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The "Grotto-Heavens and Blissful Lands" (dongtian and fudi, 洞天福地) is a unique concept of sacred space in China and even in East Asia, combining beautiful natural scenery, rich historical heritage, and diverse cultural heritage. This paper tries to explain Mount Jingfu's (jingfu shan, 靜福山) aesthetic representations. The results show that the landscape's physical environment projects the spatio-temporal system and the concept of the universe in Daoist aesthetic ideals. With the spatial evolution of divine immortals' abodes from imagination to reality, people's yearning for divine cave palaces is transformed into their connection with and their expression of the palaces in exploring space interests and aesthetic trends that are then integrated into the secular life of thousands of households through living religious rituals. Preserved by local religious believers, the ritual activities incorporated geographic, familial, and divine interactions, and characterised essential social aesthetics. By exploring a typical case of Lingnan Region (lingnan, 嶺南, an old term for South China), this paper aims to elucidate the significance of the Grotto-Heavens and Blissful Lands as living heritage in contemporary society across multiple dimensions, and to provide a theoretical basis for the protection of its system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jesuit mission to East Asia highlights the polemical difficulties inherent in the process of introducing, translating, and creating a new theological paradigm within a host culture without a common religious worldview. Both Matteo Ricci in China and Ricci's erstwhile teacher, Alessandro Valignano, in Japan, both inveighed against Buddhism for positing a "void" as the Absolute rather than God. The East Asian Jesuit mission had an incomplete understanding of what emptiness/nothingness/void referred to until the native Japanese convert and former Zen monk, Fukansai Habian, took up the mantle as the Jesuit polemicist against native systems of thought, in particular, Buddhism. Whereas Ricci and Valignano attacked the "void" within the context of a negation of "something", Habian correctly understood the void as akin to the pleroma, the fullness of possibility, and the creative principle, but used his more nuanced understanding as a polemical expedient to deny or negate all Buddhist doctrines as expressing nothingness (which he erroneously equates with the void), even such form-affirming schools as the Pure Land school with its clearly defined goal of a physical post-mortem Pure Land. The polemical paradigm engendered by this encounter also served as the starting point for Buddhism's appearance in the Western imagination. This paper will make a comparative investigation of the polemical discourse between the Jesuits and Buddhists regarding the Absolute and demonstrate how this historical instance would have far-reaching consequences that have ongoing relevance regarding the interplay of Christian and Buddhist teachings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using multiple observational and reanalysis data, this paper investigates the impact of the interdecadal shift in summer Arctic Oscillation (AO) on precipitation in East Asia, by removing ENSO influences. The results indicate that the lower-layer activity center of summer AO in Atlantic shifted eastward after the mid-1980s. This regime shift of summer AO has a significant impact on precipitation in East Asia. Before the mid-1980s, the key regions in which precipitation was affected by AO in East Asia were northern East Asia and Northeastern China and adjacent regions. After the mid-1980s, the key regions in which precipitation was affected by AO in East Asia were central Inner Mongolia and Southern China. The mechanism of precipitation changes can be attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport related to AO changes. After the mid-1980s, the influence of AO on geopotential height over northern East Asia weakened; meanwhile, the impact of AO on geopotential height over China increased. Consistent with the changes in atmospheric circulation, water vapor transport in East Asia also underwent interdecadal changes before and after the mid-1980s. The differences in atmospheric circulation and water vapor transport in East Asia can be traced back to the North Atlantic. Before the mid-1980s, wave activity flux related to summer AO tended to propagate in high latitudes and subtropics; after the mid-1980s, the wave activity flux changed in its subtropical path and propagated eastward from the North Atlantic through the Middle East to China, significantly affecting the summer precipitation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total electron content (TEC) is a vital parameter for describing the state of the ionosphere, and precise prediction of TEC is of great significance for improving the accuracy of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). At present, most deep learning prediction models just consider TEC temporal variation, while ignoring the impact of spatial location. In this paper, we propose a TEC prediction model, ED-ConvLSTM, which combines convolutional neural networks with recurrent neural networks to simultaneously consider spatiotemporal features. Our ED-ConvLSTM model is built based on the encoder-decoder architecture, which includes two modules: encoder module and decoder module. Each module is composed of ConvLSTM cells. The encoder module is used to extract the spatiotemporal features from TEC maps, while the decoder module converts spatiotemporal features into predicted TEC maps. We compared the predictive performance of our model with two traditional time series models: LSTM, GRU, a spatiotemporal mode1 ConvGRU, and the TEC daily forecast product C1PG provided by CODE on a total of 135 grid points in East Asia (10°–45°N, 90°–130°E). The experimental results show that the prediction error indicators MAE, RMSE, MAPE, and prediction similarity index SSIM of our model are superior to those of the comparison models in high, normal, and low solar activity years. The paper also analyzed the predictive performance of each model monthly. The experimental results indicate that the predictive performance of each model is influenced by the monthly mean of TEC. The ED-ConvLSTM model proposed in this paper is the least affected and the most stable by the monthly mean of TEC. Additionally, the paper compared the predictive performance of each model during two magnetic storm periods when TEC changes sharply. The results indicate that our ED-ConvLSTM model is least affected during magnetic storms and its predictive performance is superior to those of the comparative models. This paper provides a more stable and high-performance TEC spatiotemporal prediction model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridging the Pacific provides an image of two separate regions which share the Pacific Rim, becoming connected in multiple aspects, not limited to a predominantly economic interconnection. This image, thus, points toward a constructive mechanism to work toward a resolution of the over-arching global issue, including climate change. This image and the method for its practical implementation are suggested by the Forum for East Asia and Latin America Cooperation—FEALAC. In the overall field of regionalism studies, inter-regionalism can be considered as 'the third wave' under the new regionalism, and FEALAC can be located in this analytical framework. To begin, this paper traces the process and features of regionalism by typification of three different versions, or ideal types of regionalism. In this work, each type of regionalism is not viewed as a successor to, considered better than the previous one, but rather provides a typology for analytical purposes. Next, taking up this historical and analytical framework of regionalism, this paper examines the FEALAC in terms of its strengths and weaknesses considered from the perspective of the five systemic functions. Finally, this paper demonstrates the ways in which FEALAC can be considered a relevant framework of inter-regional governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of academician Ye Duzheng (Yeh T.C.) pass away and his great contributions to the development of atmospheric dynamics. Under the inspiration and guidance of the theory of Rossby wave energy dispersion, remarkable progresses have been made in research on planetary wave dynamics and teleconnections of atmospheric circulation anomalies. This paper aims to make a brief review of the studies on the propagating characteristics of quasi-stationary planetary waves in a three-dimensional spherical atmosphere and the dynamic processes of the interannual and interdecadal variabilities of the East Asian summer and winter monsoon systems. Especially, this paper systematically reviews the progresses of the studies on the impacts of the interannual and interdecadal variabilities of the East Asia/Pacific (EAP) pattern teleconnection wave train propagating along the meridional direction over East Asia and the "Silk Road" pattern teleconnection wave train propagating along the zonal direction within the subtropical jet from West Asia to East Asia on the East Asian summer monsoon system and the summer precipitation variability in China, under the guidance of the theory of Rossby wave energy dispersion. Moreover, this paper reviews the dynamic processes of the impact of the interannual and interdecadal oscillations of the propagating waveguides of boreal quasi-stationary planetary waves on the variability of the East Asian winter monsoon system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ratio of the total electron content (TEC) to the F2-layer peak electron density (NmF2) is known as the ionospheric equivalent slab thickness (EST, also known as τ), and it is a crucial indicator of the ionosphere. Using TEC and NmF2 data from the years 2010 to 2017, this work conducts a comprehensive statistical analysis of the ionospheric slab thickness in Beijing, which is in the midlatitude of East Asia. The outcomes show that the τ have different diurnal variations at different seasons