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Latent fingerprint deposits on thermal paper sourced from the U.S., China, the U.K., and Australia have been visualized by heating. U.S. and Chinese sourced paper produced two distinct types of fingerprint development. In one type (type 1), the paper dye colors where the deposit is present (as previously reported) and in the other type (type 2) the 'inverse' of this gives paper coloring only in areas not coincident with the deposit. Both development types gave identifiable fingerprints, the majority fading within 24 h of heating. Fingerprint development from U.K. and Australian sourced paper was exclusively type 1 and resistant to fading. Temperatures for fingerprint visualization were higher for U.S. paper (64-71°C) and Chinese paper (75-95°C) than for U.K. and Australian sourced paper (43-50°C). Particularly for Chinese sourced paper, these temperatures were within a few degrees of the normal paper color temperature. A mechanism for type 2 fingerprint development is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is aimed toward examining the attention received by research papers through social and electronic media in business research. In recent years, altmetrics has emerged as a complementary measure of the impact of research works besides citation analysis and bibliometrics. Using the altmetric attention score (AAS) the paper is the first research of its kind to shed light on the characteristics of 100 papers receiving the highest online attention. Various predictors of online engagement with articles in business research journals having an impact factor greater than 6 are discussed. Data was collected from the Dimensions.ai database and analyzed using R statistical software. It is found that the Journal of Business Ethics contributed maximum papers with the highest AAS followed by the Journal of Business Research. Using the Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test it was determined that AAS in business research is dependent upon article type, topics, and journal of publication. Most of the papers in high impact factor business journals have been contributed by the authors of USA, UK and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details an investigation into the onscreen marking (OSM) of Liberal Studies (LS) in Hong Kong--where paper-based marking (PBM) of public examinations is being phased out and wholly superseded by OSM. The study involved 14 markers who had previously rated Liberal Studies scripts on screen in the 2009 Hong Kong Advanced Level examination. In the study, the 14 markers re-marked, on paper, a number of the scripts they had marked on screen in the 2009 examination. Using multi-faceted Rasch analysis, a five-faceted design was employed, modeling markers, test takers, input questions, rating scales, and the marking medium. Results showed that all factors generally exhibited good data fit. With the major facet for investigation being the method of marking, logit values centred at zero emerged. The hypothesis that the method of marking does not intrude on scores awarded to test takers when scripts are marked on screen or on paper was therefore accepted. Since all public examinations in Hong Kong will be marked solely on screen in 2012, it is vital for professional and public confidence that the scores returned from the OSM marking system can be considered as reliable as those obtained from paper-based marking. Results from the current study suggest that this is so. Given that many countries and jurisdictions globally are considering the implementation of OSM technology--albeit not in the all-embracing manner of Hong Kong--the current study provides further validation for the worldwide adoption of such technology. (Contains 3 footnotes, 6 tables, and 1 figure.)

Objectives: In China, news media are useful for educating the public about the health threats of air pollution. To explore the potential gaps between scientific findings and the public's understanding of them, the characteristics of news media articles and their corresponding scientific papers were analysed., Methods: We used 22 articles relating to the health outcomes of exposure to outdoor air pollution published on Baidu News over the past year. An assessment tool developed by Robinson et al was used to evaluate the quality scores of news articles. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to measure the relationship between news media reporting and the characteristics of scientific papers. Misleading reporting, interpretation, or extrapolation in headlines and text bodies of news articles were examined., Results: The quality scores of the news articles ranged from -4 to 8, with an overall median score of 3. Correlation results showed that the scientific papers citation in Twitter (r = .88, P < .001) and Facebook (r = .64, P < .01) were significantly and positively associated with their citations in news stories. Media misunderstanding of scientific findings was common: 15 news headlines were identified with at least one spin (misrepresentation of scientific results), and 12 news articles had seven types of spin in the body texts., Conclusion: Little media attention has been paid to scientific findings by Chinese researchers. Therefore, researchers and science journalists in China should make a better effort to engage in accurate and informative public discourse on domestic research., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Research on mountain ecosystem services (MES) under the influence of climate change and human activities has gradually become the focus of academic attention in recent