Neighbourhood Committees and Community Service Delivery In China
Abstract In recent years, major environmental and planning issues have served to mobilise local communities and raise political consciousness. In response, many government authorities have embarked on pursuing policies aimed at decentralising certain services in order to increase community consultation. With this in mind, the author reports on the use of neighbourhood committees for local service delivery in Chinese cities. Following a discussion of the meaning of a neighbourhood in China, the author outlines the role and organisation of a neighbourhood committee in the City of Tianjin, and then discusses its possible relevance for local government administration in Australia.
Urban employment and labour allocation policies in post-Mao China
Abstract China's leadership has faced serious urban unemployment and inefficient state labour allocation systems. Their drive to increase employment through economic ‘readjustment’ makes developmental sense and the quantitative results appear impressive, but the problem of urban labour-surplus defies solution in the short term, given population pressures, planning weaknesses, economic constraints and ideological proscriptions. Efforts to improve the allocation and utilization of labour have foundered because they contradict employment policy and are opposed by key urban groups. These issues throw into relief the complex relationships between economic and political determinants in the Chinese reform process.
Exopolysaccharide biosynthesis and related enzyme activities of the medicinal fungus, Ganoderma lucidum, grown on lactose in a bioreactor
Exopolysaccharide (EPS) production and biosynthesis were studied in Ganoderma lucidum, a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine, grown with lactose in a bioreactor. β-Galactosidase activity, which implies the existence of a lactose permease system, was induced by lactose. Lactose feeding also increased α-phosphoglucomutase activity and EPS accumulation but decreased phosphoglucose isomerase activity and lactate concentration in the culture broth. A maximum cell density of 22 g l−1 and EPS at 1.25 g l−1 were obtained in fed-batch bioreactor culture.