Author：Kek,Megan Yih Chyn A.;Huijser,Henk

Abstract:© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017. In this book we respond to a higher education environment that is on the verge of profound changes by imagining an evolving and agile problem-based learning ecology for learning. The goal of doing so is to humanise university education by pursuing innovative approaches to student learning, teaching, curricula, assessment, and professional learning, and to employ interdisciplinary methods that go far beyond institutional walls and include student development and support, curriculum sustainability, research and the scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as administration and leadership. An agile problem-based learning (PBL) ecology for learning deliberately blurs the boundaries between disciplines, between students and teachers, between students and employers, between employers and teachers, between academics and professional staff, between formal and informal learning, and between teaching and research. It is based on the recognition that all of these elements are interconnected and constantly evolving, rather than being discrete and static. Throughout this book, our central argument is that there is no single person who is responsible for educating students. Rather, it is everyone’s responsibility - teachers, students, employers, administrators, and wider social networks, inside and outside of the university. Agile PBL is about making connections, rather than erecting barriers. In summary, this book is not about maintaining comfort zones, but rather about becoming comfortable with discomfort. The actual implementation is beyond the scope of this book and we envisage that changing perceptions towards this vision will itself be a mammoth task. However, we believe that the alternative of leaving things as they are would ultimately prove untenable, and more distressingly, would leave a generation of students afraid to think, feel, and act for themselves, let alone being able to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Author：Han,Jiawen

Author：Phiri,Michael;Chen,Bing

Abstract:This brief started by looking at the changing context for national and international healthcare systems, before reviewing the healthcare premises information, guidance and tools that underlie the approach in which sustainability is to be seen as integrated with evidence-based design rather than as divorced and separate themes. However, to understand the role these aspects play, it is also essential to consider both the historical context and, in particular, the organisational structures of the different healthcare systems whether these are national or international. This chapter discusses emerging issues from the approach that adopts design for sustainability integrated with evidence-based design. The aim is to help decision-making within the area of healthcare premises, planning and design whether this is nationally or globally. The crucial emerging issues start with the problem of definitions of ‘Evidence’ and ‘Sustainability’ but include the debates surrounding several themes: Centralisation versus Decentralisation, the nature of Public versus Private Sector Involvement, National versus International Standards to Prescription versus Performance Standards. Addressing these issues has an important bearing on the development of design for sustainability and evidence-based design as science.

Author：Tadjouddine,Emmanuel M.

Abstract:It is hoped agent mediated e-commerce will be carried out as open systems of agents interoperating between different institutions, where different auction protocols may be in use. The authors argue that in order to put such a scenario to work, agents will need a method to automatically verify the properties of a previously unseen auction protocol. This, in turn poses the problem of automatically verifying desirable properties in order to trust a given auction mechanism. This challenge needs be addressed so that the business scenario of agent mediated e-commerce becomes a reality. In this chapter, the authors discuss salient opportunities for SMEs in addressing the issues of enabling software agents (e.g., PDAs, mobile phones) to connect to auction houses and verify desirable properties that need to hold before engaging any transactions. © 2011, IGI Global.

Author：Zhang,Yan Ming;Huang,Kaizhu;Geng,Guang Gang;Liu,Cheng Lin

Abstract:Despite the great success of graph-based transductive learning methods, most of them have serious problems in scalability and robustness. In this chapter, we propose an efficient and robust graph-based transductive classification method, called minimum tree cut (MTC), which is suitable for large scale data. Motivated from the sparse representation of graph, we approximate a graph by a spanning tree. Exploiting the simple structure, we develop a linear-time algorithm to label the tree such that the cut size of the tree is minimized. This significantly improves graph-based methods, which typically have a polynomial time complexity. Moreover, we theoretically and empirically show that the performance of MTC is robust to the graph construction, overcoming another big problem of traditional graph-based methods. Extensive experiments on public data sets and applications on text extraction fromimages demonstrate our method’s advantages in aspect of accuracy, speed, and robustness.

Author：Zhong,Sheng

Abstract:The chapter problematizes the nature of ‘culture’-led urban regeneration practices in Shanghai by differentiating between the intentions of regenerative efforts and the real outcomes of policy initiatives. Based on the case study of Shanghai Sculpture Space, the chapter reveals that Shanghai’s so-called ‘culture’- led urban regeneration program implemented through public-private partnership was actually propertyled. The biggest beneficiaries of the process were landed interests. The heavy involvement of the local state and government-linked institutions, however, did not result in the honoring of community sociocultural needs that a genuine culture-led urban regeneration project would require.

Author：Nong,Jin;Chen,Yang

Abstract:This chapter aims at using an innovative method developed by Blouin et al. (Improved estimates of marginal tax rates: why they are needed, approach, and implications. Memo, 2008) to simulate 1041 China’s listed companies’ corporate marginal tax rate, and comparing the changes in marginal tax rate in the context of 2007 tax reform in China. After simulation and comparison, we find that the annual corporate marginal tax rate has greatly decreased after the new tax policy goes into effect. Besides, the tax effects on marginal tax rates vary with industry and across ownership.