years. Here, this study analyzes the research hotspots and frontiers of this field based on metrics including main research forces, core journals and papers, research hotspots and topics by using the methods of bibliometrics and text mining. The results revealed the following: (1) the number of papers is increasing rapidly in recent years. From 2015 to 2019, 929 papers were published, with an average of 185 papers per year. But the average cited times of those papers is declining, dropped from 6.01 in 2016 to 4.2 in 2019. The USA, UK, and China rank the top three of the number of papers. Univ Maryland, Univ Oxford and Univ Wisconsin have the greatest influence, with an average of more than 77 citations per paper; (2) The most cited journals are PNAS, WETLANDS, ECOLOGY, AND SOCIETY, which are cited 191.54, 53.91, and 40.00 respectively. Most papers were published in OA journals including SUSTAINABILITY, WATER, Forests since 2017. Ten core papers undertaking knowledge transfer in this field have been identified; (3) analysis of the keywords found a new trend of integration of natural science and humanities. In two development stages of 2000–2014 and 2015–2019, the research hotspots mainly focused on mountain water resources, forest resources, land resources and the impact of climate change and human activities, and there are obvious differences and characteristics in different stages. The hotspot worthy of attention in the near future is the assessment of mountain ecosystem services capacity and value. This is the first comprehensive visualization and analysis of the research hotspots and trends of mountain ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become an impactful science superpower, but it is asserted that its influence provides it with disproportionate benefits that some national research policies have not thus far appreciated. To create context, Web of Science data are used to analyse research collaborations between the UK and China: trends in volume of output between 1981 and 2019; citation impact; and comparative performance across research fields. UK–China collaboration increased from fewer than 100 co-authored papers before 1990, to 750 per year in 2000, 3,324 in 2010, and 16,267 papers (10.9 per cent of UK output) in 2019. UK–China collaboration is concentrated in technology-based fields: in some (e.g. telecommunication), over 30 per cent of UK papers are in collaboration with Chinese-based researchers. The paper discusses the policy consequences to the UK of this indicative dependency, arguing that exiting from such collaborations is ill advised, provided the risks, perceived or real, are mapped, managed, and mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector, as a source and a sink of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is critical for achieving carbon neutrality. Many academic journals have published papers on land use carbon emission or sink (LUCES), but LUCES reviews are relatively rare, which poses great challenges in accurately understanding the research progress and future prospects. This work analyzes the research characteristics, hotspots and future perspectives of LUCES research by using a bibliometric analysis (such as DDA, VOSviewer, CiteSpace software) and a review based on the data (6115 scientific papers) during 1991–2023 from the Web of Science (WoS) platform. We found that (1) over the past 33 years, it first presented a steady growth, then fluctuating growth, and finally a rapid growth trend in the yearly number of publications in LUCES research. The USA (17.31%), China (14.96%), and the UK (7.37%) occupy a dominant position in this research field. (2) The related LUCES research is interdisciplinary, which mainly cover science and technology, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, geology, and environmental sciences and ecology disciplines. (3) The research hotspot analysis on LUCES shows that these articles mostly covered the follow three aspects: ecosystem services, climate change, and carbon neutrality. (4) A review of the past LUCES literature suggests that it is mainly focused on exploring the forefront issues in terms of the definition and boundaries, evaluation method and influencing factors, etc. This work suggests that further research could explore the main scientific problems on quantification of land-based carbon neutrality, quantitative analysis of the impact mechanisms, as well as interdisciplinary research and collaborative governance needed for carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, 1,538 papers retrieved with the keywords "sports artificial intelligence (AI)" on the Web of Science database since 2007 were taken as the data source, and the Cite Space V software was used to visualize and analyze them. A visual knowledge graph was used to streamline the countries, institutions and authors conducting sports AI research, discipline distribution, research hotspots and development trends in the past 15 years. Subsequently, its development direction and research progress were discussed. Sports AI was widely distributed, with the US, China and the UK leading the way. The most prolific authors and teams in research on sports AI were concentrated in American universities. Their main research direction is to develop and improve smart wearable devices based on machine learning and deep learning technologies for different groups of people. Research on sports AI involved multiple disciplines, which mainly applied and referred to research methodologies and theories on engineering, computer science and sports science. It could be seen from the frequency and centrality of keywords that