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Dragon fruit is one of the most popular fruits in China and Southeast Asia. It, however, is mainly picked manually, imposing high labor intensity on farmers. The hard branches and complex postures of dragon fruit make it difficult to achieve automated picking. For picking dragon fruits with diverse postures, this paper proposes a new dragon fruit detection method, not only to identify and locate the dragon fruit, but also to detect the endpoints that are at the head and root of the dragon fruit, which can provide more visual information for the dragon fruit picking robot. First, YOLOv7 is used to locate and classify the dragon fruit. Then, we propose a PSP-Ellipse method to further detect the endpoints of the dragon fruit, including dragon fruit segmentation via PSPNet, endpoints positioning via an ellipse fitting algorithm and endpoints classification via ResNet. To test the proposed method, some experiments are conducted. In dragon fruit detection, the precision, recall and average precision of YOLOv7 are 0.844, 0.924 and 0.932, respectively. YOLOv7 also performs better compared with some other models. In dragon fruit segmentation, the segmentation performance of PSPNet on dragon fruit is better than some other commonly used semantic segmentation models, with the segmentation precision, recall and mean intersection over union being 0.959, 0.943 and 0.906, respectively. In endpoints detection, the distance error and angle error of endpoints positioning based on ellipse fitting are 39.8 pixels and 4.3°, and the classification accuracy of endpoints based on ResNet is 0.92. The proposed PSP-Ellipse method makes a great improvement compared with two kinds of keypoint regression method based on ResNet and UNet. Orchard picking experiments verified that the method proposed in this paper is effective. The detection method proposed in this paper not only promotes the progress of the automatic picking of dragon fruit, but it also provides a reference for other fruit detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural products are essential for human survival, and strengthening agricultural trade cooperation between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" (B&R) can promote food security, but there are few studies on bilateral trade fluctuation factors in the literature. This paper uses the modified multi-country multi-product CMS (constant market share) model and the two-country multi-product CMS model to decompose the fluctuation of agricultural trade between China and B&R countries by stage, region, and agricultural product type. The results show that in recent years, in the fluctuation of China's exports to B&R countries, in overall agricultural products, the demand effect plays a major hindering role, accounting for −9.2%; in the region, Southeast Asia has the largest share of trade, which is mainly pulled by the joint demand effect, structural effect and competitiveness effect; in specific agricultural products, animal, fruit and vegetable, and food processing products are mainly pulled by competitiveness. In the fluctuation of B&R countries' export to China, in overall agricultural products, the demand effect pulls the largest share, accounting for 72.55%; in the region, Southeast Asia is mainly driven by the joint pull of demand effect, structural effect. and competitiveness effect; in specific agricultural products, animal, fruit and vegetable, and food processing products are mainly driven by the pull of demand effect. The findings of this paper can provide a basis for making decisions on food security cooperation between China and B&R countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how Chinese transnational investments, as (re)framed in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), contribute to changes in urbanisation processes in Southeast Asia. On the ground, the BRI becomes contextualised and intersects with local and national development trajectories. The growing presence of Chinese actors in the region intensifies urban dynamics, especially in secondary cities and emerging urban sites, where the BRI is used as a lever for local internationalisation strategies. The heterogeneous nature of the links between the BRI and various large urban projects is demonstrated on the basis of case studies involving changing consortia of private and public Chinese and Southeast Asian actors. A regional approach allows us to identify connections and shared processes across Southeast Asian countries. It provides a historically grounded understanding of how the BRI incorporates long‐term interactions with China and more recent partnerships in Southeast Asian countries. The paper paves the way for a research agenda that contests the image of China as a monolithic actor implementing the BRI uniformly and consistently. Further analyses are needed to examine systems and networks of actors as well as the local urban politics that affect the BRI on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the launch of the BRI, particular modes of movement are integral to its vision of what it means to be a modern world citizen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Southeast Asia, where China-backed infrastructure projects expand, and at great speed. Such infrastructure projects are carriers of particular versions of modernity, promising rapid mobility to populations better connected than ever before. Yet, until now, little attention has been paid to how mobility and promises of mobility intersect with local understandings of development. In the introduction to this special issue, we argue that it is essential to think about the role infrastructure plays in forms of development that place connectivity at the center. We suggest that considering development, mobility and modernity together is enlightening because it interrogates the connections between these interlocking themes. Through an introduction to five ethnographically grounded papers and two commentaries, all of which engage with infrastructures in different contexts throughout Southeast Asia, we demonstrate that there are significant gaps between official policy and lived experience. This makes the need to interrogate what infrastructure, mobilities, and global China really mean all the more pressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sketches out the mode and influence of the sports culture of martial arts, from Republican China to Southeast Asia's Chinese societies. The Chin Woo Athletic Federation was the first non-governmental sports organization in Republican China after the feudal monarchy. In the 1920s, it began to expand its organizational territory to