On-line customer research has been conducted for European and American markets by marketers and academics. Whilst e-Commerce and tourism develop rapidly in China, understanding of Chinese Internet travellers is required. This article investigates features of this on-line segment through a survey with 634 responses. It aims to establish segmental information and identify influential factors of e...

Introduction Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a class of flame retardants that were added to thousands of consumer products, such as thermoplastics, electronic equipment, and textiles (Hale et al., 2001).Research has revealed that municipal sewage could be a significant source of PBDEs contamination that is ubiquitous throughout the environment (North, 2004; Song et al., 2006). The Pe...

The radiative and microphysical effects of aerosols can affect the development of convective clouds. The objective of this study is to reveal if the overall aerosol effects have any discernible impact on the diurnal variations in precipitation and lightning by means of both observational analysis and modeling. As the first part of two companion studies, this paper is concerned with analyzing ho...

We measured levels of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at seven sites in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China during the Air Quality Monitoring Campaign spanning 4 October to 3 November 2004. Two of the sites, Guangzhou (GZ) and Xinken (XK), were intensive sites at which we collected multiple daily canister samples. The observations reported here provide a look at the VOC distri...

Assessing and managing water use is crucial for supporting sustainable river basin management and regional development. The first consistent and comprehensive assessment of sectorial water use in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) is presented by analysing homogenized annual water use data from 2000 to 2010 in relation to socio economic statistics for the same period. An abstraction of water use, usin...

Papers published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions are under open-access review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Abstract Trends and variations of the extreme water levels defined as exceeding/falling below certain thresholds (mean ± std) across the Pearl River Delta (PRD) are systematically explored using the linear regression method. Research results indica...

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contamination in tropical and sub-tropical areas and the associated risks have attracted great concern. A total of 69 samples representing five distinct land types were collected to assess PCB concentrations in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), South China, including spatial distributions in soils of the area, the probable anthropogenic sources, and related potential...

China is rapidly urbanizing and will inevitably face trade-offs between promoting economic growth through further urbanization and protecting fertile farmland against accelerated urban expansion. This paper presents how this dilemma is being addressed in one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions in China, the Pearl River Delta (PRD), by means of assessing urban growth and farmland dynamic, as ...

BACKGROUND The aims were to identify predictors of treatment retention in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) clinics in Pearl River Delta, China. METHODS Retrospective longitudinal study. PARTICIPANTS 6 MMT clinics in rural and urban area were selected. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Stratified random sampling was employed, and the data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and life t...

In Part 1 of two companion studies, analyses of observational data over the Pearl River Delta of China showed that larger aerosol concentrations (polluted conditions) resulted in suppressed precipitation before the midafternoon while resulting in enhanced precipitation after the midafternoon when compared to precipitation with smaller aerosol concentrations (clean conditions). This suggests tha...