in the current field of sports AI, machine learning is the main direction, artificial neural networks is the main algorithm, and practical and empirical research based on data mining is the focus. The research hotspots were divided into three major clusters: physical health promotion, sports injury prevention and control, and athletic performance enhancement. How to introduce intelligent technology into sports for a perfect integration still has an arduous and long way to go. Future development requires joint efforts and participation of scientific researchers, professionals and common people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contributing to existing studies on global circuits of knowledge and labour, this paper presents a case study of Andy – a Chinese doctoral student in the UK – and looks at his transition from higher education to later joining the labour market after returning to China through the lens of personality traits. It draws upon literature on language socialisation and sociolinguistic studies of mobility, focusing on how social actors navigate transnational higher education and the consequences on professional development in a neoliberalising market economy. It aims to investigate how (in)appropriate personhood – as manifested in recurrent personality attributes – is enacted and negotiated in specific learning contexts in Andy's trajectory and the impact on employability, with various types of data consisting of participant observation, interviews, and relevant materials. The analysis suggests that Andy has been trained to engage communicatively with academic tasks in higher education settings. However, Andy considers himself lacking certain personality variables that could align with the criteria of a "good doctoral student" depicted by the institutions, such as being independent, motivated, and self-disciplined. Andy gradually shows disorientation in an academic career, albeit finding his inadequacy to perform the desired professional personhood in a labour market that values working experience and communication skills over education certification. This process explains why sometimes the expected communicative repertories and training acquired in higher education are not transferable into valuable resources that Andy can mobilise to become employed. This paper argues that neoliberal rationality has stratifying effects on individuals primarily due to an emphasis on self-responsibility and constant improvements. In transnational higher education, certain personality traits are considered desirable and lacking such characteristics can have side effects on mobile actors like Andy, who navigate the globalising labour market through uncertainty and precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last three years, numerous research papers have been reported which use social media data to explore several issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bibliometric methods in this work are used to analyze 1427 peer-reviewed documents from the last three years extracted from the Web of Science database. The results of this study show that there was high growth in publications in open access journals with an annual rate reaching 19.3% and they also identify the top cited journals and research papers. The thematic analysis of papers shows that research topics related to social media for surveillance and monitoring of public attitudes and perceptions, mental health, misinformation, and fake news are important and well-developed, whereas topics related to distance-learning education with social media are emerging. The results also show that the USA, China, and the UK have published many papers and received a high number of citations because of their strong international collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviewed the status quo of research on machine learning (ML), including deep learning, in the rail industry. This study conducted a scientometric analysis and critical review of 640 papers selected from 12,675 web-crawled papers. The extensive and complex networks of topics, researchers, and countries were analyzed using the Louvain method, a co-occurrence keyword analysis, a degree centrality analysis, and other network analysis methods. The results indicate that the majority of studies of ML in the rail industry focused on maintenance activities and traffic management, and mainly targeted rolling stock, rails, and passengers. Overhead contact systems, including catenaries, are a high-demand objective for ML-based maintenance. Although analyses of tunnels and stations remain rare, passenger flow prediction, station air quality estimation, shield tunneling performance improvement, and ground settlement are areas of high importance. Geographically, China, the US, and the United Kingdom lead ML studies in the rail industry, and the level of collaboration is higher among European countries than among countries on other continents. Future challenges include ensuring the security and stability of ML, along with considering novel mindsets, the black-box effect, improvements in ML techniques, and resource overload when introducing ML technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces papers published within the issue which were presented at the 6th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) in Amherst, Massachusetts in May 2011, including one on state-owned enterprises (SOE) in China, another on the implications of the need to prevent major climate change for the developmental strategies of China and India and a paper on the influence of neoliberalism on the reform of emergency services in Great Britain.

