Partners,Institutions and International Currencies: The International Political Foundations for the Rise of the Renminbi

The use of an international currency is not just a natural market phenomenon; it relies heavily on international political foundations. The historical lessons of the four major international currencies—the pound, dollar, euro and yen—show that a strong partner network and a favorable international institutional environment are the two major political foundations for the formation of a stable international currency. The rise of the renminbi, as a late starter looking to become a major international currency, depends not only on the requisite economic conditions but on governmental diplomacy aimed at attracting more monetary cooperation partners and creating international institutions that support its worldwide use. This strategy reinforces the political foundations for the rise of the renminbi. Building a network of partners supporting the renminbi as an international currency and creating a system of international monetary institutions are the real tests of the issuing country’s political leadership. This political leadership capacity has three dimensions: public trust founded on reputation building; a centripetal force driven by provision of benefits; and coercive force applied through sanctions. Comparatively speaking, the renminbi is still in the early stage of its ascent, so the development of its political infrastructure should concentrate mainly on gaining public trust through reputation-building and employing centripetal force involving provision of benefits.     

精诚所至 金石为开——池田大作海外经典演讲述评

日本著名佛教家池田大作的海外演讲集,是一部不可多得的经典作品。围绕着国际和平的主题思想,池田在国际学术舞台上,天才般地演绎了以佛教哲学为基础的"和平论",所到之处,无不受到热烈欢迎和高度评价。池田的演讲,从内容上讲,根据佛教的法理,在严密的逻辑推理下,深入浅出地论述了国际政治的各种悬而未决的难题,令人信服地指出了国际和平主义主导未来世界的必然性;从形态上说,依靠深厚的文学修养,遣词立意,刻章琢句,达到了无懈可击的境地。此外,池田在演讲中表现出的大智若愚、平易近人的态度,亦给人留下深刻的印象。     

Inheritance,poverty, and disability

Inheritance is a significant means of transferring wealth from one generation to the next, and therefore increasingly attracts attention from researchers and policy-makers working on intergenerational and multidimensional poverty. However, until now disabled persons have been overlooked in these discussions. This oversight is particularly unfortunate because, as a group, the estimated one billion people with disabilities (some 15% of the world’s population) are among the poorest and most marginalized of the global population. Over the past decade, a small but growing literature has examined the recursive connections between poverty and disability throughout the developing world. In this paper, we argue that disabled individuals are routinely denied inheritance rights in many low-income and middle-income countries, and that this is a significant and largely unrecognized contributor to their indigence. The denial of inheritance is both a social justice issue and a practice that can no longer be overlooked if disabled persons are to be brought into the development mainstream.     

Global Governance,neoliberalism and national responses: The case of Bangladesh’s ready‐made garment (RMG) sector

This article on the ready‐made garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh shows how over‐reliance on foreign capital for development financing and deregulated investment—a hallmark of neoliberal economic arrangements—undermines the incorporation of SDGs’ and INGOs’ equity principles, contributing to biased policy responses yielding unequal outcomes. The article cautions that while countries prioritize economic growth over social and environmental nourishment and continue to adopt neoliberal economic policies to promote economic growth, inequity is unavoidable, if not inevitable. Thus, the way forward may be to shift the focus of ‘development’ from the economy to society, to building ‘good societies’ where institutions and strategies, including those that contribute to economic growth, are organized such that these complement not compromise the evolution of such societies.     

Global employment and decent jobs, 2010–2030: The forces of demography and automation

Globally, an estimated 734 million jobs will be required between 2010 and 2030 to accommodate recent and ongoing demographic shifts, account for plausible changes in labour force participation rates, and achieve target unemployment rates of at or below 4 per cent for adults and at or below 8 per cent for youth. The facts that most new jobs will be required in countries where “decent” jobs are less prevalent and workers in many occupations are increasingly subject to risks of automation further compound the challenge of job creation, which is already quite sizable in historical perspective. Failure to create the jobs that are needed through 2030 would put currently operative social security systems under pressure and undermine efforts to guarantee the national social protection floors enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibody encephalitis: An important cause of encephalitis in young adults. A report of two cases

