New cultural economies of marginality: revisiting the West Coast,South Island,New Zealand

Marginal regions have been the subject of political concern and remedial action in western states for several decades now. The West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand is an interesting case study in this regard, for recent economic growth has confounded earlier expectations of post-restructuring decline, while also contradicting several of the nostrums of new regionalism. In an effort to understand this trajectory, this paper draws on documents from public and private sector organisations, newspaper articles and field visits to examine developments in four key sectors of the West Coast's economy: mining, dairy farming, forestry and tourism. Economic growth is found to be closely linked to the cultivation of new markets for primary products, but efforts to rework the cultural dimensions of marginality have also been important. Value has been added to specific products through the insertion of references to the region's alpine and forested landscapes. Isolation and peripherality have been recast in more positive terms, echoing the broader reframing of New Zealand as a scenic, unspoiled destination. In adopting a cultural economic perspective on marginal regions, the paper illustrates the significance of symbolic forms of value, the potentially flexible nature of marginality as a discursive category, and the importance of the networks which connect regions to national and international flows of capital and tourists.     

Using best available science to protect critical areas in Washington state: challenges and barriers to planners

Urban development has profound impacts on ecological patterns and processes making the scientific information required for developing environmental ordinances central for mitigating these negative ecological impacts. Washington State requires that planners use the best available science (BAS) to formulate land use ordinances as part of the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA). We present empirical findings describing challenges to planners in defining “best available science” and using BAS to create local ordinances that balance development needs with natural resource protection. We interviewed city and county planners (and their consultants) in western Washington to determine what they find useful about BAS, whether or not BAS is applicable to their jurisdictions, and what constraints they experience in reviewing and using BAS to create or update their land use ordinances. Our results suggest that applying the BAS requirement is particularly difficult in urban areas. Specifically, planners had difficulty applying results from research conducted in systems dissimilar to their urban landscapes. These challenges to planners were exacerbated by (1) a lack of resources and (2) political tensions among stakeholders with competing values in urban settings. We conclude with recommendations for improving the consideration of science in statewide land-use planning.     

全国流动人口计划生育管理研究

本文根据全国及部分地方有关流动人口计划生育的调查和相关的现有资料 ,分析了中国流动人口的规模、影响人口流动的因素、流动人口的特点和计划生育工作存在的问题 ,并提出了今后加强流动人口计划生育工作的对策和建议。     

老年健康产业发展现状、规划与对策探讨

随着中国人口老龄化程度的加深,高龄老人的比重不断增加,老年人口的健康问题呈日益严重的趋势,已成为影响中国当前及未来社会经济发展的重大问题。健康是享受生活的前提,是影响老年人生活质量的最大因素之一,健康老龄化是老龄社会发展的重要目标,而老年健康产业的发展则是实现健康老龄化的前提。因此,弄清老年健康产业的内涵,大力发展老年健康产业,并积极构建政府、社会、社区和家庭有机结合的老年健康产业体系,对未来中国社会经济发展具有十分重要的意义。     

关于计划生育干部培训形式的几点思考

目前我国人口与计划生育工作已进入稳定低生育水平、综合治理人口问题的新阶段 ,要求全面提高计划生育干部素质 ,教育培训工作越来越显示出其重要性。本文探讨了原有培训形式存在的问题和今后计划生育干部培训形式的多元化发展     

Open Order Rescheduling in Job Shops with Demand Uncertainty: A Simulation Study

This paper addresses the problem of open order rescheduling in a job shop. Results are reported of experiments conducted in a simulation model of an 8-machine job shop. Four different order updating policies are examined. The due-date process is modeled to include several realistic features about the pattern of due-date variability. These features are parameterized and tested at several levels. Tardiness results indicate that open order rescheduling is beneficial only when allowances are loosely set. The results indicate that inventory performance is improved by order rescheduling, particularly in cases when due dates are revised to earlier times than originally forecast.     

Order Promising and the Master Production Schedule*

Previous research on material requirements planning (MRP) systems has rarely considered the impact of the master production scheduling method used to promise customer orders and to allocate production capacity. Based on a simulation study of an MRP environment, we show that the correct selection of a master production schedule (MPS) method depends on the variance of end-item demand. In addition, we find evidence that the effectiveness of a particular MPS method can be enhanced by holding buffer inventory at the same level in the product structure as in the MPS.     

中国国家软实力研究述评

约瑟夫·奈提出的软实力理论,丰富了国家综合实力的内涵,引起国内外理论界和决策部门的高度重视.国家软实力问题已成为近年来国内外研究的热点.国内学者在全球化、信息化和本土化的语境下,借鉴国外相关研究成果,主要探讨了国家软实力的概念、构成要素、文化软实力、区域软实力及其建设路径等重大理论和现实问题,实现了对约瑟夫·奈软实力理论的"中国化",增强了软实力理论对中国综合国力研究的解释力,对进一步促进我国软实力建设具有重要理论价值.全面提升我国软实力水平,应将文化软实力和区域软实力纳入国家软实力建设的总体框架之内,理性分析我国软实力建设的优势与约束条件,统筹国内外软实力建设,努力实现国家软实力与硬实力的协调发展.     

Presence Through Absence: Phylloxera and the Viticultural Imagination in McLaren Vale,South Australia

Grape phylloxera is an insect pest that has destroyed vineyards and brought ruin to winegrowing regions worldwide. In South Australia, however, strong biosecurity regulations have ensured it has remained absent. In this absence phylloxera takes on powerful symbolic value, and regional viticultural identities may be imagined in relation to the presence of phylloxera elsewhere. This paper draws from ethnographic research with grape growers and wine producers in McLaren Vale, a region whose vineyards are understood through this ‘phylloxera-free’ paradigm. The article specifically explores controversies around modification of South Australian biosecurity regulations in a way that favoured large winegrowing corporations’ need to more easily move material between regions, to the perceived detriment of vineyard security. The phylloxera risk has economic, social and symbolic dimensions in McLaren Vale, where the insect has become symbolically aligned with the most impersonal, pervasive and destructive aspects of globalised wine capitalism.     

Annualized hours as a capacity planning tool in make-to-order or assemble-to-order environment: An agricultural implements company case

Capacity planning is one of the most important elements for an efficient production planning and control system. It is even more important when the main strategies to fulfil sales requirements are make-to-order (MTO) or assemble-to-order (ATO). Neither MTO or ATO companies keep finished products in stock which means that production level is driven by actual sales figures. Therefore, it is very important to have an available capacity as flexible as possible to meet sales requirements. Annualized hours (AH) is a work time control system that helps in increasing the flexibility of available capacity. The main rule of the AH system is to hire employees to work a certain number of hours on a yearly basis. Following some other pre-defined rules and limits, the AH system allows a company to adjust weekly available time in order to reduce idle capacity or to fulfil requirements that could mean overtime. This paper proposes a linear programming model to plan the operations using AH. This model has been implemented in a company that produces agricultural implements, showing that it is very simple to use. It is producing excellent practical results.