for high/low-solar-activity years. On the whole, daytime τ significantly greater than nighttime τ in summer, and it is the opposite for the τ in winter regardless of the solar cycle, whereas the τ during equinox shows different morphology for high/low-solar-activity years. Specifically, daytime τ is larger than nighttime τ during equinox in years of high-solar activity, while the opposite situation applies for the τ during equinox in years of low-solar activity. Moreover, the pre-sunrise and post-sunset peaks are most pronounced during winter for low-solar-activity years. In summer, there is a great increase in τ during the morning hours when compared with other seasons. Furthermore, the τ decreases with the solar activity during nighttime, whereas it seems there is no correlation between daytime τ and solar activity. This paper explained the primary diurnal variations in τ across different seasons during high-/low-solar-activity years by analyzing relative fluctuations of TEC and NmF2 throughout the corresponding period. In addition, based on the disturbance index (DI), which is calculated by instantaneous τ and its corresponding median, this paper found that the storm-time τ might increase when compared with its median value during the daytime, while it may both increase and decrease during the nighttime, especially around dawn and dusk hours. To further analyze the physical mechanism, an example on 2 October 2013 is also presented. The results indicate that the positive disturbance of τ during the main phase of a geomagnetic storm might be caused by the prompt penetration electric field and neutral wind during the storm, and the τ increases during the early recovery phase might be due to the disturbance dynamo electric field as well as the neutral wind during the storm. Moreover, there is a negative disturbance of τ in the recovery phase during the most disturbed sunrise hours, and it might be due to the electric field reversal, neutral wind or other factors during this period. This paper notes the differences of τ in midlatitude between different longitudinal sectors from the related climatology and storm-time behavior, as it would be helpful to improve the current understanding of τ at midlatitudes in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current times that emphasize active aging, older adults are often encouraged to participate in interest classes at community centers. Adopting an ethnographic research approach to understand the subjectivities of older mothers, this paper not only sees community centers as a space for older adults for taking interest classes, but also as an infrastructure that defines relationship values. This paper examines the motivations of older mothers in urban Taiwan who have established a routine at a community center. By emphasizing the public space, that is, the values indoctrinated at the community centers, this paper investigates how community center activities offer self-care practices for older women, and how these women embody motherhood by taking care of themselves. This paper expands the notion of motherhood by investigating the subjectivities of older mothers as well as the effects of the global aging discourse on them. This study of urban Taiwan sheds light on understanding the subjectivity of aging mothers in other East Asian cities. The data of this paper were collected through participant observations at community centers, in-depth interviews, and analysis of newspaper archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the transformation of Buddhist culture in the Jiangnan region (present-day southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang), driven by wartime disruptions during the transition from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming. The Yuan Dynasty witnessed the flourishing of Buddhism, and in Jiangnan, the thriving Zen tradition carried on the legacy of the Southern Song Dynasty. Buddhism found many adherents among the affluent gentry class in Jiangnan, fostering a culture of generous charity that sustained and expanded Buddhism in the region. However, the conflicts toward the end of the Yuan Dynasty inflicted considerable damage on the temples, causing monks to flee. Temples, recognizable landmarks during conflicts, were susceptible to military occupation. Visiting Goryeo monks Muhak Jacho and Naong Hyegeun, and Japanese monks Mumon Gensen and Ginan, were forced to abandon their travels and return to their respective homelands, disrupting the once-thriving Buddhist exchange between Jiangnan and broader East Asia. The chaotic environment also fostered alliances between influential monks and regional powers, providing refuge for monks and an opportunity for both sides to forge beneficial connections. Anti-Yuan factions strategically protected revered monks, leveraging their influence to attract literati and intellectuals, who shared common ethical and spiritual values. This dynamic showcased the mutual benefits derived from such collaboration. Through an exploration of the interplay between politics, social forces, and Buddhism, this paper examines the impact of wartime turmoil on the development of Buddhism in the Jiangnan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. Through analyses of these incantation sheets, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment of medieval East Asia. Previously, all known traces of material dhāraṇīs from early Korea, with just a few exceptions, were related to the Sūtra of the Pure Light Incantation enshrined in the relic crypts of pagodas—a practice that has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets, whose date this paper infers to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that Unified Silla had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to coeval Chinese practice. The Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets from Silla show the modification and continuation of Chinese dhāraṇī practice. Unlike the Chinese amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulet sheets were likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam in Silla's capital. At the same time, they were placed in the pagoda to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that they had a mortuary function similar to those buried in Chinese tombs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spread-F (SF) is one of the most important types of the ionospheric irregularities as it causes ionospheric scintillation which can severely affect the performance and reliability of communication, navigation, and radar systems. The ionosonde provides the most effective and economical way to study the ionosphere and SF. However, the manual identification of SF from an ionogram is boring and hard work. To automatically identify SF on the ionogram and extend the study of SF into the middle and low latitudes of East Asia, this paper presents a statistical analysis of SF in this region, based on the naïve Bayesian classifier. The results showed that the accuracy of automatic identification reached up to 97% on both the validation datasets and test datasets composed of Mohe, I-Cheon, Jeju, Wuhan, and Sanya ionograms, suggesting that it is a promising way to automatically identify SF on ionograms. Based on the classification results, the statistical analysis shows that SF has a complicated morphology in the middle and low latitudes of East Asia. Specifically, there is a peak of occurrence of SF in the summer in I-Cheon, Jeju, Sanya, and Wuhan; however, the Mohe station has the highest occurrence rate of SF in December. The different seasonal variations of SF might be due to the different geographic local conditions, such as the inland-coastal differences and formation mechanism differences at these latitudes. Moreover, SF occurs more easily in the post-midnight hours when compared with the pre-midnight period in these stations, which is consistent with the previous results. Furthermore, this paper extracts the frequency SF (FSF) index and range SF (RSF) index to characterize the features of SF. The results shows that the most intense FSF/RSF appeared in the height range of 220–300 km/1–7 MHz in these stations, although there are different magnitude extensions on different season in these regions. In particular, strong spread-F (SSF) reached its maximum at the equinox at Sanya, confirming the frequent SSF occurrence at the equinox at the equator and low latitudes. These results would be helpful for understanding the characteristics of SF in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, e-commerce allows consumers access to a wide range of products on the global market, quick and convenient selection, purchase, ordering, and payment of products. Consumers expect to receive the products they bought online, very quickly, at favorable prices and delivery conditions. However, it is often not possible, because global supply chains are realized over large geographical distances, with a whole range of disruptions and challenges that need to be successfully overcome. With the aim of efficiently delivering products and meeting consumer expectations, retailers often leave this job to specialized and resilient logistics companies better known as fourth-party logistics (4PL) providers. On this occasion, it is necessary to conduct a very thorough evaluation of the logistics provider based on appropriate scientific approaches and models. In this paper, a new hybrid approach for the evaluation of resilient 4PLs was proposed, with the aim of providing appropriate support for the decision-making system on product delivery in e-commerce. The hybrid approach is based on the fuzzy full consistency method (FUCOM), evidence theory (ET), rule-based transformation (RBT), and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) methods. The proposed model was tested and applied to an example of an online retailer, which sells and delivers products originating from China and the countries of the Far East to the market of the Western Balkans and Southeastern Europe. Five 4PL providers were evaluated and ranked according to 10 criteria. According to the results, the most important criterion was IT capabilities, while the least important