The impact of Internet access on household dietary quality:Evidence from rural China

Over the past few decades,the Internet has rapidly diffused across China.The spread of the Internet has had a profound economic and social impact on Chinese rural areas.Existing research shows that Internet access significantly impacts agricultural production and improves smallholder farmers’income.Beyond these,the Internet can affect other dimensions of social welfare.However,research about the impact of Internet access on dietary quality in rural China remains scarce.This study utilizes multi-period panel data from Fixed Observation Point in rural China from 2009 to 2015 to estimate the impact of Internet access on dietary quality and food consumption of rural households and conducts a causal analysis.Regression models with time and household fixed effects allow robust estimation while reducing potential issues of unobserved heterogeneity.The estimates show that Internet access has significantly increased rural household dietary quality(measured by the Chinese Diet Balance Index).Further research finds that Internet access has increased the consumption of animal products,such as aquatic and dairy products.We also examine the underlying mechanisms.Internet access improves dietary quality and food consumption mainly through increasing household income and food expenditure.These results encourage the promotion of Internet access as a valuable tool for nutritional improvements,especially in rural areas.

Internet access, usage and trust among medical professionals in China:A web-based survey

Objectives:Social media has changed methods of communication in the medical profession.As part of a"doctor as communicator"strategy,Chinese medical professionals are actively embracing social media,which may have an impact on tense physician-patient relationships in China.This paper aims to examine a pattern of Internet access,Internet usage,and trust among Chinese medical professionals and further explores the reasons for these relationships on an individual level.Designs:A web-based questionnaire was designed,based on a media literacy model,and was divided into 3 dimensions:public information,general medical information,and specialty information.After a two-round pilot study,1001 physicians were included.Additionally,4 interviewees were chosen to participate in in-depth interviews and content analysis was performed.Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0.Results:Findings showed that new media has become a major approach for medical professionals in China to retrieve and get access to various information.However,they still trust traditional media(n=1001,P<0.01)and professional journals more(n=1001,P<0.01).Internet access,usage,and trust were positively correlated(r-0.185-0.344,P<0.01).Regarding usage habits,47.66%of the participating physicians would practice science popularization through their new media accounts and 71.23%would forward approved health information within their professional realm.A validated instrument can be provided for further related studies.Conclusions:Science popularization is a specific usage of new media among Chinese medical professionals,through which they have achieved new authority and empowered communication because of self-media.To some extent,physician-patient relationships in China can be improved because this online interaction is conducive to building harmonious and lasting offline physician-patient relationships.

Interpretation of the Concept of the Right to Internet Access from the Perspective of International Law

The advent of the internet era breeds a new concept, namely, the right to internet access. Many countries and international organizations, as well as individuals, are advocating or have already embodied it as a basic human right, thus enhancing the issues of whether it should be incorporated into the macro system of international human rights. By analyzing the facts, this article points out that the international concept of the right to internet access should be distinguished from its domestic concept, for there are no legal sources about the right to internet access for guidance as with some treaties in the current international law, despite its close relationship with some existing rights such as the freedom of speech, press and assembly, or the right of equality, or the right to development. And there is still a long time before the legal value and related responsibilities as well as the boundaries about the right to internet access becomes a consensus in the international society. Even though there is quite a possibility, this right hasn’t been embodied as part of international human rights, and thus hasn’t made a legal concept in international human right law.

Framing and Reframing the Digital Divide Policy in Taiwan： Consensus and Conflict

This paper explores key policy issues of national information and communication technology development to identify the gap between the heterogeneity in issues pertaining to the ＂digital divide＂. How this issue is cast often as a problem to be solved in recent years. On the public policy front, a series of reports issued by Taiwan Residents policymakers were endeavored to address universal services and digital divide issues. Government also has taken various steps to mitigate the disparity in opportunities to access the Internet （e.g., ＂e-Taiwan＂ for broadband services, ＂M-Taiwan＂ for broadband infrastructure and heterogeneous network services, and ＂i-Taiwan＂ for ubiquitous networks and digital convergence by Taiwan＇s Cabinet）. However, when policymakers worked to craft solutions to the pressing societal concern, they found lots of policy agendas need to redefine to foster greater understanding and enlighten practice for policy going forward. An examination of conflicting narratives within policy has been conducted, which identified not only the earlier debates were framed, but also key agendas of the most studied and empirical data used among them. The article attempts to examine the topic from a longitudinal perspective by using sets of documents revealed a tendency over time to explore how particular the agendas and debates of ＂digital divide＂ were framed. The study traced back to policy debates from cultural, economic, educational, and political perspectives at various Internet diffusion stages. The results provide useful insights into the study and discussion on new convergence policy making implications.

A Human Right to Internet Access： A Gewirthian Approach

The paper aims at exploring if we have sound philosophical reason to embrace a human right to Internet access. While attempts to make Internet access a candidate for the standing of human right have become popular in both the political and legal arenas, we still lack serious philosophical reflection on this issue. The paper first evaluates the arguments made by various authors, and then moves to provide its own conclusions. Its logic is that if （i） Internet access is crucial for enabling democracy, and （ii） democracy is a basic human right, then we may have at least prima facie reason to see such a technology as a derived human right whose normativity supervenes on the right to democracy.

The Internet accessible mathematical computation framework

The Internet Accessible Mathematical Computation (IAMC) framework aims to make it easy to supply mathematical computing powers over the Internet/Web. The protocol-based IAMC framework enables developers to create interoperable clients and servers easily and independently. Presented are conceptual and experimental work on the IAMC framework architecture and major components: the Mathematical Computation Protocol (MCP), a client prototype (Dragonfly), a server prototype (Starfish), a mathematical encoding converter (XMEC), and an open mathematical compute engine interface (OMEI).