A survey study of voting behavior and political participation in Zhejiang

Two existing models are used to conceptualize the constrained and limited participation in the communist system. The mobilization model suggests that participation was so mobilized by the party/state that it was largely meaningless, while the disengagement model supports the idea that many communist citizens adopted non-participatory behaviors such as non-voting as a means of protest. This paper attempts to demonstrate the importance of a third model – the emergent democratic culture model. The survey results show that the participation index is in proportion to the number of elections in which a villager is involved; and a growing number of voters in Zhejiang are developing citizen-initiated participation, with rights consciousness.

This research finds that the level of participation is influenced by three major factors: the perceived worth of the election itself, regularity of electoral procedures, and the fairness of electoral procedures. It also finds that parochial political culture and political apathy still exist, and the emergent democratic consciousness falls short of an ideal democratic standard. While a highly democratic culture helps to develop village democracy, the apathetic attitude continues to support the authoritarian leadership and structure in many villages. The paper also gives an account of survey research in rural China and offers a thoughtful critique of the use of voting and non-voting as the sole indicator of political participation.

Village citizenship in China : a case study of Zhejiang

This paper aims to examine the idea and practice, as well as the implications, of village citizenship in China. It spells out the context and content of village citizenship, describes struggles for village status, and addresses the puzzling questions of why and how villagers seek to retain this status. It further examines the logic of how such struggles are leading to the establishment and improvement of village democratic institutions. The paradoxes and problems associated with village citizenship, and the significance of village citizenship for achieving meaningful citizenship are also explored.

Guadalupian (Middle Permian) brachiopods from Sungai Toh, a Leptodus Shale locality in the Central Belt of Peninsular Malaysia. Part I: Lower Horizons

This work presents a systematic study of Permian Brachiopoda from the Sungai Toh Leptodus Shale locality, Pahang State, Peninsular Malaysia. This locality lies within the Central Belt of Peninsular Malaysia, a tectonic unit characterised.by tuffaceous sediments and limestones of Late Palaeozoic age. Two brachiopod-bearing horizons were studied in detail at this locality, the lower one (Horizon 2) bearing a mixed plant and invertebrate assemblage, including the brachiopods Urushtenoidea chaoi (CHING), Leptodus richthofeni KAYSER, Anidanthus cf. sinosus HUANG, Acosarina dorashamensis (SOKOLSKAJA), A. minuta (ABleH) and unidentifiable species of Linoproduetus, Neochonetes, and Strophalosiina. Horizon 3 contains a more abundant and diverse brachiopod fauna, comprising a total. of 57 species representing 47 genera, including Vediproductus punetatiformis (CHAO), Permianella typica HE & ZHU, Tranrennatia gratiosa (WAAGEN), Leptodus richthofeni KAYSER, Leptodus cf. tenuis (WAAGEN) and "Semibrachythyrina" [= Alphaneospirifer] cf. pyramidiformis LIANG. It is
suggested in this study that the age of the Sungai Toh locality is Capitanian (late Guadalupian) to possibly Wuchiapingian (early Lopingian),
as it appears to correlate well with the Lengwu fauna from Zhejiang in eastern China. The palaeobiogeographical affinities of the Sungai Toh fauna are interesting, mainly indicating strong Palaeo-equatorial affinities, while there are also some elements more typical of the cooler periGondwana
Region.

TiNi shape memory alloy foams synthesized by spacer sintering and their properties

Titanium (Ti) and nickel (Ni) elemental powders were blened by ball milling and the ball milled powders were employed to fabricate NiNi shape memory alloy (SMA) foams by space sintering. Effect of ball milling time on phase constitutes of the sintered TiNi alloy foams was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.Scanning election microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the porous structure, and compressive tests were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties of the foams. Results indicate the porosities of the TiNi alloy foams can be controlled by using the spacer sincering method, and the porosities show a significant effect on the mechanical prperties and shape memory effect (SME).

Seasonal variations of lipid content and composition in perna viridis

The total lipid content, composition of main lipid classes, composition of sterols and composition of fatty acids in the main glycerolipids of Perna viridis were analyzed through four seasons using TLC-FID and GLC. Mussel samples were collected during different seasons between 2003 and 2004 from Shengsi Island, Zhejiang Province, China and stored frozen prior to freeze-drying and lipid extraction. Ten grams of dried mussel powder of each season were analyzed. Total lipid content ranged from 14.5 g/100 g in spring month to 7.8 g/100 g dried mussel powder in autumn month. The predominant lipid in spring month was triacylglycerol (TAG), however, in the other three seasons the phospholipids (PL) was the main lipid class. The most abundant fatty acid in TAG, PL and phosphatidylcholine (PC) was 16:0, with the summer samples having the highest proportion (24-30% of total fatty acid) and winter the lowest (14-22%). In phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), the spring samples had the highest proportions of 16:0. The predominant polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were 22:6n-3 and 20:5n-3 in TAG, PL, PE and PC (25-40%). The proportions of 22:6n-3 and 20:5n-3 were higher in spring than in other seasons in PL and PE. There were nine sterols identified, with cholesterol being the predominant sterol, and other main ones were desmostersol/brassicasterol and 24-methylenecholesterol. Proportions of other fatty acids in different lipid fractions and the sterol compositions as well also varied seasonally. There were subject to the seasonal variations. Differences in lipid content and composition, fatty acid composition in different lipid fractions may be caused by multiple factors such as lifecycle, sex, variation of plankton in different seasons and temperature, which could influence physiological activities and metabolism.

