Production and R&D networks of foreign ventures in China: Implications for technological dynamism and regional development

This paper analyzes the nature of FDI local networks in production and R&D activities in China and discusses their implications for technological dynamism and regional development. We investigate foreign ventures (or foreign-invested enterprises, FIEs) in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, based on a large-scale survey of ICT firms conducted in three mega-city regions of China: Beijing, Shanghai-Suzhou, and Shenzhen-Dongguan. Our data show that FIEs in China are gradually localizing their production, but the extent of local embeddedness is contingent upon home country effects, local specific contexts and FDI-host region relationships. We have also found significant influence of industrial agglomeration on FDI location and network decisions. Beijing tends to have broader FDI sources and better integrated global-local networks, while in those regions dominated by FDI such as Suzhou and Dongguan, FIEs are thinly embedded with local economies and tend to establish global-local networks among themselves; local embeddedness is limited by a series of technological, institutional, spatial, and structural mismatches. Shanghai and Shenzhen are in between. More efforts are still needed to better integrate FDI with local economies and strengthen China’s local innovative capacities.     

Globalization, industrial restructuring, and regional development in China

China's rapid growth and structural change since the reform in the late 1970s have generated many intriguing issues for scholarly research. This paper notices the drastic rise of China in foreign investment, export, and ICT production. Through a comprehensive review of the literature on globalization, industrial restructuring and regional development, this paper holds that the research on China is embedded in China's reform process, as well as theoretical development in economic geography. It highlights the important role of institutions and global-local interactions in industrial and regional development.     

Observation of a Complex Solar Wind Reconnection Exhaust from Spacecraft Separated by over 1800 R E

We analyze Wind, ACE, and STEREO (ST-A and ST-B) plasma and magnetic field data in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossed by all spacecraft between 22:15 UT on 31 March and 01:25 UT on 1 April 2007 corresponding to its observation at ST-A and ST-B, which were separated by over 1800 R _E (or over 1200 R _E across the Sun?–?Earth line). Although only Wind and ACE provided good ion flow data in accord with a solar wind magnetic reconnection exhaust at the HCS, the magnetic field bifurcation typical of such exhausts was clearly observed at all spacecraft. They also all observed unambiguous strahl mixing within the exhaust, consistent with the sunward flow deflection observed at Wind and ACE and thus with the formation of closed magnetic field lines within the exhaust with both ends attached to the Sun. The strong dawnward flow deflection in the exhaust is consistent with the exhaust and X-line orientations obtained from minimum variance analysis at each spacecraft so that the X-line is almost along the GSE Z-axis and duskward of all the spacecraft. The observation of strahl mixing in extended and intermittent layers outside the exhaust by ST-A and ST-B is consistent with the formation of electron separatrix layers surrounding the exhaust. This event also provides further evidence that balanced parallel and antiparallel suprathermal electron fluxes are not a necessary condition for identification of closed field lines in the solar wind. In the present case the origin of the imbalance simply is the mixing of strahls of substantially different strengths from a different solar source each side of the HCS. The inferred exhaust orientations and distances of each spacecraft relative to the X-line show that the exhaust was likely nonplanar, following the Parker spiral orientation. Finally, the separatrix layers and exhausts properties at each spacecraft suggest that the magnetic reconnection X-line location and/or reconnection rate were variable in both space and time at such large scales.

     

The Apparent Layered Structure of the Heliospheric Current Sheet: Multi-Spacecraft Observations

Solar Physics - Multiple current sheet crossings are ubiquitous features of the solar wind associated with high-beta plasma sheets, notably during the passage of the heliospheric current sheet...     

Evidence of correlations between nuclear decay rates and Earth–Sun distance

Unexplained periodic fluctuations in the decay rates of ³²Si and ²²⁶Ra have been reported by groups at Brookhaven National Laboratory (³²Si), and at the Physikalisch–Technische–Bundesanstalt in Germany (²²⁶Ra). We show from an analysis of the raw data in these experiments that the observed fluctuations are strongly correlated in time, not only with each other, but also with the time of year. We discuss both the possibility that these correlations arise from seasonal influences on the detection system, as well as the suggestion of an annual modulation of the decay rates themselves which vary with Earth–Sun distance.     

