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The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility that an ontological approach can be applied to formalize the construction regulation constraint knowledge in a computer-interpretable way, for construction quality checking, during construction stage.

The ontological and semantic web technologies are used to model the construction quality constraints knowledge into Axioms/OWL and SWRL rules. Protégé platform is selected to illustrate how the construction quality checking, based on the Axioms/OWL and SWRL rules, is achieved.

The ontology and semantic web technologies can be an alternative way for modeling the construction regulation constraints in a computer-interpretable way, and can be implemented for the regulation-based construction quality checking.

The approach is illustrated only with given specific technical constraints examples, the generality and practicality of the approach need further investigation.

The paper introduces an ontological and semantic approach to model and formalize the construction regulation constraints for construction quality checking, and proves the feasibility by the case studies. The proposed approach enables the regulations can be understood and retrieved semantically by computers, which facilitates the using of regulation codes.

In modern China, sports and nationalism always have close connection, and nationalism is the important reason for the promotion of Chinese sports. However, the relationship between Chinese sports and nationalism in globalised China could be much more examined by academics, as well as its influencing factors. This chapter selects the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the context and representative three Chinese sports heroes in the period of globalisation to study. The findings show that in some extent, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and three Chinese sports heroes represent the national image of China in the globalised world, also bearing the burden of washing away historical humiliation and pursuing national glory. Furthermore, it is manifested that China have a complex nationalism in the process of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. Under the influence of mass media, market economy and sports professionalisation, nationalism still exists in Chinese sports, but people gradually start to reflect on the ‘Juguo Tizhi’, the traditional Chinese sports system and the concept of ‘winning glory for the nation’. The relationship between Chinese nationalism and sports shows the important implications of rapid Chinese sports development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for fair trade coffee given different amount of product information. Although coffee is becoming more popular in China, the concept of fair trade is often found unfamiliar to most Chinese consumers.

A total of 564 consumers were interviewed in Hubei, China. The key survey question asked consumers’ willingness to purchase a cup of fair trade coffee compared to a traditional cup of coffee. A modified payment card approach was used to elicit WTP. Before answering the purchase question, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three different information scenarios: basic definition, impact on sustainability and the environment, and information including both environmental and social implications.

Results indicated that consumers were generally willing to pay additional amount for fair trade coffee. Information played an important role in determining what types of consumers were responsive to fair trade coffee. Furthermore, the amount of information provided and consumer WTP did not follow a linear relationship.

Results obtained in this study are useful for coffee marketers to better target their promotion strategies.

In contrast to China's fast growing coffee market, little is known about consumer preferences and far less on fair trade coffee. This study is the first of its kind to understand Chinese consumers’ preferences for coffee in general and for fair trade coffee in specific.

Forecasts of commodity prices are vital issues to market participants and policy makers. Those of corn are of no exception, considering its strategic importance. In the present study, the authors assess the forecast problem for the weekly wholesale price index of yellow corn in China during January 1, 2010–January 10, 2020 period.

The authors employ the nonlinear auto-regressive neural network as the forecast tool and evaluate forecast performance of different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data splitting ratios in arriving at the final model.

The final model is relatively simple and leads to accurate and stable results. Particularly, it generates relative root mean square errors of 1.05%, 1.08% and 1.03% for training, validation and testing, respectively.

Through the analysis, the study shows usefulness of the neural network technique for commodity price forecasts. The results might serve as technical forecasts on a standalone basis or be combined with other fundamental forecasts for perspectives of price trends and corresponding policy analysis.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the research on the influence of tech-innovation behavior on tech-innovation performance for Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Environmental performance has been taken into consideration with the green manufacturing and sustainability philosophy being a hotspot.

To verify the hypotheses and assumptions, a questionnaire was designed and a semi-structured interview was conducted for data collection. In addition, structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to verify the influence model through assessing the fitting indexes based on the 317 questionnaire responses in the form of Likert-type scale.

Tech-innovation behavior and activity from direction, mode and investment behavior dimensions show their different positive influences on tech-innovation performance. This paper has creatively taken environmental tech-innovation performance into consideration, as well as economic performance. This investigation has provided the interpretation for each individual enterprise from three dimensions when conducting tech-innovation activity.

Tech-innovation behavior, which has been a subject of extended discussion during recent decades, is the effective activity or action for tech-innovation. However, there have not been any studies on the environmental performance influence study, as well as the economic performance from these three dimensions and framework.

As this paper discusses the tech-innovation performance influence study from three dimensions, individual enterprises can choose the corresponding action for the proper tech-innovation path, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

This study helps managers recognize tech-innovation activities for better tech-innovation performance based on the empirical study.

China's agricultural production trusteeship is characterized by the organic link between household operation of small-scale peasant economy and agricultural socialized services, which releases agricultural development vitality and promotes agricultural modernization. As one of the agricultural production trusteeship modes, the whole process trusteeship is suitable for the actual situation of China's aging population and labor force transfer. This paper aims to construct an evolutionary game model containing multistakeholder to explore the behavior decisions through numerical simulation and to provide useful suggestions for the formation of a positive and stable trusteeship relationship and the sound development of the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production.

The paper incorporates village committees, service organizations and farmers into the same research framework, selects “guarantee + dividends” as the income distribution method and applies the evolutionary game method to analyze behavioral choices and evolutionary paths of stakeholders. By constructing the expectation function, establishing the replicator dynamic equations and analyzing the tripartite evolutionary stability strategy, the authors explore the factors that affect the stakeholders’ strategy choice and determine asymptotically stable points and stability conditions.

