Journal articles on the topic 'China Coast defenses'

Tidal flats play an important role in promoting coastal biodiversity, defense against flooding, land reclamation and recreation. Many coastal tidal flats, especially the tide-dominant ones, are muddy. However, the number of studies on the profile shape and surficial sediment distribution of muddy tidal flats is small compared to sandy beaches. Based on high spatial-resolution measurements along the tide-dominant Jiangsu Coast, China, we analyzed the morphology and sediment characteristics of the unvegetated intertidal flats along the Jiangsu Coast. The Jiangsu Coast can be divided into an eroding northern part (north coast) and an accreting southern part (south coast). The beach slope of the north coast shows a southward flattening trend, apart from some outliers related to rocky parts of the coastline. We found alternating very fine and coarse sediment (depending on the local clay content) for different locations along the north coast, which can be explained from consolidation and armoring-induced erosion resistance. In the south coast, we found gradual coarsening of bed surface sediment and gradual flattening of beach slopes to the south. This seemingly unexpected pattern is explained by the flood-dominant current causing landward sediment transport, larger tidal range in the south part, sheltering effect of the Radial Sand Ridges, and contribution of different sediment sources, viz. the Abandoned Yellow River Delta and the Radial Sand Ridges. In the cross-shore direction, the sediment grain size decreases landward. Waves are only of secondary importance for the sediment dynamics at the unvegetated tidal flats along the Jiangsu Coast.

As Jakarta is working to resolve the South China Sea (SCS) territorial dispute through its role as an honest broker, Beijing seems to lead the SCS conflict right into the foremost defense of the Republic of Indonesia. This is indicated by the China Coast Guard (CCG) aggressive actions in guarding illegal fishing in Natuna Sea. The conflict escalation raises the question of whether Natuna will enter into the SCS territorial dispute. However, these concerns did not occur due to the appropriate response of Jakarta in maintaining the stability of the region without undermining its defense of its territorial sovereignty. Significantly strengthening the defense in Natuna does not create a security dilemma for ASEAN member countries as it is done in conjunction with the border diplomacy effort. This shows the success of border diplomacy as indirect deterrence against China. This paper will be divided into 4 sections, first the author will give an overview of the SCS conflict and the threats to maritime security in Natuna. Next will be described the concept of ‘middlepowermanship’ according to Cooper, Higgot and Nossal who states that the middle power is reflected from the characteristics of foreign policy. This paper finds that the response reflects the Indonesia’s consistency as a middle power. Proved by Indonesia’s niche diplomacy under Jokowi administration, as well as the role of Jakarta as coalition builder for ASEAN.

Are the Indian nuclear and space programs driven primarily by defense or development motives? What are India's economic and technological capabilities in these fields?Defense motives are strong, but are offset by the potential consequences of programs of nuclear weapons and delivery systems that could produce less rather than more security by provoking counter-reactions in Pakistan and China. The underlying development motives are equally strong, but the programs may not be cost-efficient in the short run. Ultimately, the justification for these programs is based on a dual argument: strategic circumstances justify the maintenance of the nuclear weapons option through development of civilian nuclear energy and space programs irrespective of cost or efficiency, while civilian needs in nuclear energy and space-based telecommunications and meteorological systems provide the defense sector with nuclear weapons and delivery systems options. Although at present neither may seem economically justifiable independently of the other, together they provide a reinforcing defense-development justification.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate linkages among competitive strategy, strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainty, and organizational performance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – In China, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the USA, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in three major cities. Competitive strategy, capabilities, uncertainty, and performance were measured by previously validated scales. Findings – Findings support the integrity Miles and Snow generic strategic typology. Performance satisfaction was significantly lower in firms employing a reactor strategy as opposed to those employing prospector, defender, or analyzer strategies. Additional support was found for the concept of strategic clarity, as businesses reporting moderate strategic clarity had lower levels of satisfaction with performance than those reporting either a single strategy or a combination emphasis on three equal strategies. Practical implications – Chinese SMEs tend to prefer cost-based approaches to their local markets. A differentiation market approach is challenging in most local Chinese economies due to the low wages of most jobs in an economy that is still largely centrally planned. In the USA, more disposable income leads to more market opportunities. While this situation is gradually changing in China, it is not at a point where SMEs feel comfortable pursuing totally differentiated strategies. Originality/value – Several distinctions in competitive strategy, capabilities, and environmental uncertainty between China and the USA are recognized by analysis. Analyzers and defenders in Chinese SMEs tend to follow industry prospectors with lower prices and/or superior service. They might change strategies after gaining a foothold in the market. Performance for SMEs with low strategic clarity often depends on established guanxi with governmental agencies or stated-owned enterprises, a situation very different from that in the USA.

This paper focuses on the recent publication of the SIPRI Institute on global defense spending for 2019. The latter is on the rise for 5th consecutive year, climbing to the highest point since 1988, the Cold War era. This fact has multiple interpretations. The most important construe apropos the geopolitical competition, from hegemonic competition between the United States and China to regional ones, can constitute perils to international security with unpredictable and catastrophic consequences for global peace, economy and trade. The recent crisis over the Covid-19 pandemic has expanded the breach between the West and China, raising skepticism or even suspicious on both sides. Relations between the two powers, the United States and China, have deteriorated, threatening global stability while states are unable to find a commonplace for a successful and definitive fight against the pandemic.The unstable geopolitical environment has experienced the burden of the pandemic crisis due to Covid-19. The restrictive measures taken by governments to intercept the pandemic may be the reasoning for restraining defense spending world widely. This prospect can be a future reality if we take into account the cost caused to national and global economy by the protracted lockdown. Therefore, governments may be compelled to increase spending on the welfare state (health infrastructure, support for the lower classes, support for sectors of the economy most affected by the pandemic such as transportation and tourism) by cutting the defense budget. The latter consists a critical indicator of national sovereignty and its fully understandable the fact that is exceptionally difficult for states to make unforced military budget cuts. However, because of the recent extremely critical situations experienced by humanity as a whole, governments should consider limiting their defense spending, which will be monitored closely by the United Nations for a limited time and focus on dealing with the economic and social effects of the lockdown.

The antifouling activity of a series of hexane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and aqueous extracts from 11 species of marine sessile organisms collected from the south-east coast of China was investigated. Settlement inhibition of cyprid larvae of the barnacleBalanus albicostatuswas used to evaluate their antifouling efficacy. Screening of the 44 extracts showed antifouling activity in 90.9% of the hexane extracts followed by 90.9% of the ethyl acetate, 72.7% of the ethanol and 36.4% of the aqueous extracts. The hexane extracts ofTubularia mesembryanthemum, Notarcus leachii cirrosusandStyela canopus, the ethyl acetate extracts ofBugula neritinaandN. leachii cirrosus,and the ethanol extracts of B. neritinaandAnthopleura sp.were the most active in inhibiting the settlement ofB. albicostatus, with EC50values all below 50 μg/ml. At least one of the four extracts of each tested species exhibited antifouling activity, suggesting that all 11 marine sessile organisms contained antifouling substances and they may have evolved chemical defences against biofouling on their surfaces.