Author：Kiddle,Rebecca;Kim,Joon Sik;Chen,Bing

Abstract:© 2016 Giulio Verdini, Yiwen Wang, Xiaonan Zhang and the contributors. To safeguard the overall quality of the development of urban and rural areas, as increasingly addressed in China’s strategic policy documents, there is an urgent need to provide a new vision for planning education, nurturing an interdisciplinary learning environment that can promote critical thinking as a basis for action or intervention. The urban and rural nexus highlights an area of particular tension as it works to house existing villagers alongside the rising middle classes keen for a more suburban/rural aspect (see Sturzacker and Law in this volume). This challenges planners to think beyond the scope of statutory systems and consider planning as an activity that professionals facilitate, rather than own or monopolize. The planning education system should, therefore, equip prospective planners with not only professional knowledge, but the capability to involve a range of stakeholders in more genuinely collaborative ways. On the urban fringe where very diverse social groups and needs meet, this ability to involve the range of stakeholders in decision-making processes is all the more important.

Author：Li,Peter Ping

Abstract:Most Eastern traditional philosophies, such as Taoism, from China, share a set of core themes that constitute a philosophy of wisdom (science-art integration), in contrast to Western philosophies with a focus on knowledge (science-art separation). This chapter argues that the epistemological system of yin-yang balancing is the root of Eastern culture traditions. Building on this theme, the chapter elaborates on the unique features of yin-yang balancing, in contrast to Aristotle's formal logic and Hegel's dialectics in the West. It is posited that yin-yang balancing is more sophisticated (rather than naïve) than all dialectical logic for paradox management, since it is the only system that can truly accommodate and appreciate paradox and has the potential to absorb all Western systems into a geocentric (East-meets-West) meta-system. The chapter concludes with an application of yin-yang balancing to the geocentric integration of the Eastern philosophy of wisdom with the Western philosophy of knowledge, toward a new geocentric meta-paradigm.

Author：Zhong,Guoqiang;Huang,Kaizhu

Abstract:Semi-supervised learning is an important area of machine learning. It deals with problems that involve a lot of unlabeled data and very scarce labeled data. The book focuses on state-of-the-art research on semi-supervised learning. In the first chapter, Weng, Dornaika and Jin introduce a graph construction algorithm named the constrained data self-representative graph construction (CSRGC). In the second chapter, to reduce the graph construction complexity, Zhang et al. use anchors that were a special subset chosen from the original data to construct the full graph, while randomness was injected into graphs to improve the classification accuracy and deal with the high dimensionality issue. In the third chapter, Dornaika et al. introduce a kernel version of the Flexible Manifold Embedding (KFME) algorithm. In the fourth chapter, Zhang et al. present an efficient and robust graph-based transductive classification method known as the minimum tree cut (MTC), for large scale applications. In the fifth chapter, Salazar, Safont and Vergara investigated the performance of semi-supervised learning methods in two-class classification problems with a scarce population of one of the classes. In the sixth chapter, by breaking the sample identically and independently distributed (i.i.d.) assumption, one novel framework called the field support vector machine (F-SVM) with both classification (F-SVC) and regression (F-SVR) purposes is introduced. In the seventh chapter, Gong employs the curriculum learning methodology by investigating the difficulty of classifying every unlabeled example. As a result, an optimized classification sequence was generated during the iterative propagations, and the unlabeled examples are logically classified from simple to difficult. In the eighth chapter, Tang combines semi-supervised learning with geo-tagged photo streams and concept detection to explore situation recognition. This book is suitable for university students (undergraduate or graduate) in computer science, statistics, electrical engineering, and anyone else who would potentially use machine learning algorithms; professors, who research artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, machine learning, data mining and related fields; and engineers, who apply machine learning models into their products.

Author：Zhang,Fan;Hung,Juann H.

Abstract:This chapter conducts panel regressions using provincial data from 2005 to 2010 to investigate whether China’s fiscal system is effective in mitigating the rise in income inequality in those years. On the revenue side, we find that only operation tax has a significant negative effect on income inequality. Value-added tax (VAT), individual and enterprise income tax all have an insignificant impact on income inequality. We suspect the insignificant effect of progressive individual income tax on income inequality reflects tax evasion by the rich. On the spending side, the results indicate that all government expenditures have no significant impacts on reducing income inequality. This suggests that, among other possibilities, government spending lacks efficiency or pays insufficient attention to the needy.

Author：Wang,Yiwen

Abstract:© 2016 Giulio Verdini, Yiwen Wang, Xiaonan Zhang and the contributors. The diversification of the functional uses of agricultural land has grown in importance since the concept of sustainable development became a matter of global concern before the turn of the new century. Multi-functionality of agricultural land often refers to the production of other goods, services or values in addition to crop and livestock, such as food security, leisure activities, recreational opportunities and cultural tourism (Daugstad et al. 2006). Arguably, rural tourism has been one of the most effective tools for diversifying economic activities and generating additional income for the rural community. It has played an important role in regenerating the declining economy of the countryside as a result of intensive global food trading (Sharpley and Vass 2006). While the term ‘rural tourism’ has been perceived and interpreted in various ways, ranging from general leisure activities to hands-on farming practice, it is the role of ‘cultural heritage’ in the current trend of rural tourism development that this research was set to explore.