Southeast Asia, and its development reached its peak in the 1930s. This paper focuses on the spread of Wushu to Southeast Asia against the background of the rise of overseas Chinese nationalism. It interprets how it embodied the Chinese immigrant nationalism, especially contextualizing the conflict between tradition and modernity in the early twentieth century, which is a rarely discussed topic. The results show that the dissemination of Chin Woo organizations was a form of organizational cloning of 'mother' organizations in the mainland. The association between different Chin Woo athletic associations suggests an attempt at cloning the organizations and their practice in the interests of building a form of quintessential Chinese-ness, at the initiative of Chinese business and other community leaders. The physical training and performance of the Chin Woo members was a manifestation of Southeast Asian Chinese immigrant nationalism. Finally, Wushu was a cultural element in the historical identity of Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of illicit synthetic drugs has undergone a significant shift from China to the Golden Triangle, profoundly impacting Southeast Asia's legal systems, drug enforcement and public health. This paper reviews the production, distribution and use of illicit synthetic drugs in the region, explaining their alignment with regulatory policies in China and Southeast Asia. The public health effects resulting from the increased production and use of synthetic drugs in Southeast Asia are reviewed, emphasizing the importance of public health protections such as harm reduction, treatment and rehabilitation. This study also discusses legal mechanisms to enhance control over illicit drug activities, mainly compound‐wide legislative prohibitions targeting present and future fentanyl and methamphetamine analogues. Moreover, it underscores the urgency for collaborative efforts between China and Southeast Asian states to mitigate the influence of Chinese cartels operating in the region. By elucidating the multifaceted challenges posed by the shifting drug production landscape, this paper highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach encompassing regulatory, law enforcement and public health measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's economic rise and influence, financial statecraft has increasingly been deployed to serve the country's national interest. The growth of China's financial statecraft in the region has drawn greater media and academic attention. Notwithstanding the abundant literature on China's financial statecraft in Southeast Asia, the previous studies lack a detailed analysis of various financial statecraft instruments deployed by China. To get a better understanding of China's deployment of financial statecraft over the years under Xi Jinping's administration, this article fills the gap in the existing literature by delving into various factors that influenced various financial statecraft instruments with respect to the objectives, trends or patterns and agencies involved in the region. Given Xi's successful bid for continued political rule by eliminating a term limit on the presidency as well as the escalating China-US strategic rivalry, it is important to examine how the interaction of domestic and international forces has shaped the evolution of financial statecraft in Southeast Asia. Due to the changes in domestic politics and shifts in the geopolitics and geoeconomics, an important question that deserves our attention is how these changes has influenced China's deployment of various financial statecraft instruments in different Southeast Asian countries. The paper focuses on two middle-income countries (i.e., Malaysia and Thailand) and two low-income countries (i.e. Cambodia and Laos) in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) benefits significantly from investments in transport infrastructure such as road, railway and port, but not as much from investments in non-transport infrastructure such as real estate. However, using data collected from several sources, including secondary data on the number of infrastructure projects already invested and earmarked to be invested as well as China's direct foreign investment to Southeast Asia, this analysis shows that non-transport infrastructure constitutes a substantially higher proportion of the total infrastructure investments in Southeast Asia than transport infrastructure since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This points to a suboptimization polemic emanating from the mismatch between the injlows of the diferent types of infrastructure investments and ASEAN's need for these inputs for sustainable economic growth. Domestic disharmony, regional rivalry and political conflicts between China and ASEAN as well as other obstacles such as the debt-trap worries reduce the total investment flows to Southeast Asia, exacerbating the suboptimization problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Group Model Building (GMB) is a participatory system dynamics method increasingly used to address complex public health issues like obesity. GMB represents a set of well-defined steps to engage key stakeholders to identify shared drivers and solutions of a given problem. However, GMB has not yet been applied specifically to develop multi-duty interventions that address multiple inter-related issues such as malnutrition in all its forms (MIAIF). Moreover, a recent systematic review of empirical applications of a systems approach to developing obesity interventions found no published work from non-western, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this paper we describe adaptations and innovations to a common GMB process to co-develop systemic MIAIF interventions with Chinese decision-makers. Methods: We developed, piloted and implemented multiple cultural adaptations and two methodological innovations to the commonly used GMB process in Fang Cheng Gang city, China. We included formal, ceremonial and policy maker engagement events before and between GMB workshops, and incorporated culturally tailored arrangements during participant recruitment (officials of the same seniority level joined the same workshop) and workshop activities (e.g., use of individual scoring activities and hand boards). We made changes to the commonly used GMB activities which enabled mapping of shared drivers of multiple health issues (in our case MIAIF) in a single causal loop diagram. We developed and used a 'hybrid' GMB format combining online and in person facilitation to reduce travel and associated climate impact. Results: Our innovative GMB process led to high engagement and support