Sandbank-lagoons are generally natural harbors for their good defense of wave, deep water near the coast and little source of sediments. Taking Bohe harbor locating on the sandbank-lagoon in South China as the example, water-sediment regime in the harbor block has been studied in this paper. It is shown that wave-induced long-shore current has a significant impact on the sediment movements in the planned harbor block and its back-silting is controlled by SW flow and wave power, and the training dike can trap sediment into the harbor block. And so in the harbor block planned around the west side of Bohe bay mouth not only can shelter the entrance of the lagoon and control wave-induced long-shore current, but also improve environment for back-silting.

Pycnonotus jocosus is known as red-whiskered bulbul or known by local Malaysian as songbird or burung candik. Burung candik is one of the favourite pet birds’. Generally, it comes from Bangladesh, southern China, India, Nepal, north Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (Animal Pest Alert: Red-whiskered Bulbul). Burung candik is favoured because of their ability in singing in east-coast region of Malaysia specifically. In this research, the caring practices are observed. All the result were recorded and documented through interview and experiment research. The caring practices concerned are housing and cage, bathing and grooming, singing feature and diet and feeding. The results showed that one cage equipped with one bird for comfort and to avoid fighting. The birds were needed to be bathed once in a week at least according to the bird’s willingness. General singing functions are to attract the mate and territorial defense. Feed given were insects, fruits and pellet.

AbstractThe practice turn in IR offers new ways to understand how diplomats can creatively engage with their environment and one another. Yet, sometimes their diplomatic practices limit their ability to achieve agreements. This article focuses on how and why domestic practices conflict with international practices, and why states sometimes might feel constrained into engaging in practices that harm their international position. Drawing on field theory, I introduce a causal mechanism I call symbolic binding that explains why regimes may become so bound by their domestic practices of legitimation that they incur considerable international cost. Symbolic binding occurs when the symbolic practices needed to generate domestic legitimacy intersect and conflict with practices from the diplomatic field, when domestic audiences are observing the diplomatic interaction, and when regimes have limited access to alternative forms of political capital. I demonstrate the logic of this mechanism by analyzing the antagonistic diplomacy that occurred between Britain and China from the late eighteenth until the late nineteenth century. I show that the root of this diplomatic conflict can be linked to the incompatibility of both states’ diplomatic practices and show how the Qing regime's need to maintain domestic legitimacy constrained it into steadfastly adhering to diplomatic practices that were incompatible with that of encroaching European powers.

The United States’ South Asia strategy has been based on the calculation of its overall national security priorities. In practice, when U.S. priorities are at odds with those of other regional powers, Washington tends to adopt a “no-expectations” psychological approach toward its regional partners to avoid disappointment, a technical “de-hyphenation strategy” to improve policy efficiency, and practical cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of its South Asia strategy. However, Washington often has to come to terms with the realities on the ground with regard to its leadership role in South Asia. For the time being, Washington has articulated its strategic objective in South Asia, that is, a regional balance of power in favor of the United States vis-a-vis its perceived competitor, China. Therefore, it has conducted conditional cooperation with Pakistan and Afghanistan on land, and committed support for India on security issues in the Indian Ocean, so as to hedge against China’s growing presence in South Asia. The enhancement of U.S.-India defense and security cooperation has fueled China’s suspicion of India’s intention to join the U.S.-led coalition against it. By the logic of balance of power, the United States will continue to regard India as a strategic counterweight to China, which is likely to increase the possibility of strategic tensions and conflicts between China and India that may finally entangle the United States.

The huge investment in the airport has great significance for economic development and national defense. In the past 20 years, China has built a large number of airports, and its pavements have been exposed to the outdoor environment for a long time, resulting in easy be damaged. Therefore, in recent years, the problems faced by the renovation of airport pavements have become increasingly prominent. Based on the analysis of the core functional indicators of the airport pavement, the paper establishes the hierarchical structure model, functional model and cost model, and finally forms the optimization model of the renovation process decision. The simulation calculation is carried out through engineering examples, and the advantages, shortcomings and their gaps of different renovation processes are obtained, which prove the rationality and effectiveness of the model.

AbstractUniversity of Hawaii at Hilo In 1864, Win Kang embarked on a steamship for California from an interior town near Canton in China, the first member of the Kang family to emigrate. He was sick, and had no friends on the ship or in California. When the steamship landed in San Francisco, about a thousand Chinese went aboard, including a secretary from the Ning Yeung huiguan or Ning Yeung Company who wanted to see if there were any countrymen from his district of China. Ning Yeung huiguan was just one of the huiguan in San Francisco. The secretary found Win Kang and took him to the company hall on Broadway. In the huiguan house, he was fed and nursed for about two weeks until he regained his health. He then went to the temple on the upper floor of the huiguan building and made thank-offerings to the gods. In the next few years, the secretary helped him to find a job, defended him in court, prosecuted the man who robbed him in a Barbary Coast alley, adjudicated a dispute he had with another Chinese, and helped prove that he was innocent of robbery charges (it turned out that the culprit was his employer's son). He paid the huiguan 5 or 6 for the assistance he received when he was sick.

Understanding the dynamics of polycentric urbanization is important for urban studies and management. This paper proposes an analytical model that uses multisource big geospatial data to characterize such dynamics to facilitate policy making. There are four main steps: 1) main centers and subcenters are identified using spatial cluster analysis and geographically weighted regression (GWR) based on Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)/NPP and social media check-in data; 2) the built-up areas are extracted by using Defense Meteorological Satellite Program – Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) gradient images; 3) the economic corridors that connect the main center and subcenters are constructed using road network data from Open Street Map (OSM) with the least-cost distance method; and 4) the major urban development direction is identified by analyzing the changes in built-up areas within the economic corridors. The model is applied to three major cities in northeastern, central, and northwestern China (Shenyang, Wuhan, and Xi'an) from 1992 to 2012.

Abstract. The interaction between storm surge and concurrent precipitation is poorly understood in many coastal regions. This paper investigates the potential compound effects from these two flooding drivers along the coast of China for the first time by using the most comprehensive records of storm surge and precipitation. Statistically significant dependence between flooding drivers exists at the majority of locations that are analysed, but the strength of the correlation varies spatially and temporally and depending on how extreme events are defined. In general, we find higher dependence at the south-eastern tide gauges (TGs) (latitude < 30∘ N) compared to the northern TGs. Seasonal variations in the dependence are also evident. Overall there are more sites with significant dependence in the tropical cyclone (TC) season, especially in the summer. Accounting for past sea level rise further increases the dependence between flooding drivers, and future sea level rise will hence likely lead to an increase in the frequency of compound events. We also find notable differences in the meteorological patterns associated with events where both drivers are extreme versus events where only one driver is extreme. Events with both extreme drivers at south-eastern TG sites are caused by low-pressure systems with similar characteristics across locations, including high precipitable water content (PWC) and strong winds that generate high storm surge. Based on historical disaster damages records of Hong Kong, events with both extreme drivers account for the vast majority of damages and casualties, compared to univariate flooding events, where only one flooding driver occurred. Given the large coastal population and low capacity of drainage systems in many Chinese urban coastal areas, these findings highlight the necessity to incorporate compound flooding and its potential changes in a warming climate into risk assessments, urban planning, and the design of coastal infrastructure and flood defences.

