consumers experience. Specifically, perceived values have a positive and dominant effect on customer value in both markets. We further show that the central role of customer value on willingness to pay is not universal and may vary across international markets, with the positive effect of values on willingness to pay being mediated by customer value only in China. Finally, from types of costs purchase costs are found to subtract customer value and only in the UK, thus highlighting their role as being context-specific. • We propose a model on how customer value is constructed in the context of innovative food products. • We test our model across the UK and China, and two innovative food products. • Customer value is constructed as a trade-off between perceived values and perceived costs. • Customer value on consumer response is not universal and may vary across international markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recent developments regarding social housing policies in Hong Kong and the UK. Underlying the analysis is the fact that, during the last 40 years or so, both countries have been major global players in financial markets and thus pursued aggressive market-driven approaches to economic development. Notwithstanding that fact, each followed a different direction regarding housing policy reforms in the period. In Hong Kong (HK), the system of public housing provision was expanded; in the UK, the system of housing provision was scaled down. The argument being developed here is that a pro-public housing approach in HK should not be seen as a threat to capitalism in any way or measure. On the contrary, land development as well as land-originated fiscal revenues is a crucial part of HKSAR government's revenues. In the UK, this is no different. The return (through various forms of privatization) of the public housing stock (Council housing) to private hands (homeowners and housing associations) meant also to enhance businesses, in particular the mortgage and real estate markets. In both cases, there were also clear political reasons that justify developments in housing policy. The idea that Council housing served as a stage in the passage from a time when housing was predominantly provided in a largely unregulated private-rental market to a time when most people became homeowners is also discussed. This was what defined the ‘modernization’ of housing in the UK. The of ‘residualization’ was adopted to discuss the UK case. One important question is to know whether Hong Kong will follow the same path of ‘modernization’ as the UK, in the future. So far, HK has resisted; public housing has been ‘resilient’, ensured by a proper repair and maintenance policy, redevelopment and production of new housing throughout the last decades. Resilience is also granted by people's recognition and attachment to public housing and low stigmatization. More importantly, public provision of housing continues to be regarded, in both countries, as a necessary development to grant quality of life and a better distribution of income, avoiding the sharpening of social and territorial segregation, gentrification and stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Human trafficking is as complex human rights and public health issue. The issue of human trafficking for sexual exploitation at large global sporting events has proven to be elusive given the clandestine nature of the industry. This piece examines the issue from a public health perspective. Study Design: This is a literature review of the 'most comprehensive' studies published on the topic. Methods: A PubMed search was done using MeSH terms 'human traffickings' and 'sex trafficking' and 'human rights abuses'. Subheadings included 'statistics and numerical data', 'legislation and jurispudence', 'prevention and control', and 'therapy'. Only papers published in English were reviewed. Results: The search showed that very few well-designed empirical studies have been conducted on the topic and only one pertinent systematic review was identified. Findings show a high prevalence of physical violence among those trafficked compared to nontrafficked women. Sexually transmitted infections and HIV AIDS are prevalent and preventive care is virtually non-existent. Conclusion: Quantifying human trafficking for sexual exploitation at large global sporting events has proven to be elusive given the clandestine nature of the industry. This is not to say that human trafficking for sex as well as forced sexual exploitation does not occur. It almost certainly exists, but to what extent is the big question. It is a hidden problem on a global scale in plain view with tremendous public health implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a natural language understanding (NLU) framework for argumentative dialogue systems in the information-seeking and opinion building domain. The proposed framework consists of two sub-models, namely intent classifier and argument similarity. Intent classifier model stack BiLSTM with attention mechanism on top of pre-trained BERT model and fine-tune the model for recognizing the user intent, whereas argument similarity model employs BERT+BiLSTM for identifying system arguments the user refers to in his or her natural language utterances. Our model is evaluated in an argumentative dialogue system that engages the user to inform him-/herself about a controversial topic by exploring pro and con arguments and build his/her opinion towards the topic. In order to evaluate the proposed approach, we collect user utterances for the interaction with the respective system labelling intent and referenced argument in an extensive online study. The data collection includes multiple topics and two different user types (native English speakers from the UK and non-native English speakers from China). Additionally, we evaluate the proposed intent classifier and argument similarity models separately on the publicly available Banking77 and STS benchmark datasets. The evaluation indicates a clear advantage of the utilized techniques over baseline approaches on several datasets, as well as the robustness of the proposed approach against new topics and different language proficiency as well as the cultural background of the user. Furthermore, results show that our intent classifier model outperforms DIET, DistillBERT, and BERT fine-tuned models in few-shot setups (i.e., with 10, 20, or 30 labelled examples per intent) and full data setup. • We propose natural language understanding framework for argumentative dialogue systems • We propose effective way of recognizing the user intent and identifying system arguments • We have employed pre-trained BERT model and BiLSTM for intent and argument detection • We collect user utterances for argumentation system in an extensive online study • The evaluation indicates advantage of the utilized techniques over baseline models [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]