Asia-Europe Meeting: Contemporary Challenges and the Way Forward. Avia Policy Brief Issue 2019 No. 12 August 2019

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was launched in 1996. Since its establishment, ASEM has experienced expansion of membership and a broadening of the scope of meetings and events. ❖ ASEM is an informal forum for dialogue that is meant to be candid and comprehensive but often ended being quite scripted. ❖ ASEM has been criticized as merely talk shops with no specific or concrete deliverables, and it has low public visibility and profile. ❖ In the current uncertain and volatile world, ASEM could fade into oblivion if it maintains the current practices of informal and low-key engagement. ❖ To make ASEM relevant in a more complex and contested world, there is a need to rethink ASEM’s objectives and modus operandi. ❖ ASEM can be transformed into a more dynamic and vibrant “marketplace” where ideas and actions flow

The erhu and its role as a vehicle for syncretic music performance in Singapore : a thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Music at Wellington Conservatorium of Music, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

This thesis examines the erhu, a bowed lute from China and its development as a vehicle for syncretic music-making in Singapore. Chapter One considers the erhu's status in Chinese culture and focuses on the differences between how the erhu was perceived by the "proletariat" of the early twentieth century contrasted with the imperialists of that time. A central assumption in this study is that erhu music-making in Singapore is inextricably bound with the traditions of both Western and Chinese culture. This concept is introduced in Chapter Two, with a discussion on musical syncretism. The erhu is a member of the huqin string family and is one instrument in the new ensemble idiom of the Singapore Huqin Quartet. This ensemble is the first to have huqin set up together in the manner of a Western string quartet. This ensemble has been influential on and contributes to a broad range of musical happenings in Singapore. It also represents one development of erhu as "world music". Phoon Yew Tien, who writes for the Singapore Huqin Quartet, is introduced. Chapter Three encompasses the different instruments that make up the huqin family, as played by the Singapore Huqin Quartet (which will be referred to as the SHQ in abbreviation). It also looks at the development of the modern Chinese orchestra. Chapter Four provides the descriptions and characteristics of the erhu and its performance techniques. In Chapter Five, eminent musical figures such as Liu Tian Hua and Hua Yan Jun (also known as Abing) will be discussed. Their music composed for the erhu has become an important part of the repertoire of the SHQ. The concluding chapter outlines differences between Western and Chinese music and looks at the merging of the two. A product of this merger is the compositions of distinguished Singapore composer, Phoon Yew Tien. His works are a fine example of the erhu's musical qualities and demonstrate the compositional potential of the SHQ's syncretic idiom with the merging of the Chinese and Western art-music forces. A musical composition by Phoon viewed in a compositional perspective summarizes the possibilities of further development of this style

Some Consequences of the Hypothesis of Minimal Lengths

Talk presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries, September 13, 2003, University of Cincinnati, OH. Dedicated to the memory of Freydoon Mansouri.Comment: 8 pages, REVTeX

Improving an inequality for the divisor function

We improve using elementary means an explicit bound on the divisor function due to Friedlander and Iwaniec. Consequently we modestly improve a result regarding a sieving inequality for Gaussian sequences.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Bull. AustM

Hamiltonian cycles in Cayley graphs of imprimitive complex reflection groups

Generalizing a result of Conway, Sloane, and Wilkes for real reflection groups, we show the Cayley graph of an imprimitive complex reflection group with respect to standard generating reflections has a Hamiltonian cycle. This is consistent with the long-standing conjecture that for every finite group, G, and every set of generators, S, of G the undirected Cayley graph of G with respect to S has a Hamiltonian cycle.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; minor revisions according to referee comments, to appear in Discrete Mathematic

Schneller, innovativer, produktiver: Entwicklung der Leistungsfähigkeit der deutschen Investitionsgüterindustrie

Die deutsche Investitionsgüterindustrie konnte in den zurückliegenden zwei Jahren ihre Leistungsfähigkeit merklich verbessern. Durchlaufzeiten und Lieferzeiten konnten bei gleichbleibender Termintreue um ca. 7 Prozent verkürzt werden. Durch eine Beschleunigung der Entwicklungszeiten für neue Produkte konnte der Umsatzanteil innovativer Produkte um 8 Prozent gesteigert werden. Gleichzeitig wuchs die Wertschöpfung je Mitarbeiter im Durchschnitt aller Unternehmen um gut 10 Prozent. Diese Produktivitätssteigerung ging nicht zu Lasten der Qualität. Die Ausschluss- und Nacharbeitungsquote blieb unverändert bei 5.4 Prozent... --

Income Diversification and Poverty in a Growing Agricultural Economy: The Case of Ghana.

This paper analyses changes in income portfolios of rural households and its determinants for the case of Ghana in the 1990s. Our analysis shows that, contrary to common beliefs, rural Ghana has seen major economic transformation, as households increasingly diversify their livelihoods by both increased migration and more local non-farm employment. These diversification decisions seem to be driven to a large extent by desperation rather than new opportunities, in particular with regard to migration. Low-income households increase their income share in particular from local non-farm activities through more participation while returns to diversifying activities stagnate or even decrease. Therefore households with a low non-labour asset-base are increasingly diversified and poor. In contrast, asset-rich households are more successful at either diversifying or specialising in those activities the household is relatively good at. They also tend to benefit more from agricultural growth.Income diversification; non-agricultural activities; remittances; migration; inequality; poverty; sub-Saharan Africa; Ghana;