Bearings are widely used in aerospace and other fields, its performance directly affects the production efficiency and safety. Nowadays, virtual simulation technology has become an indispensable part of intelligent manufacturing field. As a virtual simulation technology, FEA has been widely used in bearing design. China needs to import many aerospace bearings every year in aerospace area, Chinese national defense and other high precision technology is limited because the blockade of advanced bearing technology. We can use dynamics modeling and virtual simulation technology to achieve the predictive design, and strive to achieve foreign level. In this paper, the author proposed a method of bearing design based on virtual simulation technology. The factors of bearing which affect the dynamic characteristics are considered, the process of design bearing based on virtual simulation is also considered. According to the different design parameters, the simulation results are used to verify the rationality, these can reduce the cost and improve the reliability. The virtual simulation technology is applied to design the 7016C angular contact ball bearing which used in aerospace area, and supported decision-making in structure design and data analyze. Finally, The feasibility of this method is verified by experiments..

The knowledge of biotechnology plays an important role in the development of biological weapons. Biological weapons are considered an attractive factor in war for several reasons: ease of manufacture, low cost, confirmed injury, increased number of victims, large losses incurred by other countries. Biological weapons detection methods are among the most important means of military defense. Biological sensors are used in early detection of weapons. Biotechnology is of paramount importance in all fields of medicine, engineering, agriculture, industry, as well as military life. The key applications of biotechnology in the military are in the areas of sensor systems and systems for protection from espionage. Among the most important countries that have applied knowledge of bioweapons technology into their security system are the USA and China. Despite the enormous advantages of biotechnology, it has negative effects in biological weapon production. Therefore, the near future will witness a tremendous boom in biotechnology. DNA profiling also plays an important role in detection of crime. The overall aim of the review is to emphasize the importance of biotechnology towards solving bioterrorism and other forms of security challenges in an environment.

Undervaluing the stakeholders’ attributes, salience, and potential to impact a project during its planning and execution may result in stakeholders’ dissatisfaction, distrust, and opposition, leading to project controversies, cost overrun, schedule delays, and even project cessation. The existing stakeholders’ management typologies due to their inherent limitations are unable to provide the project managers with an optimal and comprehensive solution. The present study proposes a framework to improve the stakeholders’ management process by a novel way of mapping stakeholders’ attribute-based salience and potential impact probability into a dynamic stakeholder relational matrix. The framework was validated through a case study conducted on a mega-highway project from China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey and analyzed using SPSS. Twelve stakeholder groups with 36 stakeholders were identified. Stakeholders’ salience index and stakeholders’ impact probability were computed and mapped in the stakeholders’ salience assessment matrix (SSAM). The findings revealed significant dominance of the political hierarchy, project management, and defense services in the alignment selection process. Environmentalists, community, local authority, and non-governmental organizations were found deprived of reasonable participation opportunities, and their presence is often undermined and neglected in the selection process. However, the logical stakeholders’ classification and corresponding relational and engagement strategies offered by SSAM are expected to compensate the disparity and improve transparency in the decision process. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by proposing a comprehensive framework that integrates stakeholders’ salience, potential impact, and relational strategy simultaneously. The framework is expected to aid project managers during crucial project decision-making stages to assess stakeholders, their participation provisos, and desired engagement approaches. The proposed framework exhibits the requisite flexibility for its application on diverse infrastructure projects with certain project-specific modifications.

Abstract Since 1987 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] the global jet engine community is facing the historical fact that jet engine steering is gradually replacing canards and the common, often dangerous and obsolete, aerodynamic-only flight control – a fact that (i) has already affected the defense-industrial complex in the US, Russia, China, Japan, S-Korea and India, (ii) has integrated the traditional jet-engine components R&D with advanced aero-electro-physics, stealth technology, thrust vectoring aerodynamics and material science. Moreover, this military revolution is historically due to expand into the civil transport jets domain, [6, 7, 8, 9]. The historical aim of the JES-Revolution remains the same: Replace the common, stall-spin sensitive canards [6] and Aerodynamic-Only-Obsolete-Flight Control (“AOOF Control”). Invented about 100 years ago for propeller-driven air vehicles, it has already been partially replaced for failure to function in WVR-combat post-stall domain, and for the following reasons: In comparison with complete Tail-Less, Canard-Less, Stealth-JES (Figure 5 and References [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]), the common AOOF Control increases drag, weight, fuel consumption, complexity, cost, and reduces flight safety, stealth, [Low Detectability] and provides zero post-stall, WVR air combat capability while its CANARDS KILL LD & REDUCE JES. Examples of stealth fighter aircraft that have already replaced canards and AOOF-Control where JES provides at least 64 to 0 KILL-RATIO advantage over AOOF-Controlled conventional fighter aircraft: The U.S. JES F-22 and, apparently, the Russian JES-Su-T-50 & 35S, China 2016-J-31, Indian HAL AMCA & FGFA, Japanese JES IHHI ATD-X, S-Korean JES KF-X. Cf. X-44 in Figure 5. Consequently, the jet engine is no longer defined as providing only brute force forward. Instead, it successfully competes with and wins over the wrong, dominating AOOF-Control, at least as a backup flight control whose sole factual domain is currently a well-established, primary flight controller RE any post-stall, super-agility, [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].