Color imaging of Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)

HiRISE has been producing a large number of scientifically useful color products of Mars and other planetary objects. The three broad spectral bands, coupled with the highly sensitive 14 bit detectors and time delay integration, enable detection of subtle color differences. The very high spatial resolution of HiRISE can augment the mineralogic interpretations based on multispectral (THEMIS) and hyperspectral datasets (TES, OMEGA and CRISM) and thereby enable detailed geologic and stratigraphic interpretations at meter scales. In addition to providing some examples of color images and their interpretation, we describe the processing techniques used to produce them and note some of the minor artifacts in the output. We also provide an example of how HiRISE color products can be effectively used to expand mineral and lithologic mapping provided by CRISM data products that are backed by other spectral datasets. The utility of high quality color data for understanding geologic processes on Mars has been one of the major successes of HiRISE.     

Precipitation extremes and the impacts of climate change on stormwater infrastructure in Washington State

The design of stormwater infrastructure is based on an underlying assumption that the probability distribution of precipitation extremes is statistically stationary. This assumption is called into question by climate change, resulting in uncertainty about the future performance of systems constructed under this paradigm. We therefore examined both historical precipitation records and simulations of future rainfall to evaluate past and prospective changes in the probability distributions of precipitation extremes across Washington State. Our historical analyses were based on hourly precipitation records for the time period 1949–2007 from weather stations in and near the state’s three major metropolitan areas: the Puget Sound region, Vancouver (WA), and Spokane. Changes in future precipitation were evaluated using two runs of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) regional climate model (RCM) for the time periods 1970–2000 and 2020–2050, dynamically downscaled from the ECHAM5 and CCSM3 global climate models. Bias-corrected and statistically downscaled hourly precipitation sequences were then used as input to the HSPF hydrologic model to simulate streamflow in two urban watersheds in central Puget Sound. Few statistically significant changes were observed in the historical records, with the possible exception of the Puget Sound region. Although RCM simulations generally predict increases in extreme rainfall magnitudes, the range of these projections is too large at present to provide a basis for engineering design, and can only be narrowed through consideration of a larger sample of simulated climate data. Nonetheless, the evidence suggests that drainage infrastructure designed using mid-20th century rainfall records may be subject to a future rainfall regime that differs from current design standards.     

Assessing regional impacts and adaptation strategies for climate change: the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment

Climate change in the twenty-first century will strongly affect the processes that define natural and human systems. The Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment (WACCIA) was intended to identify the nature and effects of climate change on natural and human resources in Washington State over the next century. The assessment focused on eight sectors that were identified as being potentially most climate sensitive: agriculture, energy, salmon, urban stormwater infrastructure, forests, human health, coasts, and water resources. Most of these sectors are sensitive in one way or another to water availability. While water is generally abundant in the state under current climate conditions, its availability is highly variable in space and time, and these variations are expected to change as the climate warms. Here we summarize the results of the WACCIA and identify uncertainties and common mechanisms that relate many of the impacts. We also address cross-sectoral sensitivities, vulnerabilities, and adaptation strategies.     

Silver in the subarctic northeast Pacific Ocean: Explaining the basin scale distribution of silver

Five vertical profiles of silver (Ag) in the subarctic northeast Pacific are presented. Dissolved (< 0.2 μm) Ag concentrations within the surface mixed layer range from 6–25 pM, with the highest observed values at the most coastal site. Elevated Ag concentrations at this station are most likely attributable to the estuarine circulation in the Juan de Fuca Strait. One open-ocean station (P20) exhibited a strong surface Ag maximum. The station was located at the edge of a Haida eddy which raises the possibility that such eddies transport Ag seaward from the coastal zone. Ag concentrations in the deep waters ranged from 60–80 pM. These measurements are consistent with other recent Ag data collected in the Pacific. Ag profiles throughout the Pacific Ocean yield a strong positive correlation between Ag concentration and dissolved silicic acid concentration. However, Ag is depleted relative to silicic acid at intermediate depths where dissolved O₂ concentrations are low, implying a possible removal of Ag from oxygen-depleted waters by scavenging and/or precipitation.