This book represents one of the first attempts by a multidisciplinary research team, encompassing the social sciences, business, architecture and planning, engineering, and finance and economics, to help rural communities discover sustainable and self-reliant paths to development and transformation. The opening chapter outlines the background of the research, its importance in the context of China and other countries, the rationale for choosing the case study communities in rural China, and the composition of the research team. Chapter 2 explores key issues in the role of social entrepreneurship and leadership in rural community development. Chapter 3 analyses a green platform for a pilot transaction of China forest carbon sinks led by the Huadong Forestry Exchange. The fourth chapter examines carbon trade, forestry land rights, and the livelihoods of farmers in rural Chinese communities. Chapter 5 explores alternative energy development in rural Chinese communities, where the poor are often disproportionately dependent on fuel wood and solid biomass, causing environmental degradation, reduced productivity and the decline of income generating opportunities. Chapter 6 examines and tests the proposition that stronger communities will result from ‘connected up’, holistic, synergistic and inclusive planning of services and supporting infrastructure. Chapter 7 analyzes information and communications technology (ICT) based service innovations for supporting rural community enterprises. Chapter 8 highlights key elements of stronger rural communities, drawing together the themes and proposals of preceding chapters and constructing an integrated model. The authors demonstrate that interconnected community enterprises based on clean forest products, forest carbon and ecotourism can be underpinned by local infrastructure enterprises such as renewable energy, water, waste management, ICT and transport, and financial mechanisms like carbon finance, all involving skills development, leadership and social entrepreneurship coupled with corporate and investment partnerships. Such interconnected approaches are expected to generate increased employment and prosperity, improve social livelihoods, and benefit the environment.

This book represents one of the first attempts by a multidisciplinary research team, encompassing the social sciences, business, architecture and planning, engineering, and finance and economics, to help rural communities discover sustainable and self-reliant paths to development and transformation. The opening chapter outlines the background of the research, its importance in the context of China and other countries, the rationale for choosing the case study communities in rural China, and the composition of the research team. Chapter 2 explores key issues in the role of social entrepreneurship and leadership in rural community development. Chapter 3 analyses a green platform for a pilot transaction of China forest carbon sinks led by the Huadong Forestry Exchange. The fourth chapter examines carbon trade, forestry land rights, and the livelihoods of farmers in rural Chinese communities. Chapter 5 explores alternative energy development in rural Chinese communities, where the poor are often disproportionately dependent on fuel wood and solid biomass, causing environmental degradation, reduced productivity and the decline of income generating opportunities. Chapter 6 examines and tests the proposition that stronger communities will result from 'connected up', holistic, synergistic and inclusive planning of services and supporting infrastructure. Chapter 7 analyzes information and communications technology (ICT) based service innovations for supporting rural community enterprises. Chapter 8 highlights key elements of stronger rural communities, drawing together the themes and proposals of preceding chapters and constructing an integrated model. The authors demonstrate that interconnected community enterprises based on clean forest products, forest carbon and ecotourism can be underpinned by local infrastructure enterprises such as renewable energy, water, waste management, ICT and transport, and financial mechanisms like carbon finance, all involving skills development, leadership and social entrepreneurship coupled with corporate and investment partnerships. Such interconnected approaches are expected to generate increased employment and prosperity, improve social livelihoods, and benefit the environment.

Die Entstehung der D-Mark und ihre Entwicklung zur zweitwichtigsten Wahrung der Welt ist eine beeindruckende Erfolgsgeschichte. In den Beitragen dieses Buches verdeutlichen die Akteure dieses Prozesses, wie etwa Otmar Emminger und Otmar Issing, wie dieser Aufstieg moglich wurde. Wesentlich waren dabei insbesondere die entscheidende Rolle der Bundesbank im volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtgeschehen sowie die kluge und weitsichtige Wahrnehmung der geld- und wahrungspolitischen Aufgaben durch die Verantwortlichen. Dass diese Erfolgsgeschichte Vorbildcharakter besitzt, beweist nicht zuletzt die Resonanz, die die Veroffentlichung der jetzt in deutsch vorliegenden Texte in China hatte, wo das Buch in 2012 zum Buch des Jahres gewahlt wurde. Von besonderem Wert fur den Leser ist, wie in dieser umfassenden Darstellung die Voraussetzungen des Aufstiegs der D-Mark zur zweitwichtigsten Wahrung der Welt aus wissenschaftlicher, historischer und zeitgenossischer Sicht beleuchtet werden. Abgerundet wird dies durch ein Gesprach des Herausgebers Peter Jungen mit Bundesbankprasident Weidmann und Professor Issing.Der Renminbi befindet sich inzwischen auf dem Weg zu einer globalen Leitwahrung; den Euro hat er jungst als zweibedeutendste Wahrung im Welthandel abgelost. Dieses Buch konnte die Diskussion uber die Zusammenhange zwischen Geld- und Wahrungspolitik einerseits und der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung andererseits, die auf den Entscheidungen von Millionen Unternehmern in einer offenen Markwirtschaft basieren, weiter voranbringen.

"

Thin films have an extremely broad range of applications from electronics and optics to new materials and devices. Collaborative and multidisciplinary efforts from physicists, materials scientists, engineers and others have established and advanced a field with key pillars constituting (i) the synthesis and processing of thin films, (ii) the understanding of physical properties in relation to the nanometer scale, (iii) the design and fabrication of nano-devices or devices with thin film materials as building blocks, and (iv) the design and construction of novel tools for characterization of thin films.Against the backdrop of the increasingly interdisciplinary field, this book sets off to inform the basics of thin film physics and thin film devices. Readers are systematically introduced to the synthesis, processing and application of thin films; they will also study the formation of thin films, their structure and defects, and their various properties - mechanical, electrical, semiconducting, magnetic, and superconducting. With a primary focus on inorganic thin film materials, the book also ventures on organic materials such as self-assembled monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett films.This book will be effective as a teaching or reference material in the various disciplines, ranging from Materials Science and Engineering, Electronic Science and Engineering, Electronic Materials and Components, Semiconductor Physics and Devices, to Applied Physics and more. The original Chinese publication has been instrumental in this purpose across many Chinese universities and colleges.

"Wang Meng is the only Chinese writer who really understands China," according to noted sinologist Merle Goldman, as well as being the writer that many at home and abroad have considered as deserving of a Nobel Prize if any Chinese writer ever did. His memoir is a colorful record of life in an eventful era when one could get up in the morning a CCP official and go to bed an "enemy" of the people. Wang Meng knew the hardships of life from an early age. A brilliant student since childhood, Wang gave up the chance of college to join the Communist underground. Ultimately installed as a regular Communist Party cadre in charge of a district Party Youth League and bored with petty bureaucracy, Wang published a short story which rhapsodized the soul-searching of an earnest young "newcomer" on the scene-an instant bestseller. In spite of Chairman Mao's favorable comments on the story, Wang Meng became a "rightist"-i.e., categorized as the enemy. Banished to distant Xinjiang, Wang Meng mastered the Uighur language, learned farming skills, and was embraced by the Uighurs as one of their own. The attack on his short story "Hard Porridge," a masterpiece of irony (first English translation published in the Paris Review), only served to highlight his genius and started off a serio-comic string of writings on "porridge" from every conceivable angle by a host Chinese writers, becoming the memorable event of the year. Wang Meng did not change his spots when he became Minister of Culture and a member of the Chinese People's Consutative Conference. While making contributions to cultural exchanges on the international scene, Wang Meng kept his identity as first and foremost a writer.