This issue presents papers from the 16th annual Asia Pacific Symposium on Intelligent and Evolutionary Systems held in Kyoto, Japan, on December 12-14, 2012. Kyoto is an ancient capital whose traditions have matured through the ages, featuring rich cultural and artisanal opportunities. The symposium brings together researchers from Asian Pacific Rim nations who are working in the fields of intelligent systems and evolutionary computation. Here they have a rare chance to exchange ideas, present their latest results and discuss possible collaboration. In order to encourage in-depth technical discourse, the number of participants is limited to about 40. The symposium allows ample time for discussions in addition to paper presentations. We focus on papers related to recent developments in intelligent and evolutionary systems. This issue features 11 interesting and informative papers. 1. Improvement of Eye Gesture Interface System 2. Modelling and Simulation of Road Traffic Behaviour: Artificial Drivers with Personality and Emotions 3. User-Friendly Simulator for Open Modeling by Hierarchical Management 4. On the Impact of Path Redundancy Awareness in Evolutionary P2P Networking 5. Influence of Field Structure on the Multi-Agent Coverage Algorithm on Unknown Fields 6. Understanding Geographic Attentions of Crowd from Photographing Information 7. Development of Ghost Controller for Ms Pac-Man Versus Ghost Team with Grammatical Evolution 8. Construction of Molecular Learning Network 9. Fractal-Based Analysis for the Energy Consumption Efficiency of Biological Networks 10. Designing Internal Reward of Reinforcement Learning Agents in Multi-Step Dilemma Problem 11. Cooperative Transport by a Swarm Robotic System Based on CMA-NeuroES Approach We sincerely thank all of the participants, committee members, and plenary speakers for their invaluable contributions to this symposium. Also deserving of thanks are members of the organization: Dr. Akira Namatame (National Defense Academy), Dr. Hussein A. Abbass (University of New South Wales), Dr. Shu-Heng Chen (National Chengchi University), Dr. Mitsuo Gen (Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute), Dr. Hiroshi Kawakami (Kyoto University), Dr. Aki-Hiro Sato (Kyoto University), Dr. Hidenori Kawamura (Hokkaido University), Dr. Bob McKay (Seoul National University), Dr. Kazuhiro Ohkura (Hiroshima University), and Dr. Tomohiro Shirakawa (National Defense Academy), and program committees: Dr. Dror Kenett (Tel Aviv University), Dr. Tobias Preis (Johannes Gutenberg University), Dr. Yasushi Kambayashi (Nippon Institute of Technology), Dr. Hiroshi Sato (National Defense Academy), Dr. Sachiyo Arai (Chiba University), Dr. Saori Iwanaga (Japan Coast Guard Academy), Dr. Noman Nasimul (The University of Tokyo), Dr. Hisashi Handa (Okayama University), Dr. Mengchun Xie (Wakayama National College of Technology), Dr. Masao Kubo (National Defense Academy of Japan), Dr. Keiki Takadama (The University of Electro-Communications), Dr. Eisuke Kita (Nagoya University), Dr. Hitoshi Iba (The University of Tokyo), Dr. Yusuke Nojima (Osaka Prefecture University), Dr. Zdzislaw Burda (Jagiellonian University), and Dr. Keiji Suzuki (Hokkaido University). Meetings of creative minds such as those taking part in this symposium are sure to encourage new creative minds. Symposium speakers include Dr. Sung-Bae Cho of Yonsei University, Korea, Dr. Mitsuo Gen of the Fuzzy Logic Systems Institute in Japan, and Dr. Jun Wang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel MEMS vector hydrophone with the key features of smaller size, better consistency, higher sensitivity and directional reception, and to develop a highly effective and economical obstacle avoidance sonar system. Currently, the typical vector hydrophones are resonant vector hydrophones based on the accelerometer, which greatly increases the volume and constrains the detection sensitivity. Also, because the system is composed of a number of devices, its size is difficult to be reduced. Design/methodology/approach – A novel double T-shape MEMS vector hydrophone is proposed with a fish’s lateral line organs as prototypes. The structure size and layout location of the piezoresistors were determined by simulation analysis, and the double T-shape microstructure was fabricated integrally by MEMS manufacturing technology, after which, the acoustic package of the microstructure was completed and the prototype was produced. Finally, the packaged hydrophone was calibrated in a standing wave field in the first-class national-defense underwater acoustic calibration station of China. Also, the design and test of an obstacle avoidance sonar system based on the vector hydrophone were completed. Findings – The calibration data show that the double T-shape vector hydrophone has a flat frequency response curve, exhibits a sensitivity of −180 dB (1 kHz, 0 dB reference 1 V/uPa) and shows a good directivity pattern in the form of an “8” shape. The test results of the obstacle avoidance sonar system further verify the feasibility of detecting underwater acoustic signals. Research limitations/implications – The next work is to increase the sensitivity by optimizing the microstructure and to realize orientation by organizing array. Practical implications – The hydrophone has the advantages of smaller size, lower cost and directional reception. It can be used to develop highly effective and economical obstacle avoidance sonar system, thus solving the problems of water transport efficiency and traffic safety. The hydrophone has broad application prospects and a huge market potential in the civilian fields. Originality/value – The MEMS technology and innovative bionic microstructure enable the miniaturization and low cost of the hydrophone. The hydrophone is easy to form array and can narrow the array aperture greatly. So, the hydrophone can be widely used in civil sonar systems.

The article examines branding of the border territories of the Far East. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that the border regions of the Far East, subject to the implementation of a set of measures in the field of territorial branding, have great potential for the development of tourism, increasing investments in various sectors of the economy, and reducing population outflows. The work for the first time attempted a scientific understanding of the practical possibilities and prospects for the development of brands of the border territories of the Far East. The aim of the article is to study and discover the most promising areas, methods and technologies for the development of brands of the territories of the Far East. The objective is to investigate the branding practices of the border territories of the Far East, which contribute to the formation of the territories’ favorable perception. The study uses methods of comparative analysis, data synthesis and systematization, as well as the statistical and observation methods. Structural-functional, activity and normative approaches were applied. The empirical basis of the study is made up of regional news sources and official documents. The article shows that the development of brands of the regions of the border territories of the Far East has prospects due to the development of tourism. This is especially important for Primorsky Krai, which is a leader in the tourist region in the Far East and concentrates tourist flows from Asia. The Far East can develop a brand in the field of tourism and culture to expand cooperation with China, Japan, South Korea. Also important are state programs to stimulate tourism in the Far East. It is important to develop certain strong brands, such as the Russian Pacific Fleet, for their subsequent inclusion in the national branding strategy in terms of national defense and security. The development of tourist projects involving several regions of the Far East, like the Eastern Ring of Russia, is hindered by the geographical distance from each other; it is necessary to reduce the cost of movement between regions for the development of tourism. The epidemic of coronavirus, the closure of Russia’s borders with Asian countries led to a weakening of the tourism industry in the Far East and, as a result, the weakening of the opportunities for the development of brands of the regions of the Far East. In this connection, the state should support the tourism sector to maintain and further increase the level of tourism development.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. Next to the main focus on SLR and its effects on resilience, the paper reviews main SLR associated impacts: Floods and inundation, salinization, shoreline change, and effects on mangroves and wetlands. The hazards of SLR related floods increase fastest in urban areas. This is related with both the increasing surface major cities are expected to occupy during the decades to come and the increasing coastal population. In particular Asia and its megacities in the southern part of the continent are increasingly at risk. The discussion points to complexity, inter-disciplinarity, and the related uncertainty, as core characteristics. An integrated combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures is currently considered as the most indicated way to resist SLR today and in the near future.References Aerts J.C.J.H., Hassan A., Savenije H.H.G., Khan M.F., 2000. Using GIS tools and rapid assessment techniques for determining salt intrusion: Stream a river basin management instrument. 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Yamanouchi Develops Software to Depict Workings of Biological Clocks. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Subscribes to Celera Discovery System. Kirin and Genzyme Molecular Oncology to Jointly Develop Antibody Therapeutics. Seoul Dairy — A Leader in the Milk Producing Field for 60 Years. Ambri to Work on Biological Warfare Detector for Australian Defense Department. Autogen Discovers Six More New Genes in Diabetes and Obesity Program. NZ's Genesis and UK Firm to Develop Therapy for Eczema. Windfall for India's Torrent by Sale of Sanofi Stake. Unigene to Sell Osteoporosis Drug in China. US Biotech Company Organizes Conference on Developing Low-cost Vaccines in Nanjing. GlaxoSmithKline Starts Manufacturing of Lamivudine in China. Rhodia and Ube Begins Production of Guaiacol in Wuxi. Degussa Plans to Treble its Turnover in China. Ciba Establishes Factory in Guangzhou. Singapore-based Health One Eyes Listing. Hollis-Eden's Study in Thailand Shows Positive Effect of Anti-Malaria Drug. US Surgical Glove Factory to Move to Malaysia and India.