(1) There is a game relationship among village committees, farmers and service organizations in the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production, asymptotically stable points (0,0,1) and (1,1,1) are obtained through calculation. (2) The proportion of stakeholders' strategy choice, the weight of the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production in the performance appraisal of the village committee, the village committee's supervision cost, the village committee's reputation effect and the penalty for false dividends of the service organization will affect the speed at which the curve representing the tripartite relationship approaches two asymptotically stable points.

The countermeasures proposed in the paper have excellent reference value. (1) For areas that have realized the project: Village committees can solve the trusteeship problems exposed in the initial areas and improve farmers' satisfaction with the project. (2) For areas that have not realized the project: Those regions will receive more experience references and enhance their confidence in this project. The limitation of the paper is that it takes the main grain-producing areas in only the three northeastern provinces of China as the research object. The next research object will be extended to the whole country.

This paper propose strategies for realizing the orderly operation of the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production: first, increase the proportion of stakeholders' strategy choices; second, reduce the village committee's supervision cost; third, increase the weight of the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production in the performance appraisal of the village committee; fourth, improve the village committee's reputation effect; fifth, increase the penalty for false dividends of the service organization.

Agricultural production trusteeship is in its initial stage in China. The interest relationships between stakeholders are not yet clear. The paper innovatively applies the evolutionary game method to the research field of the whole process trusteeship of agricultural production. According to conditions in China, based on ensuring the guaranteed income, the paper introduces the dividend income variable and establishes a tripartite game model of village committees, service organization and farmers. The paper provides suggestions for the orderly and healthy development of China's agricultural production trusteeship and provides experience for the operation of other modes of agricultural production trusteeship.

Today’s China has striven to exclude street vendors through political campaigns such as “National Sanitary City” and “National Civilized City.” Such campaigns pursue modernity and beautiful urban spaces by deeming street vendors to be disorderly, unsanitary, and obsolete. Taking a single Chinese city as a case study, this research analyzes why and how local bureaucratic apparatuses apply rapidly-changing and ambiguous political treatment to street vendors. This research also examines street vendors’ struggles and coping strategies with these ever-changing politics.

The data for this study were obtained during a total of ten months of fieldwork, beginning in 2013 and ending in 2016. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifty-one street vendors and six government officials; additionally, the researcher consulted newspaper reports, archives, and relevant official publications.

First, regarding the governance of street vendors, the local administration has shifted their stance between two distinct patterns – suppression and tolerance – depending on the timing of certain political campaigns. Second, the corruption and laziness of government officials has provided niches for the revival of street vending after campaigns are over, though with limitations. Third, street vendors in China tend to be passive recipients of government suppression, unable to forge effective resistance because of a lack of strong leadership and general organization.

This research will add to the general understanding of the government-vendor relationship by revealing the complexity, uncertainty, and flexibility inherent in interactions between these two groups.

The goal of this chapter is to respond to the theoretical inquiries by scholars who are interested in how the public–private partnership (PPP) models adapt to China’s context where political power dictates economic strategies. We also want to provide suggestions to policy designers who aim to promote a sustainable investment environment for domestic and international investors. We review the literature that explains the upside and downside of PPP projects in contemporary China. (1) We classify the trajectory of PPP evolution into four phases, i.e., emergence, growth, recession and revival. (2) We note that private companies take a disadvantageous position in the partnership compared with governments and state-owned enterprises because of a lack of specialized legislation, unequal competition between private companies and state-owned enterprises and the opposition from the civic society. (3) We identify political risks as the most influential risks. Political risks also lead to the misallocation of other risks between public and private parties that contributes to the high failure rate of China’s PPP projects. Based on these findings, we recommend governments to draft specialized legislation, stabilize the political environment and provide favourable subsidies to local governments to limit the risks involved in PPP projects. We also advise private enterprises and state-owned enterprises to focus on negotiating over task and risk division with governments when they make decisions to participate in PPP projects. This full review of studies on PPP development in China provides reliable recommendations to scholars, governments and enterprises.

This paper aims to summarize the conditions under which participatory art museums and local commercial traditions can have positive and sustained interactions.

The methods include studying the quantity and content of exhibitions in the four cities of the Bay Area, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shunde, to compare their academic positioning and influence on local commercial production. Through interviewing curators, artists and university scholars who are active in the Bay Area and are invited by the museums on a regular basis, it will let us understand the attitudes from the government, public and capital towards the regional art museums and how these attitudes influence the choice of theme in the participatory art museum practice.

To summarize the findings, the author concludes that a participatory art gallery with commercial production in the Bay Area requires the following: a long tradition of local business and wealth accumulation; a local area is of a size where the community of acquaintances can interact on a regular basis; continued interest of a diverse local elite, including a mix of businessmen and gentry, government officials and various sectors of the public; and museums serving as intermediaries to coordinate the effective integration of the commercial and traditional resources.

Participatory approaches and their impacts are a shared area of interest across urban planning, heritage studies and the creative arts. Crucially, solely relying on either the Latin bottom-up community-oriented approach (Barnes, 2003) or the British top-down policy-oriented approach (Heijnen, 2010) did not maximize benefits, though these distinctive two approaches were convinced that museums should play a larger role in becoming agents of contemporary social change. By contrast, in focusing on Chinese Art Museums, this study will explore participatory practice in the Asian context. In doing so, it will not only diversify the emerging literature on the social and economic impacts of arts and heritage organizations but also challenge the Western lens through which participatory approaches are viewed in the interdisciplinary literature. As Lefebvre acknowledged his lack of non-Western regions in his research, this study will offer new perspectives on museology and its contributions to the Production of Space.