was cooperation. Additionally, sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine whether the final ranking will change. The obtained results showed that the proposed methodology represents a valuable decision support tool that can be used for solving not only the problem described in this paper but also similar problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the first complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the yellow-striped flounder Pseudopleuronectes herzensteini (Pleuronectoidei: Pleuronectidae). Mitogenome evolution, and molecular phylogenetic reconstruction based on four to six techniques, including coalescent analysis, were performed for flatfish. The genome size of the specimen sampled was 16,845 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 12S, and 16S rRNA genes, and the control region, CR. The composition and arrangement of the genes are similar to those in other teleost fish, including the second mitogenome reported in this paper. The frequency of A, C, G, and T nucleotides in the P. herzensteini mitogenome is 27%, 29.2%, 17.6%, and 26.2%, respectively. The ratio of complementary nucleotides in the mitogenome of this and other species of the family was A+T:G+C (53.2: 46.8%) and do not deviate significantly from the expected equilibrium proportion. The submission to the global database (GenBank) of two new mitogenomes along with 106 analyzed GenBank sequences will contribute to phylogenetic studies of flounders at the family and suborder levels. Based on 26 and 108 nucleotide sequences of protein-coding genes (PCGs), we investigated the molecular phylogeny of flounders and performed analysis for two sets of sequences, including those of members of the family Pleuronectidae and the suborder Pleuronectoidei and estimated their importance in establishing the taxonomy at these two levels. Data obtained by up to six techniques of multigene phylogenetic reconstructions support monophyly within the family Pleuronectidae with high statistical confidence; however, conclusions regarding the phylogenetics at the suborder level require further investigation. Our results also revealed paraphyletic and weakly supported branches that are especially numerous at the suborder level; thus, there is a clear need for taxonomic revisions at the suborder, and possibly family levels. Genetic distance analysis reveals the suitability for DNA barcoding of species specimens at single genes as well as at whole mitogenome data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several sites in East Asia have been identified as Potalaka, originally thought to be located near the southern seas of India. The basis of this phenomenon is built upon the nature of Avalokiteśvara as a mediator between sentient beings and buddhas, the nature of Potalaka as a boundary between their worlds, and Buddhist philosophy. The belief in the abode of Avalokiteśvara bodhisattva on Earth incorporates various places into a Buddhist world transcending borders. This paper examines Korean beliefs about Potalaka and Avalokiteśvara through legends about Naksan Temple, with special emphasis on their relationship with mountain and sea worship. At the same time, the study attempts to connect the beliefs with the philosophical background of Hwaŏm tradition, which is in close relation with this ritual site. The aim of this approach is to point out the unique and universal, as well as the local and translocal elements in Korean narratives about Potalaka. In other words, the paper searches for patterns that are to be found in the wider Buddhist world and characteristics that are created by the specific religious environment of Korean culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data are one of the key factors in studying the radiation balance of the earth–atmosphere system in East Asia. It is of great significance to explore the influence factors on OLR. This paper processes the data of nearly 19 years, from September 2002 to February 2022, and conducts in-depth research using the exponential smoothing method, empirical orthogonal decomposition (EOF), correlation analysis, and other methods. We found that the spatial distribution of OLR is zonal symmetry and gradually decreases with the increase of latitude. Using EOF analysis, it is found that the total variance contribution of the first four decomposed spatial features exceeds 70%, and the overall change trend of the four-time coefficients in the past 19 years all show a downward trend. OLR is positively correlated with total column water vapor (TCWV), air temperature (AT), and cloud top temperature (CTT), but negatively correlated with cloud top pressure (CTP). OLR has a similar spatial correlation distribution with TCWV and AT, while the spatial correlation between OLR and CTP is opposite to the first two parameters. In most parts of East Asia, the spatial correlation with CTT exceeds 0.8. The change in OLR value is affected by various meteorological parameters. In East Asia, the positive correlation between 30° N and 60° N is significantly affected by TCWV, AT, and CTT; and the negative correlation is more significantly affected by CTP. At 0–25° N, the positive correlation is significantly affected by CTP and CTT, while the negative correlation is significantly affected by TCWV and AT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface soil moisture over the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) has an important impact on the weather and climate of East Asia. Under climate warming, the imbalance of solid–liquid water of QTP has become a research hotspot, but the surface soil moisture dynamics over QTP are not clear owing to the lack of precise measurements over a large scale. In this paper, the quality of gridded surface soil moisture products including CSSPv2 high-resolution (6 km) simulation, ESA CCI satellite retrieval, ERA5 land-atmosphere coupled reanalysis, and GLDAS2.1 land reanalysis products (Noah, Catchment, VIC) is analyzed over QTP by comparison with the in situ measurements at 140 stations during 2009–2017. We find that the CSSPv2 product shows a higher correlation than the global satellite and reanalysis products, with correlation increased by 7.7%–115.6%. The root mean squared error of the CSSPv2 product is lower than that of other products, with the error decreased by 13.4%–46.3%. The triple collocation analysis using high-resolution simulation, global reanalysis, and satellite retrieval products over the entire plateau shows that the error of CSSPv2 is the lowest, followed by ESA CCI, while ERA5 is the highest. The soil moisture products of ESA CCI, ERA5, and CSSPv2 all show an increasing trend from April to September of 2009 to 2017, with wetting in the west and drying in the east. This study indicates that the CSSPv2 high-resolution surface soil moisture product has better performance over QTP than other global products, and the global satellite and reanalysis products may overestimate the surface soil moisture dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the genetic delimitation of narrowly distributed Scapania magadanica and broadly circumpolar S. kaurinii. The phylogenetic trees based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference constructed for one of the most informative loci (ITS1–2) showed that Scapania magadanica was deeply nested within the clade of S. kaurinii. The comparison of the obtained topologies with known strong morphological dissimilarities of two taxa has led to the understanding that this approach does not work. The latter may be due to a widespread variable tentatively 'ancestral' species (S. kaurinii) having no joint molecular synapomorphies that would delimit it from the locally distributed derived taxon (S. magadanica). Therefore, the relationships of these two species were evaluated using molecular genetic distances with the Neighbor Net split network and TCS haplotype network. The obtained data have confirmed the speculation above, and it is possible to assume that when the S. magadanica lineage split, S. kaurinii already occupied a rather wide range, which could limit further gene flow among its remote populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 International Symposium on Remote Sensing (ISRS-2019) took place in Taipei, Taiwan from 17 to 19 April 2019. ISRS is one of the distinguished conferences on the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences, especially in East Asia. More than 220 papers were presented in 37 technical sessions organized at the conference. This Special Issue publishes a limited number of featured peer-reviewed papers extended from their original contributions at ISRS-2019. The selected papers highlight a variety of topics pertaining to innovative concepts, algorithms and applications with geospatial sensors, systems, and data, in conjunction with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine leaning and advanced spatial analysis algorithms. The topics of the selected papers include the following: the on-orbit radiometric calibration of satellite optical sensors, environmental characteristics assessment with remote sensing, machine learning-based photogrammetry and image analysis, and the integration of remote sensing and spatial analysis. The selected contributions also demonstrate and discuss various sophisticated applications in utilizing remote sensing, geospatial data, and technologies to address different environmental and societal issues. Readers should find the Special Issue enlightening and insightful for understanding state-of-the-art remote sensing and spatial information science research, development and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planetary boundary layer height is a very important parameter in the atmosphere because it determines the range where the most effective dispersion processes take place, and it serves as a medium for the vertical transport of heat, moisture, and pollutants. The accurate estimation of boundary layer height (BLH) is vital for air pollution prediction. In this paper, the BLH estimated by AD-Net was compared with that from the ECMWFs over East Asia from September 2015 to August 2018. A continuous 24 h BLH estimation