Author：Williams,Austin

Abstract:This chapter is an investigation into the way(s) that words and phrases such as, “sustainability” and “the environment” are used within China and the UK. It is a comparative analysis of responses from 18 to 21 year old students of Architecture in both countries – carried out by questionnaire sampling of students from both regions – and provides an initial assessment of the extent and possible meaning of any key differences in understanding of these terms. The discourse on sustainability is well-established in the UK but is not regularly taught as mainstream in Chinese universities, and yet many tutors, lecturers and practitioners educated outside China who are employed or guest lecture in our particular joint China-British university (and evidence shows that this also happens in other Chinese universities) are bringing a Western educational language of sustainability to Chinese students. In my experience, this has led to some discussion among students and this paper – concerning itself with issues related to sustainability – is the start of a wider assessment of social, cultural, practical and political differences in the classroom: in the West and in China. Drawing on a comparison of student responses from one Chinese university and three academically comparable universities in the UK – including questionnaire responses from 115 students studying in UK and 321 students studying in China (436 respondents in total), I examine their understanding of sustainability that might facilitate the use of these concepts more meaningfully. My findings indicate that there are clear disparities between students in China and UK reflecting a different understanding of expectations, settings and context.

Author：Liu,Zheng;Kim,Hyung Min;Zhang,Kaifeng

Abstract:© 2018 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. The aim of this chapter is to develop a better understanding of interactions of Korean firms in Suzhou in terms of supply chain, manufacturing networks and logistics. By reviewing the key literature in industry clusters, international strategy, manufacturing systems and logistics management, a conceptual framework is designed to capture the key roles of Korean MNE, SMEs, and local SIP service organizations. Case studies and interviews with practitioners provide in-depth knowledge about firms' operation in Suzhou. An industry review of SIP is also conducted from the perspectives of history, policy, infrastructure and local culture. Discussions are made to address the critical issues followed by a summary of the chapter.

Author：Duggett,Tom

Author：Liu,Zheng;Ma,Lei

Abstract:In the past 20 years, animation industry has developed rapidly due to the popularity of technology and a market demand on creativity. Large firms such as Disney and Pixar are continuously seeking strategies to expand, improve, and innovate, whereas most Chinese companies, as late comers are upgrading their capability through original design, technology development and policy support. This chapter focuses on the creativity in the animation industry, with an analysis on brand/character development, technology innovation, and policy influence. It starts with an introduction of the creativity in animation industry from both practice and literature perspectives. Then, there are five cases studies into companies with a highlight on their details of creative activities. Discussion is to address the critical issues of creativity in the animation industry, followed by a conclusion and recommendations for future research areas.

Author：Ding,Xinyun;Salike,Nimesh

Abstract:This research estimates the impact of exchange rate and exchange rate volatility on Chinese outward foreign direct investments (OFDI) utilizing panel data in 21 countries from 2004 to 2013. A basic gravity model and fixed effect model are applied to find that both market-seeking motivation and economic openness are positive determinants for Chinese OFDI. A depreciated host country currency is more favorable for Chinese OFDI. On the contrary, exchange rate volatility has adverse effects, meaning Chinese OFDI declines with exchange rate volatility. There is no obvious evidence to support that China has a preference to choose developed or developing countries as its OFDI host countries.

Author：Sun,Qi;Hung,Juann H.

Abstract:This research aims to shed light on the causes of the rising gender income gap in China. We first apply the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method (Oaxaca, Int Eco Rev 14: 693-709, 1973; Blinder, J Hum Res 8: 436-455, 1973) to our survey data to estimate the extent to which that gap can be explained by the difference in human capital characteristics (such as years of education and years of experience). We find that a rising discrimination against females (either due to tradition or otherwise) is not the main cause of the rising gender income gap in China. Instead, we present evidence to propose that two of the three main drivers of China’s economic growth-namely, privatization and urbanization-very likely have contributed to the rise in China’s gender income gap.

Author：Zhong,Sheng;Guo,Yu

Abstract:© 2016 Giulio Verdini, Yiwen Wang, Xiaonan Zhang and the contributors. The rapid urbanization process in China has posed significant threats to land resources not only in quantity but also in quality. In the peri-urban areas of Chinese cities, the pressures from urban sprawl have resulted in scattered construction lands mixed with cultivated lands. This highly inefficient use of rural construction, especially in peri-urban areas, has been identified as a major problem and, consequently, rural land consolidation has been increasingly considered as a priority for reaching more sustainable rural planning outcomes. Based on the existing experiences of land ticket reform, this chapter argues that market-based land ticket represents a promising approach to China’s rural land consolidation practises and should be allowed to be used in a wider scope. However, reform of the existing land ticket and rural land consolidation processes is also needed to ensure better results. A perspective from participative and collaborative planning will shed light on how to achieve this outcome.

Author：Wang,Chen;Ding,Rong;Hou,Wenxuan;Lee,Edward