Confronted by the current global economic crisis, Taipei,China’s economy has suffered much like its neighbors. However, Taipei,China is different from other East Asia economies in several aspects. First, Taipei,China’s industrial organization is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), unlike the chaebols of the Republic of Korea or the Japanese Kabushiki-gaish. Second, Taipei,Ch...

“Everyone has the right to life so why should we kill one of our daughters to enable the other to survive?”* That question by the parents of conjoined twins, Mary and Jodie, who were so fused that any attempt to separate them would inevitably result in the death of Mary, stands as a challenge not only to their caregivers at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, but to all who confronted th...

Translating and translation are transformed with Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Within three decades, a new work environment is shaking up the translator’s world. New types of translators are emerging. The balance between supply and demand is changing. However, we need adequate tools and methods to investigate the new hierarchy which has become established between translators, ...

Features of rheological laws applied to solid-like granular materials are recalled and confronted to microscopic approaches via discrete numerical simulations. We give examples of model systems with very similar equilibrium stress transport properties – the much-studied force chains and force distribution – but qualitatively different strain responses to stress increments. Results on the stabil...