from AD-Net generally matched with the aerosol vertical structures. Diurnal and seasonal variation and spatial variation of BLH can also be shown, suggesting the good performance of AD-Net BLH. The comparison of seasonal mean BLH between AD-Net and ECMWFs was conducted at 20 lidar sites. On average, there was an underestimation of the ECMWFs, mostly in summer and winter. A significant disagreement between AD-Net and the ECMWFs was noted, especially over coastal areas and mountain areas. In order to investigate the difference between them, two BLHs were compared under different land cover types and climate conditions. In general, the BLH of the ECMWFs was less than that of AD-Net over most of the land cover types in summer and winter. The smallest differences (0.26 km) existed over water surfaces in winter compared with AD-Net, and the largest underestimation (1.42 km) occurred over grassland surfaces in summer. Similarly, all the BLHs of the ECMWFs were lesser than those of AD-Net under different climatological conditions in summer and winter. The mean difference between AD-Net BLH and ECMWFs BLH was 1.05, 0.71, and 0.48 km for arid regions, semi-arid and semi-wet regions, and wet regions, respectively. The largest underestimation occurred over arid regions in winter, with a value of 1.42 km. The smallest underestimation occurred over wet regions, with a value of 0.27 km. The present research provides better insight into the BLH performance in the ECMWFs reanalysis data. The new continuous PBL dataset can be used to improve the model parameterization of PBL and our understanding of the atmospheric transport of pollutants which affect air quality and human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computational intelligence techniques have been widely used for automatic building detection from high-resolution remote sensing imagery and especially the methods based on neural networks. However, existing methods do not pay attention to the value of high-frequency and low-frequency information in the frequency domain for feature extraction of buildings in remote sensing images. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a frequency spectrum intensity attention network (FSIANet) with an encoder–decoder structure for automatic building detection. The proposed FSIANet mainly involves two innovations. One, a novel and plug-and-play frequency spectrum intensity attention (FSIA) mechanism is devised to enhance feature representation by evaluating the informative abundance of the feature maps. The FSIA is deployed after each convolutional block in the proposed FSIANet. Two, an atrous frequency spectrum attention pyramid (AFSAP) is constructed by introducing FSIA in widely used atrous spatial pyramid pooling. The AFSAP is able to select the features with high response to building semantic features at each scale and weaken the features with low response, thus enhancing the feature representation of buildings. The proposed FSIANet is evaluated on two large public datasets (East Asia and Inria Aerial Image Dataset), which demonstrates that the proposed method can achieve the state-of-the-art performance in terms of F1-score and intersection-over-union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a statistical analysis of the diurnal, seasonal and solar cycle variation in the TEC longitudinal difference in midlatitudes of East Asia is presented using CODE GIMs data in 2015–2019. Moreover, the empirical neutral wind model HWM-14 and geomagnetic field model IGRF-2020 were employed to analyze the influence of geomagnetic configuration-neutral wind mechanism on the TEC longitudinal difference, and the F2 layer peak electron density (NmF2) data from the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) were also used to study the role of local electron density in the TEC longitudinal difference. For the high solar activity year, the results show that east-west TEC longitudinal difference index Re/w is negative in the noon and positive at evening-night. Moreover, the longitudinal difference of daytime TEC is most evident in summer, less in autumn and least in spring and winter, while the nighttime difference is most obvious in equinox, followed by summer and winter during nighttime. The model simulation shows that the TEC longitude difference around noon is mainly caused by the zonal wind-declination mechanism, and a 4-h time delay seems to be an optimal result for the vertical drift velocity to cause the longitudinal TEC difference during pre-noon hours. At night, the uplifting electron flux, which is a product of local electron density and vertical drift velocity, shows a good correlation with Re/w, indicating that the local electron density is also an important factor affecting the TEC longitudinal difference during the nighttime. Moreover, there was about a 3-h time delay between the TEC longitudinal variations and the uplifting electron flux at night. For the low solar activity years, the western TEC is greater than eastern TEC during most of the year except in the summer nighttime. The TEC diurnal variation in the east and west suggested that the nighttime Re/w should be related to other physical process, such as the midlatitude summer nighttime anomaly (MSNA) in the east and the ionospheric nighttime enhancement (INE). The current study provides evidence for the longitudinal difference of NmF2 in East Asian midlatitudes and geomagnetic configuration-neutral wind mechanism proposed in previous studies and finds some new features which need further studying to improve our current understanding of ionospheric longitudinal difference in the low solar activity years. The results provide new insight into TEC longitudinal variations at midlatitudes, and they can contribute to understanding the ionosphere-thermosphere coupling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionospheric equivalent slab thickness (EST, also named τ) is defined as the ratio of the total electron content (TEC) to the F2-layer peak electron density (NmF2), and it is a significant parameter representative of the ionosphere. This paper presents a comprehensive statistical study of the ionospheric slab thickness at Yakutsk, located at the high latitude of East Asia, using the GPS-TEC and ionosonde NmF2 data for the years 2010–2017. The results show that the τ has different diurnal and seasonal variations in high- and low-solar-activity years, and the τ is greatest in the winter, followed by the equinox, and it is smallest in the summer in both high- and low-solar-activity years, except during the noontime of low-solar-activity years. Specifically, the τ in inter of high-solar-activity year shows an approximate single peak pattern with the peak around noon, while it displays a double-peak pattern with the pre-sunrise and sunset peaks in winter of the low-solar-activity years. Moreover, the τ in the summer and equinox have smaller diurnal variations, and there are peaks with different magnitudes during the sunrise and post-sunset periods. The mainly diurnal variation of τ in different seasons of high- and low-solar-activity years can be explained within the framework of relative variation of TEC and NmF2 during the corresponding period. By defining the disturbance index (DI), which can visually assess the relationship between instantaneous values and the median, we found that the geomagnetic storm would enhance the τ at Yakutsk. An example on 7 June 2013 is also presented to analyze the physical mechanism. It should be due to the intense particle precipitation and expanded plasma convection electric field during the storm at high-latitude Yakutsk station. The results would improve the current understanding of climatological and storm-time behavior of τ at high latitudes in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed people's long-standing group life, and "less gathering" has become a popular slogan during this period. People will probably feel lonely when they are physically, socially, or mentally distanced and isolated or excluded, and they usually perceive a deficiency in the quality or quantity of their social relationships. Although loneliness is easily conflated with solitude, loneliness as an emotion is generally regarded as negative while solitude can be positive. There are various causes and effects of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and loneliness has been found to have significant impacts on poorer physical and mental health. Religiosity and spirituality are specifically proven to have a great impact on handling loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. When regarding belongingness as the opposite of loneliness and social isolation, religious belonging means a feeling of being "at home" and "connected". In this paper, from a comparative approach, we attempt to investigate how the three most prominent traditions in East Asia, i.e., Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, can help manage the feeling of loneliness. Due to different understandings of loneliness, their coping strategies for loneliness also vary. Through a preliminary study of "benevolence and rites," "wu-wei and freedom," and "mindfulness and spiritual realization," we can learn from the ancient wisdom about how to reduce loneliness and promote spiritual well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High temporal resolution and spatially complete (seamless) land surface temperature (LST) play a crucial role in numerous geoscientific aspects. This paper proposes a data fusion method for producing hourly seamless LST from Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) data. First, the high-quality hourly clear-sky LST was retrieved from AHI data by an improved temperature and emissivity separation algorithm; then, the hourly spatially complete China Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS) LST was calibrated by a bias correction method. Finally, the strengths of the retrieved AHI LST and bias-corrected CLDAS LST were combined by the multiresolution Kalman filter (MKF) algorithm to generate hourly seamless LST at different spatial scales. Validation results showed the bias and root mean square error (RMSE) of the fused LST at a finer scale (0.02°) were −0.65 K and 3.38 K under cloudy sky conditions, the values were −0.55 K and 3.03 K for all sky conditions, respectively. The bias and RMSE of the fused LST at the coarse scale (0.06°) are −0.46 K and 3.11 K, respectively. This accuracy is comparable to the accuracy of all-weather LST derived by various methods reported in the published literature. In addition, we obtained the consistent LST images across different scales. The seamless finer LST data over East Asia can not only reflect the spatial distribution characteristics of LST during different seasons, but also exactly present the diurnal variation of the LST. With the proposed method, we have produced a 0.02° seamless LST dataset from 2016 through 2021 that is freely available at the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center. It is the first time that we can obtain the hourly seamless LST data from AHI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early summer (June) of 2022, the spatial mean precipitation in northeast China (NEC) was 62% higher than normal and broke the historical record since 1951. Based on the precipitation data of 245 meteorological stations in NEC and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis, this paper analyzes the role of large-scale circulation and sea-surface temperature (SST) associated with anomalous precipitation over NEC in June using singular value decomposition (SVD), correlation analysis, regression analysis, and composite analysis methods, and further investigates the possible cause of the abnormal precipitation in June 2022. Results show that the northeast China cold vortex (NCCV) accompanying the blocking high in the Okhotsk Sea (BHOS) has been the primary mid-to-high latitude atmospheric circulation pattern affecting NEC precipitation in June since 2001. This circulation pattern is closely related to the tripole SST pattern over the North Atlantic (NAT) in March. In June 2022, the NAT SST anomaly in March stimulates eastward-propagating wave energy, resulting in the downstream anomalous circulation pattern in which the NCCV cooperates with the BHOS in the mid-high latitudes of East Asia. Under this background atmospheric circulation favorable for precipitation, the Kuroshio region SST anomaly in June led to a more northward and stronger anomalous anticyclone in the northwestern Pacific through local air–sea interaction, which provides more sufficient water vapor for NEC, resulting in unprecedented precipitation in June 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rainfall in the Dongting Lake Basin influences tens of millions of people, and its long-term change remains uncertain. In this paper, 15 CMIP5 models with precipitation data for the time period of 2006–2019 for which reliable observations are available under the RCP4.5 scenario were evaluated for their applicability, and the models with better simulation results were selected for predicting the precipitation in the Dongting Lake Basin during the flood season (April–September) in the mid-21st century (2020–2049). The results of the study show that (i) most models behaved reasonably consistent with the observation in the Dongting Lake Basin, and predicted an upward trend for the future precipitation while the multi-model ensemble (MME) showed a relatively slow increasing trend of 0.8 mm/year; (ii) the future precipitation in Dongting Lake Basin presented a variation form of "peak–valley–peak–valley", suggesting strong interannual and interdecadal variations; (iii) the interannual variability showed great agreement with large-scale circulation, implying that the rainfall is controlled by the circulation. The analysis of the wind fields at 200 hPa and 850 hPa in the peak and valley years showed that the characteristics of low-level convergence and high-level divergence were significantly stronger in the peak precipitation years than in the weak years; moreover, the teleconnection pattern of "+ − +" from Europe, the Ural Mountains, and East Asia was clearly manifested in the 500 hPa height field of the Dongting Lake Basin, which can influence the intensity of the trough ridge over East Asia and change the low-level water vapor convergence and divergence, thus affecting the source of water vapor in the Dongting Lake Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As countries scramble for cleaner energy production and to meet carbon reduction targets, natural gas seems to become an increasingly attractive option with liquified natural gas (LNG) as a popular transportation choice. In this paper, we first conduct a literature review and discuss the various factors affecting the global natural gas market, its recent history, current state, and future. Then we look at the possibility of East Asia becoming an alternative market to Europe for Russian LNG. We also bring in the US both as a political force that employs economic sanctions and as a potential LNG supplier. As a case study, we define a 3-player game between Russia, The United States, and Japan which results in relative market stability. In the case of sanctions against Russia, we conclude that it will lose its foothold in the Japanese market in the long term. Finally, we discuss the potential of LNG trading as the first step for East Asia's energy transition to a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation bias and error characteristics are the preconditions for the effective assimilation of observation data. In this paper, the bias and error characteristics of the AHI (Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) and AGRI (Multi-Channel Advanced Geostationary Orbit Radiation Imager (AGRI) data are compared and analyzed, with an emphasis on the observations obtained from land areas. The results show that the observation errors of the two instruments for the ocean area have a good channel consistency over ocean areas, which are all with errors of about 0.6 K; however, the bias and error are significantly affected by the land-surface types and terrain heights over land. For most of the AHI channels, the bias in urban-area bias is smaller than that of those of other surface types, while that of the AGRI data exhibits just the opposite trend, with obviously larger biases in urban areas. However, the observation errors of these two instruments in urban areas are significantly smaller than those of other surface types. The biases of the two instruments do not extensively change much with the terrain height, only slightly decreasing when the height is above 1000 m; however, the observation errors increase obviously with the increase of terrain heights. The difference between the two instruments is that the observation error of the AHI data tends to be stable and stabilizes above 1000 m, while that of the AGRI data is relatively stable below 500 m. The observation errors of the CO2-sensitive channels of the two instruments over the land areas are obviously smaller than those of other near-surface channels, which may indicate that the data obtained in these two CO2 channels have good application prospects for assimilation over land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can detect ground information with high precision, which provides another opportunity for the retrieval of rain. Rainfall intensities in East Asia are mainly moderate. The current retrieval algorithms have high accuracy in rainstorms, but they overestimate the rainfall intensity greatly in moderate rain. Therefore, it is very important to reduce the retrieval error of SAR in moderate rain. After analyzing the scattering model of precipitation, this paper proposes an algorithm for retrieving 2-D moderate rain distribution (MRA). Since the 2-D distribution of rain is related to the vertical and horizontal distributions, MRA combines the empirical regression equation with the directional model of rain rates at different levels to retrieve the vertical distribution of precipitation. Compared with the model-oriented statistical (MOS) algorithm, MRA reduces the root mean square error when retrieving the surface rain rate from 2.6 to 0.1. In addition, based on the high-precision rain parameters retrieved by MRA, the horizontal distribution is retrieved through the likelihood distance. This horizontal distribution retrieval method not only has less amount of calculation but also avoids the difficulties of mathematical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia is the second-largest mineral dust source in the world, after the Sahara. When dispersed in the atmosphere, mineral dust can alter the Earth's radiation budget by changing the atmosphere's absorption and scattering properties. Therefore, the mineralogical composition of dust is key to understanding the impact of mineral dust on the atmosphere. This paper presents new information on mineralogical dust during East Asian dust events that were obtained from laboratory dust measurements combined with satellite remote sensing dust detections from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI). However, the mineral dust in this region is lifted above the continent in the lower troposphere, posing constraints due to the large variability in the Land Surface Emissivity (LSE). First, a new methodology was developed to correct the LSE from a mean monthly emissivity dataset. The results show an adjustment in the IASI spectra by acquiring aerosol information. Then, the experimental extinction coefficients of pure minerals were linearly combined to reproduce a Gobi dust spectrum, which allowed for the determination of the mineralogical mass weights. In addition, from the IASI radiances, a spectral dust optical thickness was calculated, displaying features identical to the optical thickness of the Gobi dust measured in the laboratory. The linear combination of pure minerals spectra was also applied to the IASI optical thickness, providing mineralogical mass weights. Finally, the method was applied after LSE optimization, and mineralogical evolution maps were obtained for two dust events in two different seasons and years, May 2017 and March 2021. The mean dust weights originating from the Gobi Desert, Taklamakan Desert, and Horqin Sandy Land are close to the mass weights in the