COVID-19 is an infectious viral disease caused by novel coronavirus to SARS-CoV-2 which emerged from Wuhan, China at the end of year 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic due to highly contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2. Till date COVID-19 has infected and claimed lives of millions of people around the world. The virus is mainly transmitted through droplets from symptomatic patients; however, there are many cases of infection from asymptomatic people, wherein the virus is transmitted even before the symptoms appear. Therefore, it has been strategized to control the spread of virus from one person to another. Moreover, inadequate medical facilities, high cost of treatment and lack of effective medication against novel COVID-19, non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) can help mitigate the transmission such as wearing face masks, face shields, protective clothing and practicing social distancing. However, these standard protective equipment (PE) are not effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, nano-based products are of huge help in effectively preventing COVID-19 outbreak. Face-mask is a cost effective first line of defense against COVID-19 as mask helps prevent the entry of small sized particles. However, commonly used facial masks are incapable of preventing the entry of small sized corona virus, which gets stuck in mask and can live on it for up to 9 days. Moreover, if such mask worn for longer period of time, virus can enter inside the body via mouth and nasal passage. Therefore, masks should be designed such that they are effective, antiviral and comfortable to use. Recently a research showed that nanoceutical N95 mask made with Zinc Oxide nanoflower cotton fabrics were comfortable, washable, porous and light-weight which solved the common problem of carbon dioxide rebreathing and prevented the spread of virus through the pores. Nanotechnology also offers a lot of opportunities for the development of more effective and promising disinfectant systems. In Prague, nano-polymer disinfectants were sprayed on few public vehicles to check its efficiency. It was found that Nano-polymer disinfectant can work for almost 21 days as compared to traditional disinfectants. Moreover, it was also found that copper nanoparticles incorporated disinfectants could be really effective against COVID-19. Coronavirus estimated half-life on stainless steel is 5.6h and on plastics 6.8h therefore copper can be used to inactivate virus. Additionally, the efficiency of hand sanitizers could also be enhanced by introducing nanoparticles like copper, silver, gold, and quaternary ammonium cations (QUATs) due to their antiviral properties. These metals and metal oxides can be used to create a surface coating to protect the body against the covid-19 because they possess the ability to stops the binding of viral proteins with human epithelial cells and leads to the viral protein denaturation. Scaling-up these for commercial use could help in effectively preventing COVID-19 spread. These various available nano-based products help equip people for combating COVID-19. Dr. Humera Kausar Associate Professor Kinnaird College for Women University Lahore, Pakistan

