Ping Zhang

This monograph offers a detailed analysis of the creation, pilot implementation, and possible wide adoption of the real property tax at the local level in China. Starting in 2003, as China’s economy gradually recovered from the Asian financial crisis that started in 1998, the real property market entered a period of rapid expansion, followed immediately by rampant speculation, rising housing costs, and official corruption. Over the last ten years, the price of real property in most cities has more than tripled, especially in metropolitan areas. In an effort to curb this, the government has instituted a number of property-market controls, including property tax pilot programs in Shanghai and Chongqing. While this is the latest of a number of fiscal reforms, it is a very important one that carries with it the ability to change the landscape of public finance, intergovernmental relations, and local governance in China. It represents a fundamental change in the provision of public services, the relationship between local governments and tax payers, and the status of localities in the government structure. Taking a public choice perspective, the authors argue that the local property tax should be used not solely as a means of controlling housing prices but should be fully employed as a fiscal and budgetary institution that will contribute to mitigating multifarious socio-economic problems resulting from economic growth, rapid urbanization, and widening income disparity. As this program is the first of its kind, so this book is the first detailed study of property tax in China; as such, it will appeal to researchers of public finance and public policy. It will also be of great interest to policymakers in China and in other countries that are considering adopting or reforming their versions of the local property tax. It fills the gap in a growing body of literature about the inner workings of Chinese economics and policy.

This SpringerBrief presents research results on QoE management schemes for mobile services, including user services, and resource allocation. Along with a review of the research literature, it offers a data-driven architecture for personalized QoE management in wireless networks. The primary focus is on introducing efficient personalized character extraction mechanisms, e.g., context-aware Bayesian graph model, and cooperative QoE management mechanisms. Moreover, in order to demonstrate in the effectiveness of the QoE model, a QoE measurement platform is described and its collected data examined. The brief concludes with a discussion of future research directions. The example mechanisms and the data-driven architecture provide useful insights into the designs of QoE management, and motivate a new line of thinking for users' satisfaction in future wireless networks.

"Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations" offers state-of-the-art research by a distinguished set of authors who span the MIS and HCI fields. The original chapters provide authoritative commentaries and in-depth descriptions of research programs that will guide 21st century scholars, graduate students, and industry professionals. Human-Computer Interaction (or Human Factors) in MIS is concerned with the ways humans interact with information, technologies, and tasks, especially in business, managerial, organizational, and cultural contexts. It is distinctive in many ways when compared with HCI studies in other disciplines. The MIS perspective affords special importance to managerial and organizational contexts by focusing on analysis of tasks and outcomes at a level that considers organizational effectiveness. With the recent advancement of technologies and development of many sophisticated applications, human-centeredness in MIS has become more critical than ever before. This book focuses on the basics of HCI, with emphasis on concepts, issues, theories, and models that are related to understanding human tasks, and the interactions among humans, tasks, information, and technologies in organizational contexts in general.

This book describes kaleidoscopic topics that have developed in the area of graph colorings. Unifying current material on graph coloring, this book describes current information on vertex and edge colorings in graph theory, including harmonious colorings, majestic colorings, kaleidoscopic colorings and binomial colorings. Recently there have been a number of breakthroughs in vertex colorings that give rise to other colorings in a graph, such as graceful labelings of graphs that have been reconsidered under the language of colorings. The topics presented in this book include sample detailed proofs and illustrations, which depicts elements that are often overlooked. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in graph theory, as it covers a broad range of topics and makes connections between recent developments and well-known areas in graph theory.

A comprehensive treatment of color-induced graph colorings is presented in this book, emphasizing vertex colorings induced by edge colorings. The coloring concepts described in this book depend not only on the property required of the initial edge coloring and the kind of objects serving as colors, but also on the property demanded of the vertex coloring produced. For each edge coloring introduced, background for the concept is provided, followed by a presentation of results and open questions dealing with this topic. While the edge colorings discussed can be either proper or unrestricted, the resulting vertex colorings are either proper colorings or rainbow colorings. This gives rise to a discussion of irregular colorings, strong colorings, modular colorings, edge-graceful colorings, twin edge colorings and binomial colorings. Since many of the concepts described in this book are relatively recent, the audience for this book is primarily mathematicians interested in learning some new areas of graph colorings as well as researchers and graduate students in the mathematics community, especially the graph theory community.