literature. In addition, the spatial variability was linked to possible dust sources, and it was examined with a backward trajectory model. Moreover, a comparison between two IASI instruments on METOP-A and -B proved the method's applicability to different METOP platforms. Due to all of the above, the applied method is a powerful tool for exploiting dust mineralogy and dust sources using both laboratory optical properties and IASI detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: With intensifying human activities in the past decades, East Asia has recorded increasingly severe air pollution and become the second largest aerosol source on earth. The large quantity of aerosol emissions is not only a major health threat to humans, but can also be transported for a long distance and deposited in downwind seas and oceans. The aerosol contains major ions, heavy metals, and organic matters that are important external nutrients in upper oceans and potentially influence marine microbes and biogeochemical cycles. Therefore, the role of atmospheric deposition to oceans has received growing attention in recent years. In this paper, the current state of knowledge on the atmospheric nutrients and the biological effect of East Asian aerosol deposition on the northwest Pacific Ocean are reviewed, which could help us better understand the comprehensive influence of East Asian aerosols on marine ecosystems, and give insights into future research directions, especially under the future scenarios of changing human activities and climate. Atmospheric deposition is recognized as a significant source of nutrients in the surface ocean. The East Asia region is among the largest sources of aerosol emissions in the world, due to its large industrial, agricultural, and energy production. Thus, East Asian aerosols contain a large proportion of anthropogenic particles that are characterized by small size, complex composition, and high nutrient dissolution, resulting in important influences on marine microbes and biogeochemical cycles in the downwind areas of the northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO). By using remote sensing, modeling, and incubation experimental methods, enhanced primary production due to the East Asian aerosol input has been observed in the NWPO, with subsequent promotion and inhibition impacts on different phytoplankton taxa. Changes of bacterial activity and diversity also occur in response to aerosol input. The impact of East Asian aerosol loadings is closely related to the amount and composition of the aerosol deposition as well as the hydrological condition of the receiving seawater. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the atmospheric nutrients and the effects of the East Asian aerosols on microbes in the NWPO region. Future research perspectives are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese monk Yixing 一行 (673–727) is unique in being an early architect of the Mantrayāna tradition (Esoteric Buddhism) in East Asia in addition to featuring as a significant individual within the history of astronomy and calendrical science in China. His legacy in the Buddhist world is well known, but the enduring appreciation of his scientific work in later centuries is less understood. The present paper will document the achievements of Yixing's work in astronomy while also discussing the perception and appreciation of his work in subsequent centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the performances of 12 CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5) models for simulating the climatology and interannual variability of the East Asian trough (EAT) are assessed using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data and the outputs of the CMIP5 models. The multimodel ensemble (MME) successfully reproduces the spatial pattern and spatial variations in the climatology and interannual variability of the EAT but the intensity and interannual variability of EAT are weaker than in the observations. The biases in intensity (interannual variability) are larger over the southern (northern) part of the EAT than over the northern (southern) part. The intermodel spreads are small for the EAT intensity but are large for its location in terms of both latitude and longitude. The simulated EAT in the MME is about 3° E and 1.5° S of that observed. All 12 CMIP5 models reproduce the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of EAT activity; however, its intensity and location are only successfully captured in half of the models and its linear weakening trend is simulated in ten models. The second EOF mode of EAT activity and its linear strengthening trend are successfully reproduced in eight models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new algorithm to retrieve the aerosol optical depth (AOD) from a Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI). Six typical aerosol models that derived from the long-term ground-based observations of East Asia are used in AOD retrieval. To accurately determine the surface reflectance, improved channel relationships between red, blue, and shortwave infrared (SWIR) are built up according to the infrared Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVISWIR). Based on the new derived aerosol models and improved channel relationships, AOD over East Asian is retrieved by using the AHI data. The results are compared with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol products (MOD04 and MYD04) and yielded a correlation coefficient lager than 0.8 (R = 0.87 and 0.92, respectively). In addition, the retrieved AOD values are also validated by ground-based measurements at 12 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) locations and revealed a good agreement between them (R = 0.86). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The evolution of human pathogenic viruses is one of the pressing problems of modern biology and directly relevant to public health. Many important aspects of virus evolution (e.g., evolutionary rate, population size, and migration history) are 'hidden' from the naked eye of a researcher. Modern bioinformatics methods make it possible to evaluate and visualize such evolutionary particularities of viruses. In this paper, we reconstructed the migration history and estimated the evolutionary rate of one of the most dangerous neuroinvasive and neurotropic tick-borne flaviviruses—Powassan virus (POWV)—distributed in North America and the Far East of Russia. Using the dates obtained, we hypothesized that the divergence of the most recent common ancestor of POWV into two independent genetic lineages most likely occurred because of the melting of glaciers that began at 11.72 Kya in the Holocene due to the climate warming-caused flooding of the isthmus between Eurasia and North America. In this paper, we revealed the genetic structure and migration history of the Powassan virus (POWV) reconstructed based on 25 complete genomes available in NCBI and ViPR databases (accessed in June 2021). The usage of this data set allowed us to perform a more precise assessment of the evolutionary rate of this virus. In addition, we proposed a simple Bayesian technique for the evaluation and visualization of 'temporal signal dynamics' along the phylogenetic tree. We showed that the evolutionary rate value of POWV is 3.3 × 10−5 nucleotide substitution per site per year (95% HPD, 2.0 × 10−5–4.7 × 10−5), which is lower than values reported in the previous studies. Divergence of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of POWV into two independent genetic lineages most likely occurred in the period between 2600 and 6030 years ago. We assume that the divergence of the virus lineages happened due to the melting of glaciers about 12,000 years ago, which led to the disappearance of the Bering Land Bridge between Eurasia and North America (the modern Alaskan territory) and spatial division of the viral areal into two parts. Genomic data provide evidence of the virus migrations between two continents. The mean migration rate detected from the Far East of Russia to North America was one event per 1750 years. The migration to the opposite direction occurred approximately once per 475 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sino-Japanese religious discourse, more often than not, is treated as a unidirectional phenomenon. Academic treatments of pre-modern East Asian religion usually portray Japan as the passive recipient of Chinese Buddhist traditions, while explorations of Buddhist modernization efforts focus on how Chinese Buddhists utilized Japanese adoptions of Western understandings of religion. This paper explores a case where Japan was simultaneously the receptor and agent by exploring the Chinese revival of Tang-dynasty Zhenyan. This revival—which I refer to as Neo-Zhenyan—was actualized by Chinese Buddhist who received empowerment (Skt. abhiṣeka) under Shingon priests in Japan in order to claim the authority to found "Zhenyan" centers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and even the USA. Moreover, in addition to utilizing Japanese Buddhist sectarianism to root their lineage in the past, the first known architect of Neo-Zhenyan, Wuguang (1918–2000), used energeticism, the thermodynamic theory propagated by the German chemist Freidrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932; 1919 Nobel Prize for Chemistry) that was popular among early Japanese Buddhist modernists, such as Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), to portray his resurrected form of Zhenyan as the most suitable form of Buddhism for the future. Based upon the circular nature of esoteric transmission from China to Japan and back to the greater Sinosphere and the use of energeticism within Neo-Zhenyan doctrine, this paper reveals the sometimes cyclical nature of Sino-Japanese religious influence. Data were gathered by closely analyzing the writings of prominent Zhenyan leaders alongside onsite fieldwork conducted in Taiwan from 2011–2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An anthropogenically caused climate crisis threatens the Earth and humanity. As such, religion's engagement is of increasing importance. This paper critically