Transnational political communication today is being reconfigured by digital technologies and global power transition. Authoritarian state actors such as China are increasingly active on global social media platforms such as Twitter to directly advance their preferred frames with foreign publics in Western democracies, most notably in what could be called Chinese Twiplomacy contesting narrative globally over contentious issues. This paper problematises such Twiplomacy from authoritarians to Western democracies as 'networked transnational frame contestation', arguing that the political and cultural distance between the sending and target countries, the networked affordance of social media, and the national prism of the target countries, all contribute importantly to the complexity of such frame contestation. Through a case study on China's Twiplomacy in contesting coronavirus narrative in the UK, this paper further provides empirical evidence on how 'networked transnational frame contestation' works between politically and culturally distant countries. Using a mixed-method approach combining social network analysis and discourse analysis, this study finds that China's emotion-evoking discursive strategy draws traction but the authoritarian nature of the highly centralised networkedness and that of its discursive strategy, together with the strong cultural discordance with British publics, lead to networked recontextualisation of its intended frames in Britain. British publics, heavily relying on British political elites and press for foreign affairs, invoke shared cultural reference to recontextualise Chinese frames into culturally resonant counterframes. This study proposes a paradigm of 'networkedness within cascades' to understand frame contestation between politically and culturally distant countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to examine the agile supply chain management practices adopted by UK clothing retailers in order to effectively manage the supply of innovative, high-margin, high-fashion content product offerings in a complex global environment. Design/methodology/approach — A case study approach was adopted examining the whole of the global retail fashion supply chain, from typical UK-based retailers through to their main production and logistics suppliers based in two low-cost locations, China and Romania. The cases of the UK retailers were followed by a study tour of China and Romania, where ten cases of fabric and finishing manufacturers, intermediaries and logistic providers were carried out. Findings — Many aspects of accepted risk management and agile practice, such as market sensitivity, postponement activities and collaborative information-sharing partnerships were apparent in the early product definition and the later product delivery stages of the supply chain. However, the responsibility for supply, including the key aspect of managing the complex supply network, was almost exclusively left to intermediaries located in low-cost countries. These intermediaries in the main could best achieve agile supply from a significantly underutilized low-cost country supply network through a traditional adversarial price and lead time auction sourcing process. Research limitations/implications — While the cases considered reflected what seemed to be a typical and widely adopted approach to managing such a supply chain, this may not, of course, be the only approach taken by organisations in the clothing industry. Originality/value — By examining a whole supply chain associated with agile supply in an important sector, the paper identifies the relative importance of some existing practices and brings into sharper focus those most relevant to this type of supply. The paper also identifies key elements of contemporary supply chain management practice, namely the growing use of global supply for innovative products and the essential and valuable role played by intermediaries in such supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-urbanism encapsulates a range of approaches to the management of urbanisation processes and environmental imperatives in contexts of rapid industrial and economic change. The paper focuses on two eco-urban initiatives in China and the UK over a temporal lens stretching from the mid-2000s to the early 2020s, in order to critically engage with the question of how eco-urban projects develop and often undergo radical changes over time, as well as being changed through significant ruptures, periods of stasis and fluidity in the actor-networks involved in project visions, financing and development. Our comparative approach identifies cross-cutting processes operative across two projects at different scales and in different techno-political contexts. The paper argues that longitudinal analysis is key to enabling a view of transitional trajectories as unfolding, and as a way of moving past oft-repeated assessments of specific projects according to a 'failure/success' binary. In order to do so, the paper considers eco-urban projects through a theoretical lens that views projects as unstable assemblages exhibiting change over time on the one hand, but that also recognises the dynamic resilience of geographical imaginations around eco-urban projects, that means that these projects endure (albeit often in different guises) over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of over-the-top (OTT) services has lately revolutionized the way people consume media content. These services have emerged as a significant disruptor in the media industry in recent years. With the advent of OTT platforms, various concerns have arisen over the censorship and regulation of content on these platforms. Accordingly, this paper has examined the current trends in censorship and regulation of OTT content through the perusal of various legal and regulatory frameworks in the United Kingdom, India, and China. It has probed into cases of censorship and examined various aspects of civil and political liberties. The analysis has revealed a persuasive connection between the degree of freedom of expression and creative freedom dispensed in each region. Lastly, the paper has provided recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders on balancing the need for freedom of expression and access to information with responsible content management and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper is a