The expert contributors shed critical light on how significant developments are impacting on the global system. In particular, they consider emerging forms of global governance, and how the Asia-Pacific as a region, individual countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and the US, and regional...

The cloud computing technology has accelerated shared services in the government and private sectors. This paper proposes a research framework of critical success factors of shared services in the aspects of strategy identification, collaborative partnership networking, optimal shared services...

This note examines the fault of the operational competitiveness rating analysis (OCRA) method. The premise of the OCRA method requires that a single scalar measurement must be applied to inputs and outputs to calculate the performance ratings for production units. This property renders the OCRA...

A novel structure of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with integrated photoanode was first reported in this paper. Titanium threads and titanium sheet were first used in this novel structure in place of traditional glass substrate, thus reducing the series resistance of the substrates. An...

In this paper, novel TiO2 submicro-rings were synthesized via potentiostatic anodization of titanium powder coated on transparent conducting oxide glass. The TiO2 submicro-rings film was characterized by SEM, XPS and 3D optical profiling. Accordingly, a possible growth mechanism of...

Here we report a 3-dimensional dye-sensitized solar cell (3D-DSSCs) and module simulating the fractal structure of the pine tree for capturing sunlight. Compared to traditional flat solar cells, this type of solar cell exhibits superiority of absorbing sunlight from all directions. The...

The paper examines recent political and social developments in the People's Republic of China. It highlights some of the principle features in current Chinese politics: fragmentation of both the system and its actors; the role of the Chinese state as a developmental state; the issue of whether...