Understanding the factors contributing to inter-partner trust in joint ventures

Forming an international joint venture (IJV) with a local (Chinese) partner is one of the popular ways available for an overseas investor to enter into small and medium business sectors in China. A joint venture is commonly viewed as a cooperative, rather than a competitive, business relationship between two or more partners. Interpartner trust is widely acknowledged as a key prerequisite for genuine cooperation between joint venture partners. Although the importance of trust in the context of joint ventures is well recognized, the question of how interpartner trust is formed has received only scant attention in academic as well as professional literatures. Drawing from diverse academic literature bearing on the formation of trust between partner firms, this paper explores the factors that may contribute to inter-partner trust in the context of joint ventures. The primary argument in this paper is that trust between IJV partners is determined by observable and objective social, economic and structural factors. In other words, it is argued that interpartner trust is rational and it does not require a 'leap of faith'.

An image retrieval system based on fractal dimension

This paper presents a new kind of image retrieval system which obtains the feature vectors of images by estimating their fractal dimension; and at the same time establishes a tree-structure image database. After preprocessing and feature extracting, a given image is matched with the standard images in the image database using a hierarchical method of image indexing.

Needleless-electrospinning of PVA nanofibres

In this paper, we demonstrated that a thin metal disk can be used as nozzle to electrospin PVA nanofibres on a large-scale. With the rotation of a disk covered with a thin layer of electrically charged PVA solution, a large number of fibres were electrospun simultaneously from two sides of the disk and deposited on the electrode collector. The fibre production rate can be as high as 6.0 glhr, which is about 270 times higher than that of a corresponding normal needle based electrospinning system (0.022 g/hr). The effects of applied voltage, the distance between the disk nozzle and collector, and PVA concentration on the fibre morphology were examined. The dependency of fibre diameter on the PV A concentration showed a similar trend to that for a conventional electrospinning system using a syringe needle nozzle, but the diameter distribution was slightly wider for the disk electrospun fibres. The profiles of electric field strength in disk electrospinning showed considerable dependence on the disk thickness, with a thin disk exhibiting similar electric field strength profile to that of a needle electrospinning system.

Tensile behaviour of wool fabric as a function of fabric pH

Wool fabric extensibility under a 5 N/cm load was observed to be greatest at the wool isoelectric point of pH 4.8 and lower at both pH 2.1 and pH 7.2. The impact of pH on fabric extensibility is similar to the variation in fabric hygral expansion previously observed. Fabric stress-strain curves at different pHs show that for a given fabric extension level, the work required to stretch a fabric was less at pH 2.1 than at pH 4.8. These results confirm the fact that the strength of wool fabric is at a maximum when the pH of the fibres is close to the isoelectric point.

Photochromic coloration of wool fabric

A method has been developed for producing photochromic wool fabric by applying a layer of hybrid silica containing a photochromic dye onto wool fibres. A number of different hybrid silicas were prepared by the sol-gel technique involving co-hydrolysis and co-condensation of alkyltrialkoxysilanes together with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane. With the dye Photorome II, it was possible to obtain a photo chromic coating which showed fast optical response. The coating had only a slight effect on the fabric handle. The durability of the coating appeared to be acceptable, at least for fashion wear.

Thermal and chemical properties of wool powders

Wool powders with different particle sizes were examined in terms of their crystal structures, thermal properties, surface chemical compositions and moisture regains. It was found that the crystallinity of wool powders was increased, and the moisture regains were decreased as the particle sizes of wool powders were reduced. For comparison, the properties of activated charcoal were also investigated. The higher dye uptake of activated charcoal at pH 10. compared to that of wool powder, could be due to its greater surface area and porous structure.

Recent developments in electrospinning of nanofibers and nanofiber yarns

Electropsipinning is a simple, but efficient and versatile, technology to produce polymeric nanofibers for diverse applications in both textile and non-textile areas. In this paper, recent research developments in electrospinning and electrospun nanofibers, especially thaose from the Centre for Material and Fiber Innovation, Deakin University, are introduced. Important findings on needleless mass-electrospinning and direct electrospinning of highly-twisted continuous manfiber yarns are presented.