Encephalitis is a clinical syndrome which can include altered mental status, motor and sensory deficits, altered behavior including personality changes, speech and movement disorders and seizures. While the overall incidence of encephalitis is not known, it is common enough that most pediatric and adolescent medicine physicians will have seen at least one case. Peak times of risk include the newborn period and middle-to-late adolescence.¹ Dalmau J, Tüzün E, Wu HY, et al. Paraneoplastic anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis associated with ovarian teratoma. Ann Neurol. 2007 Jan;61(1):25–36. doi:10.1002/ana.21050. PMID: 17262855.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] It is important for clinicians to have a working knowledge of the broad range of encephalitis etiologies: viral, post-viral, toxic, auto-immune, and paraneoplastic. We discuss two cases of encephalitis in young adult women with ovarian teratoma and production of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antibodies.     

Acceptance and Caregiving of Married and Divorced Custodial Mothers and Fathers

The study examined whether differences in gender and family status affect parental caregiving disposition and acceptance of children among parents of children in mid-childhood. The number of participants were 122 divorced-custodial fathers, 107 married fathers, 85 divorced-custodial mothers, and 82 married mothers (n?=?398). A comparison among four groups of parents revealed the following gender differences: mothers scored higher on anxious caregiving and parental acceptance than fathers, and lower on avoidant caregiving. Regression analysis indicated that the higher the caregiving avoidance or anxiety, the lower the parental acceptance. Family status moderated parental acceptance, as avoidant caregiving was associated with reduced parental acceptance among married parents, but not among divorced custodial parents. The finding that avoidant caregiving was not associated with reduced acceptance among divorced custodial parents implies that their parental acceptance behaviors toward their children are affected by their parental status as sole custodial parent, and the associated responsibilities, rather than by gender.     

中医药国际传播中英译问题及对策

论文在阐述中医药国际传播重要性的基础上,分析了作为中医药国际传播重要途径的中医药英译的障碍及存在的问题,并有针对性地提出解决问题和排除障碍的对策,以期给中医药英译者提供借鉴并对解决中医药国际传播过程中的英译问题起到一定的促进作用。     

Joint models for mixed categorical outcomes: a study of HIV risk perception and disease status in Mozambique

Two types of bivariate models for categorical response variables are introduced to deal with special categories such as ‘unsure’ or ‘unknown’ in combination with other ordinal categories, while taking additional hierarchical data structures into account. The latter is achieved by the use of different covariance structures for a trivariate random effect. The models are applied to data from the INSIDA survey, where interest goes to the effect of covariates on the association between HIV risk perception (quadrinomial with an ‘unknown risk’ category) and HIV infection status (binary). The final model combines continuation-ratio with cumulative link logits for the risk perception, together with partly correlated and partly shared trivariate random effects for the household level. The results indicate that only age has a significant effect on the association between HIV risk perception and infection status. The proposed models may be useful in various fields of application such as social and biomedical sciences, epidemiology and public health.     

The international field placement: a reconciliation of identity

The international field placement is a site of both identity confusion and identity development for the social work student. Aiming to develop their professional identity they are faced with a challenge: the presence of two dominant identities, the tourist identity and the student identity. Whilst the embodiment of the tourist identity has often facilitated the student’s motivation to undertake the placement experience, the student identity is what both university staff and agency field educators perceive as integral to student engagement in this remote educational setting. Social work educators perceive this identity challenge as an impediment to learning. In contrast, students report feeling that their tourist traits strengthened their personal and professional capacity, natural curiosity and ability to engage with the local community. By analysing the roles of university staff as liaison support, and field educators as agency supervisors, it is possible to explore a teaching and learning relationship that is student-centred, grounded in the immersive international experience. Through privileging the student’s voice social work educators involved with organising, supporting and supervising international field placements are able to understand the placement as a continuum of learning. On this continuum identity reconciliation is viewed as a crucial element in the development of a professional identity.