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In the mid-7th century, in the Turfan region, the main type of funerary inscription changed from mubiao (tomb announcements) to muzhi (tomb epitaphs). This change is attributed to the influence of Central Plains' culture, which scholars have suggested was transmitted after the Tang Empire conquered the Qu's Gaochang kingdom and established the prefecture of Xizhou in the Turfan area. This article explores the reasons for this change from the perspective of regional interaction with a focus on the agency of the Turfan people in the process of cultural exchange. The article starts by defining the structure of mubiao and muzhi and proposes a new classification framework to sort the inscriptions according to how they were structured. After this sorting, it investigates the connections between each type of inscription and the time periods in which they were used. It then considers how each type of inscription refers to itself. I suggest that muzhi need to be understood by investigating the changes in the numbers of each type as well as the format and content of brick epitaphs in the mid-7th century. Many of the Gaochang elite were relocated to the two capitals after the fall of the Gaochang Kingdom; they were later moved back to Turfan, and it has been suggested that elements of Central Plains' epitaphs were introduced by them. However, the forms of the bricks and the locations of the brick epitaphs in tombs show a continuation of the traditions of the Gaochang kingdom. This continuation reveals that the Gaochang elite actively chose certain elements in the process of cultural exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has played an increasingly important role in the competition between the US-led West and China, and the geo-technological perspective, which focuses on the interaction between technology and geopolitics as well as major-power competition, has come to the forefront. Chips lay the foundation for the development of multiple emerging and critical technologies. With the advent of a digital era of major-power competition, chip security has become a key underpinning of national economic, technological, and military security. The US has been advancing its chip containment against China with domestic and external balancing acts. It pays attention to the linkage of domestic and external policies and combines short-term measures with longterm strategies, in order to widen the technological gap between China and the US in the chip field and hinder the development of China's chip technology and industry. Through a Modern American Industrial Strategy, the US strives to improve its R&D and manufacturing capabilities of advanced chips and has stepped up its blockade of China’s chip technology in terms of export controls and investment review. Besides, the US has taken the lead in building a multi-level and modular “chip alliance,” trying to strengthen cooperation with allies in intellectual property and technology protection, R&D of chip technology, and reshaping of chip ecosystem. It has also focused on giving play to the strengths of different forces including the government, enterprises, and scientific research institutions. Meanwhile, the US faces many constraints in promoting its chip suppression on China, for example the internal competition in the US chip industry, conflicts between the US government and chip companies, and differences between the US and its allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation network potential bottleneck links are those links which may become bottlenecks with demand changing. Identifying potential bottleneck links accurately and making some optimization and management can make the transportation network adapt to future traffic demand changes better. Based on the network reserve capacity model, a transportation network potential bottleneck link identification method was presented and an algorithm of the network reserve capacity model was designed. A comparative analysis between the traffic distribution results of the present demand and the network capacity was made in the example. The results showed that we cannot simply infer the potential bottleneck links according to the present demand. And the proposed method can identify the potential bottleneck links when the travel demand reaches the network capacity. In addition, using the network reserve capacity model, a method was designed to identify the secondary potential bottleneck links which need to be optimized prior after enhancing the potential bottleneck links. The numerical example demonstrated the applicability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Studies in the 21st century of the history of ancient China show a number of trends. First, the publication of newly discovered materials has contributed to the steady development of the research on the history of ancient China. Against this new background of historical knowledge, research on the whole is going deeper. Second, interests have expanded from traditional to new areas of research. Third, research concepts and the development of research principles has become a new concern of the academia, including the treatment of the newly discovered materials, the definition of the social morphology of ancient China, and the furthering of the research on traditional disciplines. One consensus among scholars is the long-time and broad-space study of history beyond the restraints of divisions between dynasties and geographical regions. The past 13 years of research have brought us judgments of historical details which are closer to the truth. New clues have emerged as to unresolved topics like legal forms, taxation systems, possession of land, etc. In the meanwhile, with more academic interaction on the international level, the issues of domestic research, while preserving our local characteristics, have become more universal and pioneering, for example, issues of ecology and environment, sex, diseases and cures in history, etc. have been explored, which demonstrates the vitality of the research on ancient Chinese history. At present, the field of research has to face and tackle five major issues: firstly, research has been devoted more to the reconstruction of ancient history than to important theories. Theoretically, we have abandoned inaccurate generalizations of Chinese history, but we have failed to produce more persuasive formulations at the same time. Secondly, at various periods in Chinese history, the topics of research have been observed to be limited due to the lack of a questioning attitude. Thirdly, academic criticism and a healthy mechanism have long been lacking. Fourthly, the employment of newly discovered materials is sometimes biased, as is exemplified by the exaggeration of their value by researchers and the researcher's desire to aggressively occupy an advantageous position. Lastly, electronic technology highlights the urgency of upgrading the researcher's knowledge of history. Future research calls for a breakdown of the barriers between different areas of research, more cooperation among scholars of different disciplines, greater courage to develop academic awareness, discussion of issues at deeper levels and more attention to major issues in Chinese history. All these are vital to the qualitative leap forward in the study of ancient Chinese history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic journal is an important medium of research publication and academic exchange. The academic journal evaluation system in China has been initially established) but quality and innovativeness evaluations are still weak. There are profound socio-economic, cultural, administrative reasons for this problem, which have caused negative impact on the value orientation of scholars and their research behavior, affected the objectivity and impartiality of academic evaluation, and undermined the cleanness and pureness of the academia. Scholars of the humanities and social sciences and library and information science experts have already reached a consensus that academic evaluation in the humanities and social sciences should be more diverse, localized and content-based, and there should be quality and innovativeness evaluations. In the past dozen years, academic journal evaluation is mainly quantitative and formal, but now more emphasis should be placed on content evaluation and innovativeness evaluation to create a fair and free environment for academic journal evaluation. On the premise of maintaining the reasonable elements in the existing academic journal evaluation system, this article proposes a combination of three new concepts including formal evaluation, content evaluation and effectiveness evaluation, and puts forward a new evaluation method integrating peer- review and bibliometric evaluation. The proposed combination of the three new concepts would be able to explain the history and the current situation of journal evaluation, and also predict its future. The aim of the new thinking and the approach to realize it is to overcome the institutional obstacles that hinder the healthy development of academic evaluation, to establish a fair and rational academic environment for scholars, and to create an open and constructive academic environment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]