report of an ICSH review of policies and practices for internal quality control (IQC) policy for haematology cell counters among regulatory bodies, cell counter manufacturers and diagnostic laboratories. It includes a discussion of the study findings and links to separate ICSH guidance for such policies and practices. The application of internal quality control (IQC) methods is an essential pre‐requisite for all clinical laboratory testing including the blood count (Full Blood Count, FBC, or Complete Blood Count, CBC). Methods: The ICSH has gathered information regarding the current state of practice through review of published guidance from regulatory bodies, a questionnaire to six major cell counter manufacturers (Abbott Diagnostics, Beckman Coulter, Horiba Medical Diagnostic Instruments & Systems, Mindray Medical International, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics and Sysmex Corporation) and a survey issued to 191 diagnostic laboratories in four countries (China, Republic of Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom) on their IQC practice and approach to use of commercial IQC materials. Results: This has revealed diversity both in guidance and in practice around the world. There is diversity in guidance from regulatory organizations in regard to IQC methods each recommends, clinical levels to use and frequency to run commercial controls, and finally recommended sources of commercial controls. The diversity in practice among clinical laboratories spans the areas of IQC methods used, derivation of target values and action limits used with control materials, and frequency of running commercial controls materials. Conclusions: These findings and their implications for IQC Practice are discussed in this paper. They are used to inform a separate guidance document, which proposes a harmonized approach to address the issues faced by diagnostic laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions are increasingly moving from traditional education approaches to incorporate online and distance learning (ODL) models, and this represents a substantial educational challenge for many educators. One way to support this challenge is by providing appropriate professional development (PD) for the design of ODL. Based on models from the Open University, UK this paper contends that PD for the design of ODL should align learning design frameworks with constructivist and student-focused pedagogies to manage the change to the professional teaching identities of participants that designing ODL represents. Robust professional identities are important for mitigating anxiety, embedding lasting change and leveraging the benefits of ODL for institutions and students. In this study, the rationale, model, and strategies of the Learning Design and Course Creation Workshop, based on current literature and participant feedback gathered immediately after instances of the PD was completed in China, are described. Evidence and examples of impact gathered from a second instrument, gathered after implementation, is also provided, and discussed in this context. The findings and conclusions will be of interest to those tasked with providing PD to support educators faced with rapid educational change, particularly as a response to the global demand for the design of ODL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was aimed at comparing different formats of illustrations for children's books created by modern Chinese and Ukrainian artists. At the same time, it was not focused just on determining the leading format, but on identifying the attractiveness factors of each format. To this end, the study investigated children's illustration preferences drawing from the following three age groups: 5–6 years old (preschoolers), 7–8 years old (second‐graders), and 9–10 years old (fourth‐graders). According to the survey, children were most concerned with illustration colourfulness (this is true for paper and pop‐up books) and viewing convenience. There were no statistically significant differences found between Chinese and Ukrainian books in terms of these parameters. At the same time, Chinese e‐books appeared to outperform the Ukrainian texts in terms of feature management and illustration colourfulness. Publishers and artists of children's books can use these data for effective creative activity and making constructive decisions. At the same time, these findings may be of interest to parents, informing or guiding book selection for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

The practice of Corrective Feedback (CF), which is situated within a Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Paradigm, is currently positioned towards an accuracy-orientated delivery based on native speaker norms. This is despite the recognition in different areas of linguistic research that there is considerable variation in the way that English is spoken around the world. This paper argues that the epistemological assumptions and methodological approaches to investigate CF within an SLA paradigm have various underlying weaknesses that undermine research findings. These findings purport to provide support for an accuracy-orientated CF in the English classroom. However, it is suggested in this paper that a meaning-orientated CF would be more reflective and beneficial for students given the transformative changes that have occurred to English over the past 30 years. This perspective is discussed in relation to one teacher's approach to CF who participated in a larger project which examined CF conducted in a British-Sino University.

