Social capital for knowledge management : the case of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific Region

This article proposes a conceptual framework that explains that the social capital of a community shapes the innovation performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through knowledge management within the firm. The study's significance stems from the unprecedented effort in explaining how community social capital matters in the innovation performance of SMEs, a departure from previous studies that have typically examined market-related or hierarchical social capital in the form of formal networks and directly linked them to a firm's innovation performance without due regard for knowledge management within the firm as an antecedent of organisational innovation performance. The aim is to stimulate further thinking and empirical research on the subject of social capital of a community in the SME and/or entrepreneurial context.

Foreign direct investment in the Asia-Pacific region : overview of recent trends and patterns

APEC represents the world's most powerful economies. Although much trade related research has been undertaken on APEC countries, investment in the region is still not well understood. This paper provides an overview of FDI of selected APEC economies. Three main themes emerge from this review. First, APEC economies have experienced phenomenal growth in FDI over the last twenty years although such growth is uneven among countries. Second, FDI appears to shift from the primary sector into the manufacturing and tertiary sectors of the economy as economies grow further. Thus, future FDI in APEC economies will likely be relatively higher in the tertiary sector as the poorer members of APEC continue to grow. Third, FDI is found to contribute positively to economic growth in all economies considered although results show that FDI in the tertiary sector generally leads to higher economic growth.

Youth, media and culture in the Asia Pacific region

Youth, Media and Culture in the Asia Pacific Region presents an analysis of youth media activities in a diverse, but geographically connected Asia Pacific region. The region, which is spatially connected by its colonial and imperial past, is becoming a significant player in the globalized world. In this context, youth situated in these economically, politically and socially structured communities are redefining their locales through their patterns of media use. The discourse of ‘youth’ in this disparate region is manifest in the media through their identity articulations and social activism. The book illustrates that these ‘youth subcultures’ in the Asia Pacific are part of the well marketed global consumerism culture, and yet at other times independent of the commodifying impetus of global capital. It draws on case studies to examine some of the media practices youth in the region are engaged in and elucidates the process of social change taking place in some Asia Pacific nations.

'This book contributes to the important and growing field of youth media studies. The regionalization of media research is necessarily recuperated here, bringing large populations of media users into a frame of reference that allows critical reflection on the new waves of use and sociality in the Asia Pacific region.'

Lessons in aiding journalism and democracy: a study of Australian educators working in the Asia Pacific region

 This paper examines assumptions about democracy and the role of media held by journalism educators working outside Australia, and the extent to which those assumptions influence teaching styles, regardless of the maturity of the political systems in the nations in question. This paper looks at the work emerging from academics Beate Josephi, Barbie Zelizer, John Nerone, Cherian George and Silvio Waisbord, who argue in Journalism (2012) that there needs to be a change to the understanding by journalism scholars of the central place of journalism in democracy because that view is not global in its perspective. This paper specifically considers Zelizer’s point that “much of the scholarly world in the West – and specifically in the United States – depends directly or indirectly on the presumption of democracy and its accoutrements”. The researcher asks, “what can we learn about our Australian perspective on teaching journalism in the developing world where there may not, yet, be an operating democracy or a form of democracy that replicates the Western liberal model?”

'Against the tide': Australian government attitudes to decolonisation in the South Pacific, 1962-1972

This article is a study of the attitudes of Australian government ministers and officials towards the decolonisation of the Pacific island colonial territories in the decade from 1962 to 1972. It argues that the Australian state was very slow to recognise and understand that the winds of change would also sweep through the South Pacific and see the emergence of many new island nations by 1980.

Epidemiological aspects of astrovirus and coronavirus in poults in the South Eastern Region of Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Molecular characterisation of Cryptosporidium spp. in lambs in the south central region of the State of São Paulo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Triatominae survey (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) in the south-central region of the state of Bahia, Brazil between 2008 and 2013

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Nd and Sr isotope compositions, REE concentrations and Al/Ca ratios of different phases of surface sediments in the South Pacific

The radiogenic isotope composition of neodymium (Nd) and strontium (Sr) are useful tools to investigate present and past oceanic circulation or input of terrigenous material. We present Nd and Sr isotope compositions extracted from different sedimentary phases, including early diagenetic Fe-Mn coatings, "unclean" foraminiferal shells, fossil fish teeth, and detritus of marine surface sediments (core-tops) covering the entire midlatitude South Pacific. Comparison of detrital Nd isotope compositions to deep water values from the same locations suggests that "boundary exchange" has little influence on the Nd isotope composition of western South Pacific seawater. Concentrations of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and Al/Ca ratios of "unclean" planktonic foraminifera suggest that this phase is a reliable recorder of seawater Nd isotope composition. The signatures obtained from fish teeth and "nondecarbonated" leachates of bulk sediment Fe-Mn oxyhydroxide coatings also agree with "unclean" foraminifera. Direct comparison of Nd isotope compositions extracted using these methods with seawater Nd isotope compositions is complicated by the low accumulation rates yielding radiocarbon ages of up to 24 kyr, thus mixing the signal of different ocean circulation modes. This suggests that different past seawater Nd isotope compositions have been integrated in authigenic sediments from regions with low sedimentation rates. Combined detrital Nd and Sr isotope signatures indicate a dominant role of the Westerly winds transporting lithogenic material from South New Zealand and Southeastern Australia to the open South Pacific. The proportion of this material decreases toward the east, where supply from the Andes increases and contributions from Antarctica cannot be ruled out.