Social network are nowadays inherent parts of our lives and highly developed communication technique helps us maintain our relationships. But how did it work in the early 19th century, in a time without cell phones and internet? A Chinese Hong Merchant in Canton Trade named Houqua (1769-1843), who lived in isolated Qing China, gives us an outstanding answer. Despite various barriers in cultures, languages, political situations and his identity as a Chinese merchant strictly under control of the Qing government, Houqua established a commercial network across three continents: Asia, North America and Europe. This book will not only uncover his secrets and actions in his Chinese social network especially patronage relationships in traditional Chinese society, but also reconstruct his intercultural network, including his unique and even "modern" friendship with some American traders which lasted almost half a century after Houquas death.

This research study attempts to provide a comprehensive CSR literature review, analyze corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues from the strategic decision-making (SDM) perspective, and investigate the process of managers' CSR- related SDM in China. In particular, it utilizes content analysis to examine selected CSR articles from published studies, in order to evaluate the trends in CSR theory development as well as to identify the variables, constructs, and relationships within CSR theory. The review indicates that CSR should be involved in organizational strategies. Therefore, this study reviews the relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the SDM area. Firstly, it summarizes the broader context of strategic decisions and points out factors in the external environment and organizational characteristics that influence the SDM process of managers. Secondly, it articulates the influences of individual characteristics on the SDM. Thirdly, it examines the process of SDM using the rational and bounded rationality theory of decision making. Finally, on the basis of the SDM model, the author generates a research model which proposes the links between vital and influential factors from an integrated perspective. This book also provides a detailed description of how to choose a proper method for the CSR-related SDM research, the process of survey design, sampling methods, and survey administration. In particular, the author utilized a policy-capturing method to develop a series of scenarios concerning CSR activities and an explanation of this method is provided. It reports research findings of this study and provides an extensive and thorough discussion and compares it with previous empirical studies. The conclusion summarizes the research findings and their theoretical and practical implications.

A comprehensive examination of the chemistry of food toxicants produced during processing, formulation, and storage of food, Food Safety Chemistry: Toxicant Occurrence, Analysis and Mitigation provides the information you need to develop practical approaches to control and reduce contaminant levels in food products and food ingredients, including cooking oils. It discusses each major food chemical contaminant, examining toxic effects and the biological mechanisms behind their toxicity. The book supplies an understanding of the chemical and biochemical mechanisms involved in the formation of certain food contaminants through a systematic review of the appearances of these foodborne chemical toxins as well as the chemical and biochemical mechanisms involved in their formations during food processing and storage. It also details their absorption and distribution profiles and the factors influencing their levels in foods. It includes updated analytical techniques for food quality control, other research efforts on these chemicals, and their regulatory-related concerns and suggestions. Edited by experts in the field, this guide includes a listing of commonly used analytical techniques in food safety and a summary of current research findings related to food chemical contaminants. The book's updated information on potential adverse effects on human health and focus on analytical techniques for food safety analysis and quality control makes it a reference that will spend more time in your hands than on your bookshelf.

This research study attempts to provide a comprehensive CSR literature review, analyze corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues from the strategic decision-making (SDM) perspective, and investigate the process of managers' CSR- related SDM in China. In particular, it utilizes content analysis to examine selected CSR articles from published studies, in order to evaluate the trends in CSR theory development as well as to identify the variables, constructs, and relationships within CSR theory. The review indicates that CSR should be involved in organizational strategies. Therefore, this study reviews the relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the SDM area. Firstly, it summarizes the broader context of strategic decisions and points out factors in the external environment and organizational characteristics that influence the SDM process of managers. Secondly, it articulates the influences of individual characteristics on the SDM. Thirdly, it examines the process of SDM using the rational and bounded rationality theory of decision making. Finally, on the basis of the SDM model, the author generates a research model which proposes the links between vital and influential factors from an integrated perspective. This book also provides a detailed description of how to choose a proper method for the CSR-related SDM research, the process of survey design, sampling methods, and survey administration. In particular, the author utilized a policy-capturing method to develop a series of scenarios concerning CSR activities and an explanation of this method is provided. It reports research findings of this study and provides an extensive and thorough discussion and compares it with previous empirical studies. The conclusion summarizes the research findings and their theoretical and practical implications.

A comprehensive examination of the chemistry of food toxicants produced during processing, formulation, and storage of food, Food Safety Chemistry: Toxicant Occurrence, Analysis and Mitigation provides the information you need to develop practical approaches to control and reduce contaminant levels in food products and food ingredients, including cooking oils. It discusses each major food chemical contaminant, examining toxic effects and the biological mechanisms behind their toxicity. The book supplies an understanding of the chemical and biochemical mechanisms involved in the formation of certain food contaminants through a systematic review of the appearances of these foodborne chemical toxins as well as the chemical and biochemical mechanisms involved in their formations during food processing and storage. It also details their absorption and distribution profiles and the factors influencing their levels in foods. It includes updated analytical techniques for food quality control, other research efforts on these chemicals, and their regulatory-related concerns and suggestions. Edited by experts in the field, this guide includes a listing of commonly used analytical techniques in food safety and a summary of current research findings related to food chemical contaminants. The book's updated information on potential adverse effects on human health and focus on analytical techniques for food safety analysis and quality control makes it a reference that will spend more time in your hands than on your bookshelf.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Workshop on Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart, STACOM 2022, held in conjunction with the 25th MICCAI conference. The 34 regular workshop papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected after being revised and deal with topics such as: common cardiac segmentation and modelling problems to more advanced generative modelling for ageing hearts, learning cardiac motion using biomechanical networks, physics-informed neural networks for left atrial appendage occlusion, biventricular mechanics for Tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular arrhythmia prediction by using graph convolutional network, and deeper analysis of racial and sex biases from machine learning-based cardiac segmentation. In addition, 14 papers from the CMRxMotion challenge are included in the proceedings which aim to assess the effects of respiratory motion on cardiac MRI (CMR) imaging quality and examine the robustness of segmentation models in face of respiratory motion artefacts. A total of 48 submissions to the workshop was received.