This paper explores the UK's future Indo-Pacific policy by looking into the newly published Integrated Review (IR) and comparing it with the French and German policy papers. The "Indo-Pacific tilt" is one of the most highlighted themes in the IR, but a reading of the review suggests that the UK remains Euro-Atlantic centered when it comes to defense and security policy. It is only after the internal and external security issues are addressed that the UK pursues its "global interest" through diplomacy and trade. Hence, while the geopolitical and economic importance of the Indo-Pacific is acknowledged, and the stance of the UK towards the region appears more ambitious and confident than that of France and Germany, it remains a question as to the degree to which the UK may commit to the Indo-Pacific. The UK defines China as a "systemic competitor" rather than a "threat," suggesting that while the challenges China poses may be comprehensive and profound, they are not taken as immediate and urgent. This designation is peculiar. On the one hand, it differs from the US policy, which sees China (and Russia) as threats to its national security. On the other hand, compared with the European counterparts, the UK is the only one that calls out China, expressing a stronger will to counter China when necessary. Therefore, it is suggested that the post-Brexit UK is likely to side with the US in the US-China-EU triangular relations. Being very much a middle power, however, the UK's space for maneuver is limited. It pledges to compete against China and seek the latter's cooperation simultaneously, but such a stance requires power and will that the country may be lacking. The deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Indo-Pacific, for instance, has been described as an expression of the UK's commitment to the rules-based international order. Yet Prime Minister Johnson's emphasis on not antagonizing anyone and the decision that the Carrier Strike Group will not sail through the Taiwan Strait indicates a concern about China and consequently difficulty implementing the "co-opetition" strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) and ergonomic risk factors are very common in bakery workers. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to (1) assess the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among bakers because they use automated machines or traditional baking, and (2) to determine the strategies to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in bakers. METHODS: A systematic review of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science was conducted from the beginning to February 4, 2022, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Mesh keywords and phrases were used to execute the search strategy. Information on MSDs and ergonomic risk factors in bakery workers was collected. Two reviewers worked independently on study selection, data extraction, and paper quality ranking. RESULTS: This study identified 14 papers from seven countries. Although the prevalence of MSDs in bakery workers has been studied, only a handful of them have been studied ergonomic risk factors, and the findings have been very limited. The association between different risk factors and MSDs seemed significant compared to many other occupational diseases. The traditional bread-baking system and lack of mechanization may increase the risk of MSDs in bakery workers. CONCLUSION: WRMSDs for bakery workers have been less studied than other occupational diseases. Our systematic review found several significant relations between the factors influencing the prevalence of MSDs. This study also showed the comparison of traditional and modern cooking systems with diseases of the upper limbs, shoulders, and back pain as possible fields for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Shar Pei is a common dog breed with a distinctive appearance caused by hyaluronosis that has been linked with several health conditions. Anonymised primary-care veterinary clinical records were explored to extract data on the demography, common disorders and mortality of Shar Pei in the UK in 2013. Results: The study population of 455,557 dogs included 1913 (0.42%) Shar Pei. The mean adult bodyweight was 22.26 kg. The most prevalent fine-level precision disorders were entropion (prevalence 17.88%, 95% CI: 16.16-19.59), otitis externa (16.36%, 95% CI: 14.70-18.02), ear disorders (6.69%, 95% CI: 5.57-7.81), aggression (5.23%, 95% CI: 4.23-6.22), and pyoderma (4.29%, 95% CI: 3.38-5.19). The most prevalent disorder groups were ophthalmologic (prevalence = 22.27%, 95% CI: 20.40-24.13), dermatological (21.01%, 95% CI: 19.19-22.84), aural (18.66%, 95% CI: 16.92-20.41), traumatic injury (7.53%, 95% CI: 6.35-8.71) and behavioural (7.21%, 95% CI: 6.05-8.37). The median longevity of 190 Shar Pei that died during the study period was 7.28 years (IQR 5.04-10.05, range 0.04-15.04). Of 184 deaths with a recorded method of death, 157 (85.33%) deaths involved euthanasia and 27 (14.67%) deaths were unassisted. Among 136 (71.58%) deaths with a recorded biomedical cause of death, the most common causes of death at group level precision were neoplasia (15.44%, 95% CI: 9.37-21.51), renal disorders (13.24%, 95% CI: 7.54-18.93), and behavioural disorders (11.03%, 95% CI: 5.76-16.29). Conclusions: Almost one fifth of Shar Pei receive veterinary care each year for entropion, a condition linked strongly with the extreme conformation of thickened and folded skin and bristly hair that characterises the Shar Pei breed. Several other common disorders are also linked to hyaluronosis. Current UK legislation can help support efforts to avoid breeding or acquiring animals with extreme conformations and to promote adequate veterinary care for already-owned animals with extreme conformations. Plain English summary: The Shar Pei dog breed is instantly recognisable by their copious loose folded skin and bristly coat, with Shar Pei translating from Chinese as 'sand paper skin'. Although originally a fighting, hunting and guarding dog in China, the Shar Pei breed was re-invented in the US as a companion animal in the late 1970s where a more wrinkled and heavy-set American 'meat mouth' variety replaced the traditional 'bone mouth' variety originally popular in China. However, the underlying disease of hyaluronosis that causes the characteristic extreme appearance of the Shar Pei has also been linked with several other health problems in the breed such as in-turned eyelids (entropion) and ear disease. Using anonymised veterinary clinical records collected within the VetCompass Programme at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), Shar Pei made up 0.4% of all dogs in the UK in 2013 and had an average adult bodyweight of 22 kg. The most common specific disorders diagnosed in Shar Pei were in-turned eyelids (17.88%), ear infection (16.36%), ear problems (6.69%), aggression (5.23%), and skin infection (4.29%). Among the 30 most common specific disorders, females were more likely to show in-turned eyelids and conjunctivitis, while males were more likely to show aggression and infected paws. Once the disorders were grouped, the most common disorder groups were eye disorders (22.27%), skin (21.01%), ear (18.66%), traumatic injury (7.53%), and behavioural (7.21%). The average lifespan of Shar Pei was 7.28 years. The most common causes of death were cancer (15.44%,), kidney disorders (13.24%), and behavioural disorders (11.03%). This study highlights that almost one fifth of the breed receive veterinary care each year for in-turned eyelids that can lead to extreme pain and are linked to the thickened and folded skin that humans find so appealing in this breed. Current UK legislation can help support concerted efforts from all animal welfare stakeholders to avoid breeding or acquiring animals with these and other extreme conformations and to promote adequate veterinary care for already-owned animals with extreme conformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did Britons view China in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? This paper presents new, detailed evidence of the negative and worsening perceptions of China in the UK across three domains: public opinion (based on survey data collected in autumn 2020), political elites in parliament, and the media. The worsening of perceptions of China emerged in the context of a changing and more contested China policy from the UK government and a greater level of public debate about China, partly a consequence of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper places analysis of these perceptions in the context of the development of relations between the UK and China. Together with deteriorating Chinese views of the UK's China policy and controversy over a number of developments in China, widespread negative views about China among the British public and in political circles will constrain UK-China relations from developing in a more positive direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing and sorting out the content of new media reports in Britain, the United States and South Korea, the differences in terms of words in different fields in the three countries are compared and studied, and the characteristics of foreign new media accounts about China are summarized. The method adopted in this paper is to sort out and summarize the content reported by the mainstream media in the three countries, and the data source is webpage news or the papers of relevant scholars on CNKI. Through the research, it is found that in recent years, the proportion of economic issues in the three countries has been rising, which has also attracted the attention of relevant countries, which means that the content innovation of news reports is imperative in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The world is facing the challenge of increasing grain production and improving the environment, in which the treatment of diffuse water pollution from agriculture is the important content. Traditional administrative means are still unable to solve the problem of market failure and government failure in controlling water pollution. Economic policy instruments have more advantages in improving market economics and reducing the cost of environmental governance and supervision. They have become an important way to solve pollution and promote the transformation of water pollution prevention and control management. This paper puts forward suggestions and countermeasures for improving China's economic policy instruments by systematically sorting out and analyzing the EPIs in China and the UK. Starting from the whole process of agricultural production, China's water quality governance needs to follow three principles to innovate and comprehensively utilize economic policy instruments. A transparent multi-party information sharing and an efficient supervision system are invisible to water quality governance. China also needs to continue to deepen reforms and pilot projects, especially in terms of governance objectives, public welfare funds, water prices, tradable water rights, and emission rights. This paper could also provide a reference for water pollution control in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently, public-private partnerships (PPPs), with the private sector's investment and ingenuity, would appear to be an increasingly popular alternative. Value for money (VfM) has become the major criterion for evaluating PPPs against the traditional public sector procurement and, however, is plagued with controversy. Hence, it is important that governments compare and contrast their practice with similar and disparate bodies to engender best practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand governments' assessment context and provide a cross-continental comparison of their VfM assessment. Design/methodology/approach: Faced with different domestic contexts (e.g. aging infrastructure, population growth, and competing demands on finance), governments tend to place different emphases when undertaking the VfM assessment. In line with the theory of boundary spanning, a cross-continental comparison is conducted between three of the most noticeable PPP markets (i.e. the United Kingdom, Australia and China) about their VfM assessment. The institutional level is interpreted by a social, economic and political framework, and the methodological level is elucidated through a qualitative and quantitative VfM assessment. Findings: There are individual institutional characteristics that have shaped the way each country assesses VfM. For the methodological level, we identify that: (1) these global markets use a public sector comparator as the benchmark in VfM assessment; (2) ambiguous qualitative assessment is conducted only against PPPs to strengthen their policy development; (3) Australia's priority is in service provision whereas that of the UK and China is project finance and production; and (4) all markets are seeking an amelioration of existing controversial VfM assessments so that purported VfM relates to project lifecycles. As such, an option framework is proposed to make headway towards a sensible selection of infrastructure procurement approaches in the post COVID-19 era. Originality/value: This study addresses a current void of enhancing the decision-making process for using PPPs within today's changing environment and then opens up an avenue for future empirical research to examine the option framework and ensuing VfM decisions. Practically, it presents a holistic VfM landscape for public sector procurers that aim to engage with PPPs for their infrastructure interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain and China have experienced periods of rapid population growth and inadequate housing construction. Social housing is a form of housing tenure easing the housing pressure. It solves residential demands of different living patterns in middle to low income groups. The sustainable strategy lies in three aspects:1. Making utmost use of the local natural environment; 2. Providing reasonable public space and suitable traffic to revitalize community awareness; and 3. The holistic design of multiple dwelling units for different people and long-term needs. This paper shows two projects – Park Hill in Sheffield, UK and Longnan Garden in Shanghai – as precedents of how to design social housing with sustainable approaches by following the local natural characteristics, by respecting traditions and the different demands of residents and the long-term housing usage. UP TO HERE Compared with China’s 20-year social housing development, that in Britain has a long history and presents complicated multiplicities, could provide significant references. This paper shows that such communities could be design in steps: using the organic gallery apartment building layout, the special corridor system connecting the public function to neighborhoods, SI House theories optimizing the hostile design of dwelling units and components. During the design, the local nature and tradition should be respected. Specifically, the Park Hill is built up along the sloping field, four types of apartment units are based on the traditional terraced house, designed holistically for different families; the deck, which is called “street in the sky”, is not only the traffic but also the active place promoting public and neighborhoods relationships; the renovation design retains the former structure and makes the maximization of indoor flexibility. Longnan Garden is surrounded by existing resident districts; the organic planning based on the traditional courtyards ensures the enough sunlight and river views in the community; the community environment is improved by the courtyards, which include the ground area and roof gardens; elevated corridors run through courtyards connecting common rooms on the second floor; the 7.6-meter-height skeleton is innovated from SI housing and the experience of European social housing. The paper summarizes the development tendency of social housing and provides reference for future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acknowledging the extreme risk COVID-19 poses to humans, this paper attempted to analyze and compare case fatality rates, identify the existence of learning curves for COVID-19 medical treatments, and examine the impact of vaccination on fatality rate reduction. Confirmed cases and deaths were extracted from the "Daily Situation Report" provided by the World Health Organization. The results showed that low registration and low viral test rates resulted in low fatality rates, and the learning curve was significant for all countries except China. Treatment for COVID-19 can be improved through repeated experience. Vaccinations in the U.K. and U.S.A. are highly effective in reducing fatality rates, but not in other countries. The positive impact of vaccines may be attributed to higher vaccination rates. In addition to China, this study identified the existence of learning curves for the medical treatment of COVID-19 that can explain the effect of vaccination rates on fatalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on my PhD thesis about the production culture of Chinese entertainment. I will discuss the challenges I faced during my fieldwork in China and will reflect on a general level on how to access this non-western field for doing media ethnography. As a UK-based university researcher, doing ethnography in my own country, China, this brought me particular challenges. Some ethical guidelines in the UK were not applicable to issues concerning consent. Regarding this inapplicability, Chinese scholar Suiming Pan questioned the application of Western guidelines in a Chinese context: as sociology in China lacks local theories, should Chinese researchers apply Western theories in China or invent new theories based on phenomena that have never occurred in the West? By the same token, how should Chinese researchers adapt Western ethics guidelines? This paper aims to discuss these questions in the Chinese context -- how I had to be flexible with guidelines while upholding academic standards. Since gaining access to Chinese media remains challenging, many compromises were made during the interactions with television production teams, gatekeepers and colleagues in the field. Furthermore, I encountered problems during my interviews with creative workers. Lastly, I will illustrate how I built relationships with people in the field and how I handled my identity crisis as an ethnographer in my own culture, hoping that my research experience can shed light on future ethnographic works in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a description of the ICSH guidance for internal quality control (IQC) policy for blood cell counters. It follows from and links to a separate ICSH review for such policies and practices. The ICSH has gathered information regarding the current state of practice through review of published guidance from regulatory bodies, a questionnaire to six major cell counter manufacturers and a survey issued to 191 diagnostic laboratories in four countries (China, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom) on their IQC practice and approach to the use of commercial IQC materials. This has revealed diversity both in guidance and in practice around the world. There is diversity in guidance from regulatory organizations in regard to IQC methods each recommends, clinical levels to use and frequency to run commercial controls, and finally recommended sources of commercial control materials. The diversity in practice among clinical laboratories spans the areas of IQC methods used, derivation of target values, and action limits used with commercial control materials, and frequency of running commercial controls materials. These findings and their implications for IQC Practice are addressed in this guidance document, which proposes a harmonized approach to address the issues faced by diagnostic laboratories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]