This issue of M/C Journal asks what’s your vote worth? And what does citizenship mean now? These questions are pressing, not only for the authors and editors of this special issue, but for anyone who contends with the challenges and opportunities presented by the relationship of the individual to the modern state, the difficulty and necessity of effecting change in our polities, and the needs of individuals and communities within frameworks of unequally representative democracies. And we think that’s pretty well all of us. Talk of voting and citizenship also raise further questions about the relationship of macro-level power politics to the mundane sphere of our everyday lives. Voting is a decision that is decidedly personal, requiring the seclusion of the ballot-box, and in Australia at least, a personal inscription of one’s choice on the ballot paper. It’s an important externalisation of our private thoughts and concerns, and it links us, through our nominated representative, to the machinery of State. Citizenship is a matter of rights and duties, and describes all that we are able or expected to do in our relationship with the State and in our membership of communities, however these defined. Our level of activity as citizens is an expression of our affective relationship with State and community – the political volunteerism of small donations and envelope-stuffing, the assertions of protest, membership in unions, parties or community groups are all ways in which our mundane lives link up with tectonic shifts in national, even global governance. Ever since the debacle of the 2000 US presidential election, there has been intensified debate about the effects of apathy, spin and outright corruption on electoral politics. And since the events of the following September, citizens’ rights have been diminished and duties put on something of a war footing in Western democracies, as States militarise in the face of ‘terror’. (“Be alert, not alarmed”). Branches of cultural theory and political science have redoubled their critique of liberal democracy, and the communicative frameworks that are supposed to sustain it, with some scholars presenting voting as a false choice, political communication as lies, and discourses of citizenship as a disciplinary straightjacket. But recent events have made the editors, at least, a little more optimistic. During the time in which we were taking submissions for this special, double issue of M/C Journal, the citizens of Australia voted to change their Federal Government. After 11 years the John Howard-led Liberal Government came to an end on 23 November, swept aside in an election that cost the former PM his own seat. Within a few weeks the new Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd had, on behalf of the nation, ratified the Kyoto protocol on climate change, apologised to the indigenous ‘stolen generation’ who had been taken from their parents as part of a tragically misconceived project of assimilation, and was preparing to pull Australian combat troops out of Iraq. Australia’s long-delayed Kyoto decision was being tipped at the time of writing as an additional pressure the next US president could not possibly ignore. If the Americans sign up, pressure might in turn build on other big emitters like China to find new solutions to their energy needs. Pulling out of Iraq also left the US looking more isolated still in that seemingly interminable occupation. And the apology, though not enough on its own to overcome the terrible disadvantage of Aboriginal people, made front pages around the world, and will no doubt encourage indigenous peoples in their separate, but related struggles. After so many years of divisive intransigence on these and many other issues, after a decade in which the outgoing Government made the country a linchpin of an aggressive, US-led geopolitics of conflict, change was brought about by a succession of little things. Things like the effect on individuals’ relationships and happiness of a new, unfavourable balance in their workplace. Things like a person’s decision to renounce long-standing fears and reassurances. Things like the choices made by people holding stubby pencils in cardboard ballot boxes. These things cascaded, multiplied, and added up to some things that may become bigger than they already are. It was hard to spot these changes in the mundanity of Australia’s electoral rituals – the queue outside the local primary school, the eye-searing welter of bunting and how-to-vote cards, the floppy-hatted volunteers, and the customary fund-raising sausage-sizzle by the exit door. But they were there; they took place; and they matter. The Prime Minister before Howard, Paul Keating, had famously warned the voters off his successor during his losing campaign in 1996 by saying, at the last gasp, that ‘If you change the Prime Minister, you change the country’. For Keating, the choice embodied in a vote had consequences not just for the future of the Nation, but for its character, its being. Keating, famously, was to his bones a creature of electoral politics – he would say this, one might think, and there are many objections to be made to the claim that anything can change the country, any country, so quickly or decisively. Critical voices will say that liberal democracy really only grafts an illusion of choice onto what’s really a late-capitalist consensus – the apparent changes brought about by elections, and even the very idea of popular or national sovereignties are precisely ideological. Others will argue that democratic elections don’t qualify as a choice because there is evidence that the voters are irrational, making decisions on the basis of slender, or incorrect information, and as a result they often choose leaders that do not serve their interests. Others – like Judith Brett in her latest Quarterly Essay, “Exit Right” – argue that any talk of election results signifying a change in ‘national mood’ belies the fact that changes of government usually reflect quite small overall changes in the vote. In 2007, for example, over 46% of the Australian electorate voted for another Howard term, and only a little over 5% of us changed our minds. There is something to all of these arguments, but not enough to diminish the acts of engaged, mundane citizenship that underpinned Australia’s recent transformation. The Australian Council of Trade Unions’ ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign, which started in 2006, was a grassroots effort to build awareness about the import of the Howard Government’s neoliberal industrial relations reform. As well as bringing down the Government, this may have given Australia’s labour movement a new, independent lease of life. Organisations like GetUp also mobilised progressive grassroots activism in key electorates. Former ABC journalist Maxine McKew, the high profile Labor challenger in Howard’s seat of Bennelong, was assisted by an army of volunteer workers. They letterboxed, doorknocked and answered phones for weeks and were rewarded with the unseating of the Prime Minister. Perhaps what Keating should have said is, ‘by the time you change the Prime Minister, the country already has’. By the time the community at large starts flexing its muscles of citizenship, the big decisions have already been collectively made. In the media sphere too, there was heartening evidence of new forms of engagement. In the old media camp, Murdoch’s The Australian tried to fight a rear-guard campaign to maintain the mainstream media as the sole legitimate forum for public discussion. But its commentaries and editorials looked more than ever anachronistic, as Australia’s increasingly mature blogosphere carried debate and alternative forms of reporting on the election right throughout the year leading up to the long campaign. Politicians too made efforts to engage with participatory culture, with smart uses of Facebook, MySpace and blogs by some leading figures — and a much-derided intervention on YouTube by John Howard, whose video clip misguidedly beginning with the words ‘Good morning’ served as an emblem for a government whose moment had passed. There is evidence this year that America is changing, too, and even though the current rise of Barack Obama as a presidential contender may not result in victory, or even in his nomination, his early successes give more grounds for hope in citizenship. Although the enthusiastic reception for the speeches of this great political orator are described by cynics as ‘creepy’ or ‘cultish’, there are other ways of reading it. We could say that this is evidence of a euphoric affective reinvestment in the possibility of citizenship, and of voting as an agent for change — ‘Yes we can’ is his signature line. The enthusiasm for Obama could also simply be the relief of being able to throw off the defensive versions of citizenship that have prevailed in recent years. It could be that the greatest ‘hope’ Obama is offering is of democratic (and Democratic) renewal, a return to electoral politics, and citizenship, being conducted as if they mean something. The mechanics of Obama’s campaign suggest, too, that ordinary acts of citizenship can make a difference when it comes to institutions of great power, such as the US Presidency. Like Howard Dean before him, Obama’s campaign resourcing is powered by myriad, online gifts from small donors – ordinary men and women have ensured that Obama has more money than the Democrat-establishment Clinton campaign. If nothing else, this suggests that the ‘supply-chain’ of politics is reorienting itself to citizen engagement. Not all of the papers in this issue of M/C Journal are as optimistic as this introduction. Some of them talk about citizenship as a means of exclusion – as a way of defining ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups, as a locus of paranoia. Some see citizenship as heterogenous, and that unequal access to its benefits is a deficit in our democracy. The limits to citizenship, and to the forms of choice that liberal democracy allows need to be acknowledged. But we also need to see these mundane acts of participation as a locus of possibility, and a fulcrum for change. Everyday acts of democracy may not change the country, but they can change the framework in which our conversations about it take place. Indeed, democracy is both more popular and less popular than ever. In our feature article, Brian McNair explores the ‘democratic paradox’ that, on the one hand, democracy spread to 120 countries in the twentieth century while, on the other hand, voter participation in the more established democracies is falling. While rightly cautioning against drawing too neat an equivalence between X Factor and a general election, McNair considers the popularity of voting in participatory TV shows, noting that people will indeed vote when they are motivated enough. He asks whether the evident popularity of voting for play purposes can be harnessed into active citizenship. Melissa Bellanta questions the use of rhetoric of ‘democracy’ in relation to participatory media forms, such as voting in reality TV competitions or in online polls. Bellanta shows how audience interaction was central to late-nineteenth century popular theatre and draws provocative parallels between the ‘voting’ practices of Victorian theatre audiences and contemporary viewer-voting. She argues that the attendant rhetoric of ‘democracy’ in such interactions can divert our attention from the real characteristics of such behaviour. Digital artist xtine explores a ‘crisis of democracy’ created by tensions between participation and control. She draws upon, on the one hand, Guattari’s analysis of strategies for social change and, on the other, polemical discussions of culture jamming by Naomi Klein, and by Adbusters’ founder Kalle Lasn. Her paper introduces a number of Web projects which aim to enable new forms of local consumption and interaction. Kimberley Mullins surveys the shifting relationships between concepts of ‘public’ and ‘audience’. She discuses how these different perspectives blur and intertwine in contemporary political communication, with voters sometimes invoked as citizens and sometimes presented with entertainment spectacles in political discourse. Mark Hayward looks at the development of global television in Italy, specifically the public broadcaster RAI International, in light of the changing nature of political institutions. He links changes in the nature of the State broadcaster, RAI, with changes in national institutions made under the Berlusconi government. Hayward sees these changes as linked to a narrowing conception of citizenship used as a tool for increasingly ethno-centric forms of exclusion. Panizza Allmark considers one response to the 7 July 2005 bombings in London – the “We’re not afraid” Website, where Londoners posted images of life going on “as normal” in the face of the Tube attacks. As Allmark puts it, these photographs “promote the pleasures of western cultural values as a defense against the anxiety of terror.” Paradoxically, these “domestic snapshots” work to “arouse the collective memory of terrorism and violence”, only ambiguously resolving the impact of the 7 July events. This piece adds to the small but important literature on the relationship between photography, blogging and everyday life. James Arvanitakis’s piece, “The Heterogenous Citizen: How Many of Us Care about Don Bradman’s Average” opens out from a consideration of Australia’s Citizenship Test, introduced by the former government, into a typology of citizenship that allows for different versions of citizenship, and understandings of it “as a fluid and heterogenous phenomenon that can be in surplus, deficit, progressive and reactionary”. His typology seeks to open up new spaces for understanding citizenship as a practice, and as a relation to others, communities and the State. Anne Aly and Lelia Green’s piece, “Moderate Islam: Defining the Good Citizen”, thinks through the dilemmas Australian Muslims face in engaging with the broader community, and the heavy mediation of the state in defining the “good”, moderate Muslim identity in the age of terror. Their research is a result of a major project investigating Australian Muslim identity and citizenship, and finds that they are dealt with in media and political discourse through the lens of the “clash” between East and West embodied on the “war on terror”. For them, “religion has become the sole and only characteristic by which Muslims are recognised, denying them political citizenship and access to the public spaces of citizenship.” Alex Burns offers a critical assessment of claims made, and theories advanced about citizen media. He is skeptical about the definitions of citizenship and journalism that underpin optimistic new media theory. He notes the need for future research the reevaluates citizen journalism, and suggests an approach that builds on rich descriptions of journalistic experience, and “practice-based” approaches. Derek Barry’s “Wilde’s Evenings” offers a brief overview of the relationships between citizen journalism, the mainstream media and citizenship, through the lens of recent developments in Australia, and the 2007 Federal election, mentioned earlier in this introduction. As a practitioner and observer, Derek’s focus is on the status of citizen journalism as political activism, and whether the aim of citizen journalism, going forward, should be “payment or empowerment”. Finally, our cover image, by Drew, author of the successful Webcomic toothpastefordinner.com, offers a more sardonic take on the processes of voting and citizenship than we have in our introduction. The Web has not only provided a space for bloggers and citizen journalists, but also for a plethora of brilliant independent comic artists, who not only offer economical, mordant political commentary, but in some ways point the way towards sustainable practices in online independent media. Toothpastefordinner.com is not exclusively focused on political content, but it is flourishing on the basis of giving core content away, and subsisting largely on self-generated merchandise. This is one area for future research in online citizen media to explore.The tension between optimistic and pessimistic assessments of voting, citizenship, and the other apparatuses of liberal democracy will not be going anywhere soon, and nor will the need to “change the country” once in awhile. Meanwhile, the authors and editors of this special edition of M/C Journal hope to have explored these issues in a way that has provoked some further thought and debate among you, as voters, citizens and readers. ReferencesBrett, Judith. “Exit Right.” Quarterly Essay 28 (2008).

