Potential user factors driving adoption of IPTV. What are customers expecting from IPTV?

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), the convergence services of television and Internet, is being rapidly developed around the world. The advent of digital technologies has changed the convergence market dramatically with the wide diffusion of the convergent services. Using the Technology Acceptance Model as a conceptual framework and method of logistic regression, this research analyzes the demand for IPTV by drawing data from 452 consumers. Individuals' responses to questions about whether they accept IPTV are collected and combined with observations of their socio-economic status and intrinsic/extrinsic factors modified from the Technology Acceptance Model. Results of logistic regression show two variables (intrinsic and extrinsic factors) that seem to explain what influences consumer behavior towards adopting IPTV. Overall, the logistic regression model explains over 50% of the variance in the IPTV adoption. The variances shed light on the multi-open platform environment that IPTV will forge.     

国内外水资源承载力的研究综述

随着能源危机的出现,资源环境问题逐渐成为各国经济学家和环境学家特别关注的问题.近年来,水资源短缺越来越成为各地经济发展的制约因素,面对这种情况,资源承载力概念的提出为资源与经济发展问题提供了一条新的研究途径.本文将国内外有关水资源承载力概念和量化方法的研究作一总体分析,结果表明:(1)国外对水资源承载力的研究较少,国内的研究大体可分为初始、发展、鼎盛和拓展四个阶段;(2)从横向比较来看,水资源承载力的研究在我国以近十年为盛.但研究多集中在资源学科领域和地理环境学科领域,角度大多是综合考虑多方面的影响因素,对一个地区的水资源承载力作出系统评价,并借助可持续发展的思想,应用已有的和创新的方法来解决水资源承载力的问题;(3)水资源承载力的研究在一定程度上是土地资源承载力研究的进步;(4)水资源承载力的研究较少考虑环境污染对水资源承载力以及整个社会系统的影响.在此基础上,本文最后对承载力在自然资源方面的研究作了小结和展望.     

虚拟水及其在缓解区域水资源短缺中的应用研究

虚拟水是指生产商品和服务所需要的水资源数量。虚拟水战略是指贫水国家或地区通过贸易的方式从富水国家或地区购买水密集型农产品(粮食)来获得本地区水和粮食的安全。本文在综述前人对虚拟水研究的基础上,计算了2002年甘肃省及不同地区主要农产品虚拟水含量,并对甘肃省加强虚拟水贸易的战略进行了探讨。     

Assessment of regional trade and virtual water flows in China

The success of China's economic development has left deep marks on resource availability and quality. Some regions in China are relatively poor with regards to water resources. This problem is exacerbated by economic growth. Flourishing trade activities on both domestic and international levels have resulted in significant amounts of water withdrawal and water pollution. Hence the goal of this paper is to evaluate the current inter-regional trade structure and its effects on water consumption and pollution via ‘virtual water flows’. Virtual water is the water embedded in products and used in the whole production chain, and that is traded between regions or exported to other countries. For this assessment of trade flows and effects on water resources, we have developed an extended regional input-output model for eight hydro-economic regions in China to account for virtual water flows between North and South China. The findings show that the current trade structure in China is not very favorable with regards to water resource allocation and efficiency. North China as a water scarce region virtually exports about 5% of its total available freshwater resources while accepting large amounts of wastewater for other regions' consumption. By contrast, South China a region with abundant water resources is virtually importing water from other regions while their imports are creating waste water polluting other regions' hydro-ecosystems.     

哈拉沟煤矿矿井给排水系统设计

主要对哈拉沟煤矿的矿井给排水系统进行设计,为了使哈拉沟煤矿的矿井给排水系统能更好地利用并合理配置矿井资源,本文从哈拉沟煤矿矿井特有的生产作业环境以及地质水文特点进行考虑,分析煤矿矿井给排水系统可能存在的问题,讨论的技术重点问题主要包括煤矿矿井供水水源选择,矿井井下供水以及煤矿废水处理等,对哈拉沟煤矿矿井的生产生活给水系统,消防供水系统以及生产废水排水系统进行设计。     

系统论视角下CBE模式的成功因素分析及启示

CBE模式的开发理念、方法与过程等都对后继的教育改革产生了深远影响,并得到了广泛应用。文章以系统论为研究视角,将CBE模式看作信息加工的过程,分析了环境、制度、实施过程、评价主体等要素以及要素间的相互关系,并试图在市场需求分析以及企业和行业协会的参与作用方面进行创新,为更好借鉴CBE模式提供参考依据。     

Imagining futures: A collaborative policy/device design for wearable computing

The rapidly expanding market for wearable computing devices (wearables), driven by advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), wireless access, and public acceptance of a design aesthetic, is indicative of the near limitless potential for changing the relationship of users to information context(s). As the adoption of wearable devices spreads, there are cultural and social impacts that represent both barriers and opportunities, with subsequent policy ramifications. All too often designers, technologists, and policymakers operate independently developing products that are out of sync, lack interoperability, or are hindered by well meaning, but obstructive policy. This paper proposes a futures-based, iterative policy-informed design framework for developing wearable devices that guides interdisciplinary collaborators early in the process of designing a research & development plan. This approach allows for the development of “images of the future” through which various potential implications and effects of device design in social, technological, and regulatory contexts can be explored.     

Privatization, water access and affordability: Evidence from Malaysian household expenditure data

The aim of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of privatization on water access and affordability in Malaysia using household expenditure data. The development of water sector in Malaysia in terms of coverage has been fairly uneven. Some states have privatized their water supply sector while others have not. The overall finding of this study is that the impact of privatization on access and affordability in the Malaysian water supply sector is ambiguous. Privatization does not seem to have improved access to treated water from network in Malaysia. A likely explanation of this is the role played by the government in the sector in terms of tariff regulation and universal service provision. Furthermore, privatization does not seem to have adversely affected affordability in the sector. In addition to political intervention in tariff regulation, this could be due to the government maintaining a significant stake in privatized water companies.     

Water scarcity, social power and the production of an elite suburb: The political ecology of water in Matadepera, Catalonia

This article investigates the history of land and water transformations in Matadepera, a wealthy suburb of metropolitan Barcelona. Analysis is informed by theories of political ecology and methods of environmental history; although very relevant, these have received relatively little attention within ecological economics. Empirical material includes communications from the City Archives of Matadepera (1919-1979), 17 interviews with locals born between 1913 and 1958, and an exhaustive review of grey historical literature. Existing water histories of Barcelona and its outskirts portray a battle against natural water scarcity, hard won by heroic engineers and politicians acting for the good of the community. Our research in Matadepera tells a very different story. We reveal the production of a highly uneven landscape and waterscape through fierce political and power struggles. The evolution of Matadepera from a small rural village to an elite suburb was anything but spontaneous or peaceful. It was a socio-environmental project well intended by landowning elites and heavily fought by others. The struggle for the control of water went hand in hand with the land and political struggles that culminated - and were violently resolved - in the Spanish Civil War. The displacement of the economic and environmental costs of water use from few to many continues to this day and is constitutive of Matadepera's uneven and unsustainable landscape. By unravelling the relations of power that are inscribed in the urbanization of nature (Swyngedouw, 2004), we question the perceived wisdoms of contemporary water policy debates, particularly the notion of a natural scarcity that merits a technical or economic response. We argue that the water question is fundamentally a political question of environmental justice; it is about negotiating alternative visions of the future and deciding whose visions will be produced.