evaluates the significance of the East Asian context regarding the climate crisis, arguing for contextualization of contemporary ecotheology, or an East Asian contextual ecotheology. Considering how key contextual elements might inform ecotheologies to mobilize Christians regionally to action in relation to the climate crisis, this paper concludes that the field of East Asian ecotheology is an emerging conversation rich with opportunity for continued theologizing and inter-religious dialogue, and practical impetus for East Asian Christians to mobilize to address the climate crisis. Suggestions are made as to how these ecotheologies may be integrated into Christian practice in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission efficiency, which is mainly affected by economic output, energy efficiency and energy structure, is the effect of carbon emissions generated in economic activities. Improving carbon emission efficiency and narrowing regional differences are very important for green development in Belt and Road Initiative regions with developing countries as the main body. The existing literature mostly uses the Theil index to study the temporal differences in carbon emission efficiency, but spatial differences and the reasons for the differences have rarely been examined. This paper measures the differences of carbon emission efficiency using the Theil index and examines the reasons based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia index (LMDI) method in five groups of 60 Belt and Road Initiative countries. The results show that the Theil index of carbon emission efficiency in these countries is 0.196, with an intra-group difference of 0.165 and an inter-group difference of 0.031. Between most of the groups, energy efficiency is the dominant factor affecting carbon emission efficiency differences, especially between East Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, South Asia and East Asia. Between most of the countries with the highest and lowest carbon emission efficiency in the same group, such as Singapore and Vietnam in East Asia, energy efficiency is still the primary factor affecting the differences. Only some differences between a few groups, countries and sectors have been caused mainly by energy structures. Therefore, improving energy efficiency is the first way for those countries with low carbon emission efficiency to catch up other countries with high carbon emission efficiency, followed by improving the energy structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based methods have shown great improvements in building extraction from high spatial resolution remote sensing images. In this paper, we propose a postprocessing method based on DCNNs for building extraction. Specifically, building regions and boundaries are learned simultaneously or separately by DCNNs. The predicted building regions and boundaries are then combined by the postprocessing method to produce the final building regions. In addition, we introduce a manually labeled dataset based on high spatial resolution images for building detection, the XIHU building dataset. This dataset is then used in the experiments to evaluate our methods. Besides the WHU building dataset, East Asia (WHUEA) is also included. Results demonstrate that our method that combines the results of DeepLab and BDCN shows the best performance on the XIHU building dataset, which achieves 0.78% and 23.30% F1 scores, and 1.13% and 28.45% intersection-over-union (IoU) improvements compared with DeepLab and BDCN, respectively. Additionally, our method that combines the results of Mask R-CNN and DexiNed performs best on the WHUEA dataset. Moreover, our methods outperform the state-of-the-art multitask learning network, PMNet, on both XIHU and WHUEA datasets, which indicates that the overall performance can be improved although building regions and boundaries are learned in the training stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates applicability of cassiterite to dating ore deposits in a wide age range. We report in situ LA-ICPMS U-Pb and Pb-Pb dating results (n = 15) of cassiterite from six ore deposits in Russia ranging in age from ~1.85 Ga to 93 Ma. The two oldest deposits dated at ~1.83–1.86 Ga are rare metal Vishnyakovskoe located in the East Sayan pegmatite belt and tin deposits within the Tuyukan ore region in the Baikal folded region. Rare metal skarn deposits of Pitkäranta ore field in the Ladoga region, Fennoscandian Shield are dated at ~1.54 Ga. Cassiterite from the Mokhovoe porphyry tin deposit located in western Transbaikalia is 810 ± 20 Ma. The youngest cassiterite was dated from the deposits Valkumei (Russian North East, 108 ± 2 Ma) and Merek (Russian Far East, 93 ± 2 Ma). Three methods of age calculations, including 208Pb/206Pb-207Pb/206Pb inverse isochron age, Tera-Wasserburg Concordia lower intercept age, and 207Pb-corrected 206Pb*/238U age were used and the comparison of the results is discussed. In all cases, the dated cassiterite from the ore deposits agreed, within error, with the established period of magmatism of the associated granitic rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better understanding of the water and energy cycles at climate scale in the Third Pole Environment is essential for assessing and understanding the causes of changes in the cryosphere and hydrosphere in relation to changes of plateau atmosphere in the Asian monsoon system and for predicting the possible changes in water resources in South and East Asia. This paper reports the following results: (1) A platform of in situ observation stations is briefly described for quantifying the interactions in hydrosphere-pedosphere-atmosphere-cryosphere-biosphere over the Tibetan Plateau. (2) A multiyear in situ L-Band microwave radiometry of land surface processes is used to develop a new microwave radiative transfer modeling system. This new system improves the modeling of brightness temperature in both horizontal and vertical polarization. (3) A multiyear (2001–2018) monthly terrestrial actual evapotranspiration and its spatial distribution on the Tibetan Plateau is generated using the surface energy balance system (SEBS) forced by a combination of meteorological and satellite data. (4) A comparison of four large scale soil moisture products to in situ measurements is presented. (5) The trajectory of water vapor transport in the canyon area of Southeast Tibet in different seasons is analyzed, and (6) the vertical water vapor exchange between the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere in different seasons is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boreal forest areas in the Russian Far East contained very large intact forests. This particular area is considered one of the most productive and diverse forests in the boreal biome of the world, and it is also home to many endangered species. Zeya State Nature Reserve is located at the southern margin of the boreal forest area in the Russian Far East and has rich fauna and flora. However, the forest in the region faced large-scale forest fires and clearcutting for timber recently. The information of disturbances is rarely understood. This study aimed to explore the effects of disturbance and forest dynamics around the reserve. Our study used two-year overlaid Landsat images from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), to generate forest-cover-change maps of 1988–1999, 1999–2010, and 2010–2016. In this paper, we analyze the direction of forest successional stages, to demonstrate the effectiveness of this protected area in terms of preventing human-based deforestation on the vegetation indices. The vegetation indices included the normalized burn ratio (NBR), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the normalized difference water index (NDWI). The study provided information on the pattern of forest-cover change and disturbance area around the reserve. The NDWI was used to differentiate between water and non-water areas. The mean values of NBR and NDVI were calculated and determine the forest successional stages between burn, vegetation recovery, grass, mixed forest, oak forest, and birch and larch forest. The accuracy was assessed by using field measurements, field photos, and high-resolution images as references. Overall, our classification results have high accuracy for all three periods. The most disturbed area occurred during 2010–2016. The reserve was highly protected, with no human-disturbance activity. However, large areas from fire disturbance were found (137 km2) during 1999–2010. The findings also show a large area of disturbance, mostly located outside of the reserve. Mixed disturbance increased to almost 50 km2 during 2010–2016, in the buffer zone and outside of the reserve. We recommend future works to apply our methods to other ecosystems, to compare the forest dynamics and disturbance inside and outside the protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red yeast rice has been used to produce alcoholic beverages and various fermented foods in China and Korea since ancient times; it has also been used to produce tofuyo (Okinawan-style fermented tofu) in Japan since the 18th century. Recently, monacolin K (lovastatin) which has cholesterol-lowering effects, was found in some strains of Monascus fungi. Since statins have been used world-wide as a cholesterol-lowering agent, processed foods containing natural statins are drawing attention as materials for primary prevention of life-style related diseases. In recent years, large-scale commercial production of red yeast rice using traditional solid-state fermentation has become possible, and various useful materials, including a variety of monascus pigments (polyketides) that spread as natural pigments, in addition to statins, are produced in the fermentation process. Red yeast rice has a lot of potential as a medicinal food. In this paper, we describe the history of red yeast rice as food, especially in Japan and East Asia, its production methods, use, and the ingredients with pharmacological activity. We then review evidence of the beneficial effects of red yeast rice in improving lipid metabolism and the circulatory system