BRICS development: a long way to a powerful economic club and new international organization

The year 2015 witnessed a bifurcated direction for BRICS and emerging economies: all BRICS members' economic growth slowed or stagnated, resulting in more gloomy forecasts for the future. But at the same time, the New Development Bank was set up. The progress of the preliminary institutionalization of the BRICS was mainly driven by China and Russia, which reflected their strong desire to advance a multilateral world order, and to form a new power base for the non-Western countries. The further substantial development of the BRICS depends upon its capability to overcome the structural obstacles among the five countries, amongst which the huge discrepancy between the economies and the heterogeneous nature of the membership are the most prominent ones.     

A framework for the multimodal analysis of online news galleries: What makes a “good” picture gallery?

The development of digital technology in recent years has led to a revolution in news production and dissemination. In terms of production, we have witnessed a fundamental shift towards visual story-telling. Images dominate the verbal story space and have the potential to become the story themselves. Beyond this, they are also creating unique spaces for themselves (e.g. the online news gallery), with new multimodal genres posing challenges for practitioners and analysts alike. The potential effects of such fundamental shifts on the professional news story-telling practices of the legacy news media provide a rich research opportunity for understanding both how and whether news organisations fulfil their mandate of making sense of the plethora of information that is now available. In this paper, we concern ourselves with one particular innovation in visual news reporting – the online news gallery, or picture gallery in journalism terms. We report on a qualitative analysis of 35 galleries from 12 English-language newspapers with online presence from Europe, North America, Australia and Asia, and interrogate the choices made by institutions in composing this particular type of multimodal “text”, as it is situated in a professional, news story-telling context. In doing so, we explore how a systemic-functional semiotic approach to multimodal news discourse may help us to access the meaning potential of this emerging genre as a vehicle for multimodal digital news reporting, present a framework for the multimodal analysis of online news galleries and consider its implications for the education of media practitioners.     

死缓限制减刑制度相关问题探析

死缓限制减刑制度,是我国刑罚制度在国际国内双重压力之下的创新之举。该制度脱胎于原有的死缓制度,同时为解决新形势下中国死刑适用的问题提供了新思路。从宏观视角看,该制度的双重属性和符合逻辑的量刑思维进路之选择,于争论之理论中寻求优势理论,可为在微观视角下对该制度精细化解读奠定宏观理论框架。     

Getting it (approximately) right (and center and left!): Reliability and uncertainty estimates for the comparative manifesto data

The extensive estimates of party policy preferences produced by the CMP (Comparative Manifesto Project, now MARPOR) have proved robust and valid over a wide variety of research applications. But all estimates carry some error. We demonstrate that one of the two existing assessments of non-systematic error in the CMP data strongly overstates their reliability while the other understates it, leaving much potential for mis-estimation. We develop a new method which extends classical test theory and directly estimates overall data reliability; reliabilities and standard errors of measurement for each party system; and standard errors of measurement for each data-point. These should facilitate use of the CMP policy scores which are usually the only ones available for extended party and policy research.     

西方工会振兴的战略选择

工会振兴是西方国家工会为应对工会目前所处的困境而提出的新战略,目的是重振日渐衰落的工会。振兴的战略选择主要包括工会内部重组、加强工会培训、与雇主和政府结成社会伙伴关系、改革工会组织模式、与社会其它团体结成联盟等。     

The incompatibility of peacemaking and military power

Since the 1990s, the Sino-Cameroonian relationship has grown rapidly. Today, China plays a key role in Cameroon's economic development, particularly in regards to infrastructure projects. However, in the last few years, Yaoundé's partnership with Beijing has encountered an increasing number of obstacles. Behind the warm pro-China rhetoric, the Cameroonian government has become more willing to rebalance their country's external relations, in favour of both its traditional partners and other emerging economies.     

以就业为导向的高职英语口语的测试方法探索

语言测试在学界的不断论证之下,经过多个阶段的发展已经形成几类测试方法。通过进行语言测试发展不同阶段的比较以及交际性语言测试特点的分析,发现交际性语言测试是以就业为导向的高职英语口语教学要求相适应的有效的测试方法,并提出有效可行的测试方式和评分方法。     

Generation effects? Evolution of independence–unification views in Taiwan, 1996–2016

The landslide victory of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan's 2016 presidential and legislative elections is often interpreted as a persistent swing in attitudes toward cross-strait relations and Taiwan independence. Popular as this interpretation may be, it still runs the risk of mistaking a short-term reaction to a lame duck president's policy performance for a long-term change in attitudes.This study analyzes the evolution of independence–unification (IU) views in the Taiwan population from 1996 to 2016. After reviewing the literature on political generations in Taiwan, I hypothesize that a long-term cohort succession replacing older prounification generations accounted for the evolution toward proindependence views. By pooling six independent face-to-face surveys into repeated cross-sectional data, this study applies a comprehensive multilevel cross-classified random-effect model of age–period–cohort analysis. Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation results confirm that, besides age and period effects, younger cohorts and the 1999 Taiwan-centered high school curriculum have had significant effects on the change in trends in IU views.     

中亚新地区主义与上海合作组织

本文是以理论为基础的实证研究,目的在于探讨中亚一体化发展的条件以及发展缓慢的原因.传统的地区一体化理论范式存在其合理内核,但不足以涵盖所有地区的一体化进程.中亚地区的一体化需要具备综合性、无霸权和机制化等条件,可以把这种新地区主义模式称为"战略一体化".中亚地区一体化机制建设的过程表明,在不同的历史时期,上述中亚地区一体化的条件并没有完全具备,导致一体化机制建设进展缓慢.中亚地区的重要地区性国际组织——上海合作组织在前期成果、合作领域、合作理念、机制化建设等方面为中亚一体化提供了条件,与中亚新地区主义模式的本质特征相契合,在中亚的地区一体化过程中发挥了重要作用,并将为中亚的一体化机制建设提供新的机会.