This issue of M/C Journal asks what’s your vote worth? And what does citizenship mean now? These questions are pressing, not only for the authors and editors of this special issue, but for anyone who contends with the challenges and opportunities presented by the relationship of the individual to the modern state, the difficulty and necessity of effecting change in our polities, and the needs of individuals and communities within frameworks of unequally representative democracies. And we think that’s pretty well all of us. Talk of voting and citizenship also raise further questions about the relationship of macro-level power politics to the mundane sphere of our everyday lives. Voting is a decision that is decidedly personal, requiring the seclusion of the ballot-box, and in Australia at least, a personal inscription of one’s choice on the ballot paper. It’s an important externalisation of our private thoughts and concerns, and it links us, through our nominated representative, to the machinery of State. Citizenship is a matter of rights and duties, and describes all that we are able or expected to do in our relationship with the State and in our membership of communities, however these defined. Our level of activity as citizens is an expression of our affective relationship with State and community – the political volunteerism of small donations and envelope-stuffing, the assertions of protest, membership in unions, parties or community groups are all ways in which our mundane lives link up with tectonic shifts in national, even global governance. Ever since the debacle of the 2000 US presidential election, there has been intensified debate about the effects of apathy, spin and outright corruption on electoral politics. And since the events of the following September, citizens’ rights have been diminished and duties put on something of a war footing in Western democracies, as States militarise in the face of ‘terror’. (“Be alert, not alarmed”). Branches of cultural theory and political science have redoubled their critique of liberal democracy, and the communicative frameworks that are supposed to sustain it, with some scholars presenting voting as a false choice, political communication as lies, and discourses of citizenship as a disciplinary straightjacket. But recent events have made the editors, at least, a little more optimistic. During the time in which we were taking submissions for this special, double issue of M/C Journal, the citizens of Australia voted to change their Federal Government. After 11 years the John Howard-led Liberal Government came to an end on 23 November, swept aside in an election that cost the former PM his own seat. Within a few weeks the new Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd had, on behalf of the nation, ratified the Kyoto protocol on climate change, apologised to the indigenous ‘stolen generation’ who had been taken from their parents as part of a tragically misconceived project of assimilation, and was preparing to pull Australian combat troops out of Iraq. Australia’s long-delayed Kyoto decision was being tipped at the time of writing as an additional pressure the next US president could not possibly ignore. If the Americans sign up, pressure might in turn build on other big emitters like China to find new solutions to their energy needs. Pulling out of Iraq also left the US looking more isolated still in that seemingly interminable occupation. And the apology, though not enough on its own to overcome the terrible disadvantage of Aboriginal people, made front pages around the world, and will no doubt encourage indigenous peoples in their separate, but related struggles. After so many years of divisive intransigence on these and many other issues, after a decade in which the outgoing Government made the country a linchpin of an aggressive, US-led geopolitics of conflict, change was brought about by a succession of little things. Things like the effect on individuals’ relationships and happiness of a new, unfavourable balance in their workplace. Things like a person’s decision to renounce long-standing fears and reassurances. Things like the choices made by people holding stubby pencils in cardboard ballot boxes. These things cascaded, multiplied, and added up to some things that may become bigger than they already are. It was hard to spot these changes in the mundanity of Australia’s electoral rituals – the queue outside the local primary school, the eye-searing welter of bunting and how-to-vote cards, the floppy-hatted volunteers, and the customary fund-raising sausage-sizzle by the exit door. But they were there; they took place; and they matter. The Prime Minister before Howard, Paul Keating, had famously warned the voters off his successor during his losing campaign in 1996 by saying, at the last gasp, that ‘If you change the Prime Minister, you change the country’. For Keating, the choice embodied in a vote had consequences not just for the future of the Nation, but for its character, its being. Keating, famously, was to his bones a creature of electoral politics – he would say this, one might think, and there are many objections to be made to the claim that anything can change the country, any country, so quickly or decisively. Critical voices will say that liberal democracy really only grafts an illusion of choice onto what’s really a late-capitalist consensus – the apparent changes brought about by elections, and even the very idea of popular or national sovereignties are precisely ideological. Others will argue that democratic elections don’t qualify as a choice because there is evidence that the voters are irrational, making decisions on the basis of slender, or incorrect information, and as a result they often choose leaders that do not serve their interests. Others – like Judith Brett in her latest Quarterly Essay, “Exit Right” – argue that any talk of election results signifying a change in ‘national mood’ belies the fact that changes of government usually reflect quite small overall changes in the vote. In 2007, for example, over 46% of the Australian electorate voted for another Howard term, and only a little over 5% of us changed our minds. There is something to all of these arguments, but not enough to diminish the acts of engaged, mundane citizenship that underpinned Australia’s recent transformation. The Australian Council of Trade Unions’ ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign, which started in 2006, was a grassroots effort to build awareness about the import of the Howard Government’s neoliberal industrial relations reform. As well as bringing down the Government, this may have given Australia’s labour movement a new, independent lease of life. Organisations like GetUp also mobilised progressive grassroots activism in key electorates. Former ABC journalist Maxine McKew, the high profile Labor challenger in Howard’s seat of Bennelong, was assisted by an army of volunteer workers. They letterboxed, doorknocked and answered phones for weeks and were rewarded with the unseating of the Prime Minister. Perhaps what Keating should have said is, ‘by the time you change the Prime Minister, the country already has’. By the time the community at large starts flexing its muscles of citizenship, the big decisions have already been collectively made. In the media sphere too, there was heartening evidence of new forms of engagement. In the old media camp, Murdoch’s The Australian tried to fight a rear-guard campaign to maintain the mainstream media as the sole legitimate forum for public discussion. But its commentaries and editorials looked more than ever anachronistic, as Australia’s increasingly mature blogosphere carried debate and alternative forms of reporting on the election right throughout the year leading up to the long campaign. Politicians too made efforts to engage with participatory culture, with smart uses of Facebook, MySpace and blogs by some leading figures — and a much-derided intervention on YouTube by John Howard, whose video clip misguidedly beginning with the words ‘Good morning’ served as an emblem for a government whose moment had passed. There is evidence this year that America is changing, too, and even though the current rise of Barack Obama as a presidential contender may not result in victory, or even in his nomination, his early successes give more grounds for hope in citizenship. Although the enthusiastic reception for the speeches of this great political orator are described by cynics as ‘creepy’ or ‘cultish’, there are other ways of reading