Conservation of urban historic districts in China : present models of integration and utilization of historic resources and challenges for authenticity

Chinese urban historic districts retain abundant urban traditional features, local characteristics and historic architecture. They not only gather and display urban cultural heritage but extend and develop urban historic culture and social traditions. In 1964 the “Venice Charter” expanded the concept and scope of historical and cultural heritage conservation from individual building heritage, historical sites comprising heritage buildings and historical environments to whole historic districts. At the same time, authenticity was adopted as a principle of heritage conservation. In 1994 the Nara Document on Authenticity confirmed that authenticity is of great importance to the conservation of cultural heritage. In 2003, “The Hoi An Declaration on Conservation of Historic Districts of Asia” reinforced the significance, integrity and authenticity of historic district conservation. In China, with the accelerated urbanization process and improved living conditions of urban residents, the unique values and historic and cultural heritage of historic districts is being destroyed. Considerable historic and cultural heritage has been reconstructed, leading to the loss of authenticity of these historic districts. This paper provides an overview of the Chinese situation. It highlights the problems and demonstrates a clear need to protect the authenticity of these historic districts. Authenticty is evaluated against various Chinese conservation of historic districts having regard to international experience and methods. As a result, it will be demonstrated that conservation modes of authenticity of urban historic districts in China and historic resources should be employed to ensure: 1) the restoration and conservation of historic architecture; 2) the preservation and renovation of old spaces and structures; 3) the integration and coordination of historic and new buildings; and the 4) the continuation and succession of historic culture and local tradition.

Suzhi development: Indigenous approaches to enhancing the quality of human resources

Purpose- This paper aims to examine the Chinese indigenous concept of suzhi ((ProQuest: Non US-ASCII text omitted)) by analyzing its historical evolution and its contemporary implications for human resource management (HRM) research and practice at the national and organizational levels.Design/methodology/approach- An integrated review of literatures in sinology, political science, anthropology and sociology concerned with suzhi-related research, combined with recent incidents associated with suzhi.Findings-Suzhi is an indigenous concept embedded in the centuries-long historical context of China.Suzhi development has been focused on three key dimensions, moral, physical and mental, as a way of building quality employees and citizens. Yet developing and quantifying the moral aspects ofsuzhi is more challenging than measuring its physical and mental dimensions. Linkingsuzhi development to human capital theory enriches the understanding of this indigenous concept at both organizational and national levels.Research limitations/implications- By analyzing a three-dimensionalsuzhi composite, the article offers an example of howsuzhi may be linked to human capital theory and identifies directions for future research.Originality/value- By analyzingsuzhi at organizational and national levels for HRM purposes, this article broadens thesuzhi literature from its place in the political sciences and social anthropology to encompass a theoretical analysis in HRM and development for the benefit of organizations and the society.

Study of phase transformation and work hardening phenomenon during drilling of Ti-5553 and Ti-64

Titanium 5553 is a recently developed modification of Russian near-β titanium alloy VT-22 which has applications and potential particularly in the aerospace industry for such key components as landing gear. However, indications are that Ti-5553 has poorer machinability characteristics than other Ti alloys and a comprehensive and far-reaching analysis is a necessary research imperative. This paper presents the result of phase transformation and work hardening during drilling of Ti-5553 compared with Ti-64. The aim of this research work is to optimise the machining condition for Ti-5553, in which the β to a phase transformation, together with material work hardening could be fully understood. Analysis of machinability indicators, such as subsurface micrograph and hardness of drilled samples and drilling forces and torques, demonstrated that Ti-5553 generally has poorer machinability characteristics than Ti-64 and to some extent this variation has been quantified to allow for further and more detailed investigation.

ABC news 24: a study of limited resources and challenging newsgathering

This was a refereed abstract for an international conference. The paper analyses the content of the 24 hour news cycle of the ABC News 24 station.

ABC news 24 and BBC world : a study of limited resources and challenging newsgathering

ABC Australia’s News 24 website proclaims: "ABC News 24 provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break at home and abroad. It’s news when you want it, on your platform - TV, mobile and online." In this article, the stations content is analysed across 24 hours of its programming and compared with the same 24 hours of programming from BBC World. The content is tested for four key values: range of stories; coverage of the big stories; competence in going live to breaking stories; and ability to add value through analysis, debate and context. The examination of the data against these four key values enables an analysis of the nature of the service and assists in assessing whether or not it is providing an enriched and different offering in a busy 24/7 media landscape.

Robotic object grasping in context of human grasping and manipulation

This paper presents experimental and deductive findings that shed new light on grasp force estimation, which improves robot’s chances to grasp and manipulate the object close to optimum conditions on the first attempt, which in turn improves robot’s object manipulation dexterity.
This paper proposes that object slippage detection in the human hand is not detected based purely on microvibrations sensed by the human skin during incipient slippage but also on load sensing at each finger and movement of fingers relative to each other while holding an object.

The local power of the CADF and CIPS panel unit root tests

Very little is known about the local power of second generation panel unit root tests that are robust to cross-section dependence. This article derives the local asymptotic power functions of the cross-section argumented Dickey–Fuller Cross-section Augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) and CIPS tests of Pesaran (2007), which are among the most popular tests around.

Lapsed prospecting rights : "the custodian giveth and the custodian taketh away"? Palala Resources (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy

The decision in Palala Resources (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy & others 2014 (6) SA 403 (GP) (‘Palala Resources’) brings clarity about the lapsing of a company’s prospecting right in terms of s 56(c) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (‘the MPRDA’) upon deregistration of the company, and highlights some of the features of a statutory prospecting right. Section 56(c) determines that a company’s prospecting right will lapse upon deregistration of the company if no prior application has been made, in terms of s 11(1) of the MPRDA, to the Director-General of the Department of Mineral Resources for consent to alienate or transfer the right (item 1 of the Ministerial delegation of 12 May 2004). The principles underlying the decision could also be applied to mining rights granted in terms of the MPRDA. By way of introduction, these rights are briefly sketched before the decision will be set out and discussed. It will be argued that the case shows that despite the public law nature of the MPRDA, there is the need for a proper private-law analysis of these statutory rights.

Restorative justice and the human rights of offenders : convergences and divergences

Restorative justice has gained significant momentum as a justice reform movement within the past three decades, and it is estimated that up to one hundred countries worldwide utilize restorative justice practices. Although claims about the role of restorative justice in protecting human rights are repeatedly made in the restorative justice literature, they are seldom supported by empirical evidence or a thorough analysis of human rights and their justification. In this paper, we discuss how the assumptions underpinning restorative justice practices impact on offenders' human rights, and their points of convergence and divergence. We argue that while these assumptions can protect certain offender rights, they may violate others. We finish with some suggestions about how to reconcile the tensions between human rights and restorative justice, focusing in particular on the relationship between community needs and individual well-being.

Professionalisation and public relations : an ethical mismatch

This paper explores the ethical culture in which contemporary public relations practitioners’ work and how it relates to the professionalisation of the domain. Focusing on the international umbrella public relations institution Global Alliance (GA) and other important industry bodies such as the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRINZ), we study how the ‘work’ of a public relations practitioner is described, and as a corollary, what professional and ethical standards are promoted. Our analysis draws on theories of professions (Abbott 1988; Anderson and Schudson 2009; Volti 2008) and narrative (Surma 2004, Herman 2009), and argues that key elements of professionalisation in public relations contribute to a normative culture which is potentially at odds with notions of ethical communication. We suggest public relations needs to engage more rigorously with professional values to develop, effectively, ethical practice and be normatively aligned with other professions.