The four dragons of Asia - Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea - have achieved remarkable progress over the past decades. These newly industrialising countries (NICs) have emerged as major actors on the world economic scene. Their success can be attributed to a number of factors related to historical background, relationship with China, pattern of governance and performance of administrative, political and economic institutions. This book examines the role of public administration in the accomplishments of the NICs and identifies potential areas of challenge for the dragons.

The past decade has been a period of explosion of knowledge on the chemistry and pharmacology of snake toxins. Thanks to the development of protein chemistry, nearly a hundred snake toxins have been purified and sequenced, representing one of the largest families of sequenced proteins. Moreover, the mode of action of these toxins has been largely elucidated by the concerted efforts of pharmacologists, electro physiologists, and biochemists. As a result of these studies, some of the snake toxins, e.g., a-bungarotoxin and cobra neurotoxins, have been extensively used as specific markers in the study of the acetylcholine receptors. Indeed, without the discovery of these snake toxins, our knowledge of the structure and function of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors would not have advanced so rapidly. The contribution of snake venom research to the biomedical sciences is not limited to the study of cholinergic receptors. Being one of the most concentrated enzyme sources in nature, snake venoms are also valuable tools in biochemical research. Venom phosphodiesterase, for example, has been widely used for structural studies of nucleic acids; proteinase, for the sequence studies of proteins and pep tides ; phospholipase A , for lipid research; and L-amino acid oxidase for identifying optical z isomers of amino acids. Furthermore, snake venoms have proven to be useful agents for clarifying some basic concepts on blood coagulation and some venom enzymes, e.g., thrombin-like enzymes and pro coagulants have been used as therapeutic agents.

The four dragons of Asia - Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea - have achieved remarkable progress over the past decades. These newly industrialising countries (NICs) have emerged as major actors on the world economic scene. Their success can be attributed to a number of factors related to historical background, relationship with China, pattern of governance and performance of administrative, political and economic institutions. This book examines the role of public administration in the accomplishments of the NICs and identifies potential areas of challenge for the dragons.

Originally published in 1957, The Flower Drum Song was a groundbreaking work of popular literature. An immediate bestseller, it inspired the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. This charming, bittersweet tale of romance and the powerful bonds of family tells the story of Wang Ta, who wants what every young American man wants: a great career and a woman to love. Living in San Francisco's Chinatown—with his widowed father, Old Master Wang, who misses the old way of life in China, and his younger brother, who just wants to be a normal American teenager—Wang Ta becomes involved with a series of women as he searches for love and the American dream. Comic, poignant, and sexy, The Flower Drum Song is an astute portrayal of immigrants struggling with assimilation. This edition features a new introduction by David Henry Hwang.