it. We could say that this is evidence of a euphoric affective reinvestment in the possibility of citizenship, and of voting as an agent for change — ‘Yes we can’ is his signature line. The enthusiasm for Obama could also simply be the relief of being able to throw off the defensive versions of citizenship that have prevailed in recent years. It could be that the greatest ‘hope’ Obama is offering is of democratic (and Democratic) renewal, a return to electoral politics, and citizenship, being conducted as if they mean something. The mechanics of Obama’s campaign suggest, too, that ordinary acts of citizenship can make a difference when it comes to institutions of great power, such as the US Presidency. Like Howard Dean before him, Obama’s campaign resourcing is powered by myriad, online gifts from small donors – ordinary men and women have ensured that Obama has more money than the Democrat-establishment Clinton campaign. If nothing else, this suggests that the ‘supply-chain’ of politics is reorienting itself to citizen engagement. Not all of the papers in this issue of M/C Journal are as optimistic as this introduction. Some of them talk about citizenship as a means of exclusion – as a way of defining ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups, as a locus of paranoia. Some see citizenship as heterogenous, and that unequal access to its benefits is a deficit in our democracy. The limits to citizenship, and to the forms of choice that liberal democracy allows need to be acknowledged. But we also need to see these mundane acts of participation as a locus of possibility, and a fulcrum for change. Everyday acts of democracy may not change the country, but they can change the framework in which our conversations about it take place. Indeed, democracy is both more popular and less popular than ever. In our feature article, Brian McNair explores the ‘democratic paradox’ that, on the one hand, democracy spread to 120 countries in the twentieth century while, on the other hand, voter participation in the more established democracies is falling. While rightly cautioning against drawing too neat an equivalence between X Factor and a general election, McNair considers the popularity of voting in participatory TV shows, noting that people will indeed vote when they are motivated enough. He asks whether the evident popularity of voting for play purposes can be harnessed into active citizenship. Melissa Bellanta questions the use of rhetoric of ‘democracy’ in relation to participatory media forms, such as voting in reality TV competitions or in online polls. Bellanta shows how audience interaction was central to late-nineteenth century popular theatre and draws provocative parallels between the ‘voting’ practices of Victorian theatre audiences and contemporary viewer-voting. She argues that the attendant rhetoric of ‘democracy’ in such interactions can divert our attention from the real characteristics of such behaviour. Digital artist xtine explores a ‘crisis of democracy’ created by tensions between participation and control. She draws upon, on the one hand, Guattari’s analysis of strategies for social change and, on the other, polemical discussions of culture jamming by Naomi Klein, and by Adbusters’ founder Kalle Lasn. Her paper introduces a number of Web projects which aim to enable new forms of local consumption and interaction. Kimberley Mullins surveys the shifting relationships between concepts of ‘public’ and ‘audience’. She discuses how these different perspectives blur and intertwine in contemporary political communication, with voters sometimes invoked as citizens and sometimes presented with entertainment spectacles in political discourse. Mark Hayward looks at the development of global television in Italy, specifically the public broadcaster RAI International, in light of the changing nature of political institutions. He links changes in the nature of the State broadcaster, RAI, with changes in national institutions made under the Berlusconi government. Hayward sees these changes as linked to a narrowing conception of citizenship used as a tool for increasingly ethno-centric forms of exclusion. Panizza Allmark considers one response to the 7 July 2005 bombings in London – the “We’re not afraid” Website, where Londoners posted images of life going on “as normal” in the face of the Tube attacks. As Allmark puts it, these photographs “promote the pleasures of western cultural values as a defense against the anxiety of terror.” Paradoxically, these “domestic snapshots” work to “arouse the collective memory of terrorism and violence”, only ambiguously resolving the impact of the 7 July events. This piece adds to the small but important literature on the relationship between photography, blogging and everyday life. James Arvanitakis’s piece, “The Heterogenous Citizen: How Many of Us Care about Don Bradman’s Average” opens out from a consideration of Australia’s Citizenship Test, introduced by the former government, into a typology of citizenship that allows for different versions of citizenship, and understandings of it “as a fluid and heterogenous phenomenon that can be in surplus, deficit, progressive and reactionary”. His typology seeks to open up new spaces for understanding citizenship as a practice, and as a relation to others, communities and the State. Anne Aly and Lelia Green’s piece, “Moderate Islam: Defining the Good Citizen”, thinks through the dilemmas Australian Muslims face in engaging with the broader community, and the heavy mediation of the state in defining the “good”, moderate Muslim identity in the age of terror. Their research is a result of a major project investigating Australian Muslim identity and citizenship, and finds that they are dealt with in media and political discourse through the lens of the “clash” between East and West embodied on the “war on terror”. For them, “religion has become the sole and only characteristic by which Muslims are recognised, denying them political citizenship and access to the public spaces of citizenship.” Alex Burns offers a critical assessment of claims made, and theories advanced about citizen media. He is skeptical about the definitions of citizenship and journalism that underpin optimistic new media theory. He notes the need for future research the reevaluates citizen journalism, and suggests an approach that builds on rich descriptions of journalistic experience, and “practice-based” approaches. Derek Barry’s “Wilde’s Evenings” offers a brief overview of the relationships between citizen journalism, the mainstream media and citizenship, through the lens of recent developments in Australia, and the 2007 Federal election, mentioned earlier in this introduction. As a practitioner and observer, Derek’s focus is on the status of citizen journalism as political activism, and whether the aim of citizen journalism, going forward, should be “payment or empowerment”. Finally, our cover image, by Drew, author of the successful Webcomic toothpastefordinner.com, offers a more sardonic take on the processes of voting and citizenship than we have in our introduction. The Web has not only provided a space for bloggers and citizen journalists, but also for a plethora of brilliant independent comic artists, who not only offer economical, mordant political commentary, but in some ways point the way towards sustainable practices in online independent media. Toothpastefordinner.com is not exclusively focused on political content, but it is flourishing on the basis of giving core content away, and subsisting largely on self-generated merchandise. This is one area for future research in online citizen media to explore. The tension between optimistic and pessimistic assessments of voting, citizenship, and the other apparatuses of liberal democracy will not be going anywhere soon, and nor will the need to “change the country” once in awhile. Meanwhile, the authors and editors of this special edition of M/C Journal hope to have explored these issues in a way that has provoked some further thought and debate among you, as voters, citizens and readers. References Brett, Judith. “Exit Right.” Quarterly Essay 28 (2008). Citation reference for this article MLA Style Meikle, Graham, Jason A. Wilson, and Barry Saunders. "Vote / Citizen." M/C Journal 10.6/11.1 (2008). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/00-editorial.php>. APA Style Meikle, G., J. Wilson, and B. Saunders. (Apr. 2008) "Vote / Citizen," M/C Journal, 10(6)/11(1). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/00-editorial.php>.