This monograph offers a detailed analysis of the creation, pilot implementation, and possible wide adoption of the real property tax at the local level in China. Starting in 2003, as China’s economy gradually recovered from the Asian financial crisis that started in 1998, the real property market entered a period of rapid expansion, followed immediately by rampant speculation, rising housing costs, and official corruption. Over the last ten years, the price of real property in most cities has more than tripled, especially in metropolitan areas. In an effort to curb this, the government has instituted a number of property-market controls, including property tax pilot programs in Shanghai and Chongqing. While this is the latest of a number of fiscal reforms, it is a very important one that carries with it the ability to change the landscape of public finance, intergovernmental relations, and local governance in China. It represents a fundamental change in the provision of public services, the relationship between local governments and tax payers, and the status of localities in the government structure. Taking a public choice perspective, the authors argue that the local property tax should be used not solely as a means of controlling housing prices but should be fully employed as a fiscal and budgetary institution that will contribute to mitigating multifarious socio-economic problems resulting from economic growth, rapid urbanization, and widening income disparity. As this program is the first of its kind, so this book is the first detailed study of property tax in China; as such, it will appeal to researchers of public finance and public policy. It will also be of great interest to policymakers in China and in other countries that are considering adopting or reforming their versions of the local property tax. It fills the gap in a growing body of literature about the inner workings of Chinese economics and policy.

Covering Walks in Graphs is aimed at researchers and graduate students in the graph theory community and provides a comprehensive treatment on measures of two well studied graphical properties, namely Hamiltonicity and traversability in graphs. This text looks into the famous K?nigsberg Bridge Problem, the Chinese Postman Problem, the Icosian Game and the Traveling Salesman Problem as well as well-known mathematicians who were involved in these problems. The concepts of different spanning walks with examples and present classical results on Hamiltonian numbers and upper Hamiltonian numbers of graphs are described; in some cases, the authors provide proofs of these results to illustrate the beauty and complexity of this area of research. Two new concepts of traceable numbers of graphs and traceable numbers of vertices of a graph which were inspired by and closely related to Hamiltonian numbers are introduced. Results are illustrated on these two concepts and the relationship between traceable concepts and Hamiltonian concepts are examined. Describes several variations of traceable numbers, which provide new frame works for several well-known Hamiltonian concepts and produce interesting new results.

Written by two of the most prominent figures in the field of graph theory, this comprehensive text provides a remarkably student-friendly approach. Geared toward undergraduates taking a first course in graph theory, its sound yet accessible treatment emphasizes the history of graph theory and offers unique examples and lucid proofs. 2004 edition.

This book is based on a course entitled 'Wigner measures and semiclassical limits of nonlinear Schrodinger equations,' which the author taught at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in the spring of 2007. The author's main purpose is to apply the theory of semiclassical pseudodifferential operators to the study of various high-frequency limits of equations from quantum mechanics. In particular, the focus of attention is on Wigner measure and recent progress on how to use it as a tool to study various problems arising from semiclassical limits of Schrodinger-type equations. At the end of each chapter, the reader will find references and remarks about recent progress on related problems. The book is self-contained and is suitable for an advanced graduate course on the topic.

"Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations" offers state-of-the-art research by a distinguished set of authors who span the MIS and HCI fields. The original chapters provide authoritative commentaries and in-depth descriptions of research programs that will guide 21st century scholars, graduate students, and industry professionals. Human-Computer Interaction (or Human Factors) in MIS is concerned with the ways humans interact with information, technologies, and tasks, especially in business, managerial, organizational, and cultural contexts. It is distinctive in many ways when compared with HCI studies in other disciplines. The MIS perspective affords special importance to managerial and organizational contexts by focusing on analysis of tasks and outcomes at a level that considers organizational effectiveness. With the recent advancement of technologies and development of many sophisticated applications, human-centeredness in MIS has become more critical than ever before. This book focuses on the basics of HCI, with emphasis on concepts, issues, theories, and models that are related to understanding human tasks, and the interactions among humans, tasks, information, and technologies in organizational contexts in general.