and its safety as a functional food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locusts are agricultural pests found in many parts of the world. Developing efficient and accurate locust information acquisition techniques helps in understanding the relation between locust distribution density and structural changes in locust communities. It also helps in understanding the hydrothermal and vegetation growth conditions that affect locusts in their habitats in various parts of the world as well as in providing rapid and accurate warnings on locust plague outbreak. This study is a preliminary attempt to explore whether the batch normalization-based convolutional neural network (CNN) model can be applied used to perform automatic classification of East Asian migratory locust (AM locust), Oxya chinensis (rice locusts), and cotton locusts. In this paper, we present a way of applying the CNN technique to identify species and instars of locusts using the proposed ResNet-Locust-BN model. This model is based on the ResNet architecture and involves introduction of a BatchNorm function before each convolution layer to improve the network's stability, convergence speed, and classification accuracy. Subsequently, locust image data collected in the field were used as input to train the model. By performing comparison experiments of the activation function, initial learning rate, and batch size, we selected ReLU as the preferred activation function. The initial learning rate and batch size were set to 0.1 and 32, respectively. Experiments performed to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed ResNet-Locust-BN model show that the model can effectively distinguish AM locust from rice locusts (93.60% accuracy) and cotton locusts (97.80% accuracy). The model also performed well in identifying the growth status information of AM locusts (third-instar (77.20% accuracy), fifth-instar (88.40% accuracy), and adult (93.80% accuracy)) with an overall accuracy of 90.16%. This is higher than the accuracy scores obtained by using other typical models: AlexNet (73.68%), GoogLeNet (69.12%), ResNet 18 (67.60%), ResNet 50 (80.84%), and VggNet (81.70%). Further, the model has good robustness and fast convergence rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 24th Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will take place in Beijing in 2022. All three competition zones are vulnerable to extreme cold surges (ECSs), owing to the occurrence of the East Asian winter monsoon. In this paper, a representative competition domain (37.5–42.5° N, 110–120° E) is adopted, with a view to avoiding the differences in both the geographies and the thresholds of ECSs among different zones by considering the probability of simultaneous occurrences. Since 2009, the ECSs in the domain have displayed higher frequency and extremity. Based on all ECS cases in the domain, the dominant circulation is revealed by a quasi "reverse-Ω" pattern, with two strong ridges over the east of the Ural Mountain and the Okhotsk Sea, and a broad, deep trough in East Asia. The influencing sources of the ECSs at the domain could be traced to the Novaya Zemlya by a day-by-day backward analysis. The oblique latitude/longitude–time profiles of both the 500 hPa geopotential height and the 850 hPa air temperature anomalies from the source to the domain clearly indicate that the pre-signal could have a leading influence that exceeds ten days, with a slow accumulation in the first stage and a rapid outburst in the second stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate is a key factor in agriculture, but we are unable to adequately predict future climates. Although some studies have addressed the short and long-run impacts of climate change on agriculture, few of them specifically focused on the analysis of its thermal component. Climatic regions with an extreme thermal range are a special case, as seasonal contrasts complicate the picture. Based on the above, the purpose of the paper is twofold. First, we review methods and indices used for the estimation of changes in the thermal component of the climate and demonstrate the usefulness of a sensitivity assessment methodology that gives some indication of the likely spatial extent of areas of high or low sensitivity to climate change and the size of the potential impact of that change, which is specifically beneficial in regions with high temperature extremes. Secondly, we constructed a composite indicator, called the Growing Degree Day Sensitivity Index (GDDSI) and defined as the percentage change in Growing Degree Day (GDD) for warming scenarios +1, +2 and +3 °C. GDDs were calculated for threshold base air temperatures of 0, 5, 10 and 15 °C, and a high-temperature limit of 30 °C. A GDD sensitivity analysis was applied to the thermally extreme climate of the Russian Far East. We analyzed the data of 50 weather stations across the study region over the period 1966–2017. The results show a strong GDDSI north-to-south gradient. In most cases, the sensitivity does not increase significantly as the warming rate increases. The higher the base threshold, the higher the sensitivity: GDDs with a threshold at 15 °C had the highest sensitivity in the far north of the study area where conditions are currently marginal for crop growth. The sensitivity analysis circumnavigates the difficulty of uncertainty in knowing what future climate to expect and informs planning decisions. The mapped results are useful for identifying areas of high sensitivity to climate change as well as the magnitude of the potential impact of that change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pig genetic resources in Africa originate from different regions and were introduced through several migration pathways. Genetic analysis has shown a strong phylogeographic pattern, with pigs on the eastern parts showing a high frequency of alleles from the Far East while the ones on the western parts show a strong European influence. This highlights the influence of trade routes on the genetic legacy of African pigs. They have, however, since adapted to the local environments to produce unique populations with unique attributes. Most of the pigs are now reared in resource-constrained smallholdings under free-range conditions. They are largely owned by women who spread ownership of the resource through kinship networks. Very little work has been done to characterize, conserve, and sustainably utilize pig genetic resources in Southern Africa. The risk status of the breeds together with population numbers, distribution, and other attributes are largely unknown. This paper proposes several strategies for the sustainable utilization of the pig genetic resources: A market-driven in situ conservation program and two complementary ex situ strategies. In addition, the possibility of community-based breed improvement programs is discussed. It was concluded that genetic characterization of domestic free-range pig populations should be a supreme priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic dependence structure of crude oil and East Asian stock markets at multiple frequencies using wavelet and copulas. We also investigate risk management implications and diversification benefits of oil-stock portfolios by calculating and comparing risk and tail risk hedging performance. Our results provide strong evidence of time-varying dependence and asymmetric tail dependence between crude oil and East Asian stock markets at different frequencies. The level and fluctuation of their dependencies increase as time scale increases. Furthermore, we find the time-varying hedging benefits differ at investment horizons and reduced over the long run. Our results suggest that crude oil could be used as a hedge and safe haven against East Asian stock markets, especially in the short- and mid-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the possible impact of snow darkening effect (SDE) by light-absorbing aerosols on the regional changes of the hydrological cycle over Eurasia using the NASA GEOS-5 Model with aerosol tracers and a state-of-the-art snow darkening module, the Goddard SnoW Impurity Module (GOSWIM) for the land surface. Two sets of ten-member ensemble experiments for 10 years were carried out forced by prescribed sea surface temperature (2002–2011) with different atmospheric initial conditions, with and without SDE, respectively. Results show that SDE can exert a significant regional influence in partitioning the contributions of evaporative and advective processes on the hydrological cycle, during spring and summer season. Over western Eurasia, SDE-induced rainfall increase during early spring can be largely explained by the increased evaporation from snowmelt. Rainfall, however, decreases in early summer due to the reduced evaporation as well as moisture divergence and atmospheric subsidence associated with the development of an anomalous mid- to upper-tropospheric anticyclonic circulation. On the other hand, in the East Asian monsoon region, moisture advection from the adjacent ocean is a main contributor to rainfall increase in the melting season. A warmer land-surface caused by earlier snowmelt and subsequent drying further increases moisture transport and convergence significantly enhancing rainfall over the region. Our findings suggest that the SDE may play an important role in leading to hotter and drier summers over western Eurasia, through coupled land-atmosphere interaction, while enhancing East Asian summer monsoonal precipitation via enhanced land-ocean thermal contrast and moisture transport due to the SDE-induced warmer Eurasian continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: Moreover, a number of studies in recent years have drawn attention to the increasing intensity of heavy rainfall events, heat waves, and severe droughts in monsoon regions. It is imperative that scientists who study monsoon circulations improve the prediction of their start date or onset, the monsoon intensity, and how these variables respond to climate change. The 16 papers in this volume cover several regional monsoons including East Asia, South Asia and the South China Sea, Australian monsoon, and African Monsoon.