from decision-makers representing diverse governmental departments across the whole food systems. We co-identified and prioritised systemic drivers and intervention themes of MIAIF. The city government established an official Local Action Group for long-term, inter-departmental implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the co-developed interventions. The 'hybrid' GMB format enabled great interactions while reducing international travel and mitigating limitations of fully online GMB process. Conclusions: Cultural and methodological adaptations to the common GMB process for an Asian LMIC setting were successful. The 'hybrid' GMB format is feasible, cost-effective, and more environmentally friendly. These cultural adaptations could be considered for other Asian settings and beyond to address inter-related, complex issues such as MIAIF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moisture sources and transport processes play a critical part in hydrological cycle and determine regional precipitation. This paper utilizes the Water Accounting Model‐2layers (WAM‐2layers) and the ERA5 reanalysis data to track the sources of precipitation over the Pearl River Basin (PRB). The contribution of external moisture and the role of local recycling are investigated. The results show that during the period from 1980 to 2020, oceanic sources including the western North Pacific and Indian Oceans serve as the primary moisture sources of precipitation over the PRB. The contributions to total seasonal precipitation are respectively 62.57% in MAM, 54.79% in JJA, 43.70% in SON and 60.88% in DJF. By contrast, the contribution of local recycling is generally below 5.50%. In the dry years of 1994, 1997 and 2001, the contribution of terrestrial sources is about 19.22%; in the wet years of 1989, 2009 and 2011, the contribution is about 16.31%. The summer precipitation anomalies are mainly attributable to moisture anomalies from the Equatorial Indian Ocean in the wet years and from Southeast Asia in the dry years. Furthermore, vertically integrated moisture flux anomalies over the boundaries of the PRB are generally the result of anomalous wind rather than anomalous moisture. In the wet years, low‐pressure systems induce strong cyclonic moisture transports, increasing the PRB precipitation. In the dry years, high‐pressure anomalies over the PRB block the moisture transports from the Indian Ocean and western North Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) is a major "river source" and "ecological source" in China, as well as South Asia and Southeast Asia, and is a typical plateau region. Studying the evolution characteristics and ecological effects of the production-living-ecological space (PLES) of the QTP is of great practical significance and theoretical value for strengthening its ecological construction and environmental protection. Based on 30 m × 30 m land use/cover data of the QTP at five time-points of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, this paper investigates the PLES evolution characteristics, transfer characteristics, eco-environmental response, and influencing factors of the eco-environmental quality index (EEQI) in the region of China of the QTP from 1980 to 2020 by land use transfer matrix, eco-environmental response model, hot spot analysis, and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results show that: (1) from 1980 to 2020, the ecological space of the QTP decreased, while the production and living space saw an increase. The PLES pattern of the QTP showed a clear shift from 2000 to 2010, while there was no significant change from 1980 to 2000 and from 2010 to 2020. (2) From 1980 to 2020, the EEQI of the QTP decreased from 0.5634 in 1980 to 0.5038 in 2010, and then increased to 0.5044 in 2020, showing a changing trend of first decreasing and then increasing; the degradation of grassland ecological space to other ecological space was the main cause leading to ecological environment deterioration. (3) From 1980 to 2000, the EEQI was high in the midwestern and southeastern parts of the QTP, presenting a double-center distribution. From 2010 to 2020, the EEQI decreased in the western part, while the high value area in the eastern part increased significantly, obviously low in the west and high in the east. The spatial variation characteristics of hot and cold spots and EEQI are generally similar. (4) Natural ecological and socioeconomic factors have significant differences on the spatial distribution of EEQI in the QTP, and natural ecological factors are the main driving factors, with topographic relief having the strongest effect on EEQI as a natural ecological factor, and population density having the strongest effect as a socioeconomic factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a method for joint sea surface rainfall intensity (RI), wind speed, and wave height retrieval based on spaceborne global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) data is proposed, which especially considers the effects between these two parameters. A method of rainfall detection (RD) according to different wind speed ranges is also proposed by mitigating the impact of swell and wind speed. The results, with data collected over the oceans near Southeast Asia, show that the RD method has a detection accuracy of up to 81.74%. The RI retrieval accuracy can reach about 2 mm/h by simultaneously correcting the effects of wind speed and swell. The accuracy of wind speed retrieval is improved by about 5% after removing rainfall interference through RD in advance. After considering the influence of wind speed and eliminating rainfall interference, the retrieval accuracy of significant wave height (SWH) is improved by about 18%. Finally, the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model is built to estimate the SWH of the swell. The results show that the retrieval accuracy of the swell height is better than 0.20 m after excluding rainfall interference. The proposed joint retrieval method provides an important reference for the future acquisition of multiple high-precision marine geophysical parameters by spaceborne GNSS-R technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's threat perceptions toward China have hardened over the post-Cold War period. This led Tokyo to rely more on overt balancing strategies compared with engagement and hedging strategies. While hard balancing measures are widely discussed in the literature, little or no attention is paid to soft balancing. Though concerned about China's strategic rise, Japan's strategic options are limited by the entrenched normative constraints within the security policymaking structure. These conditions make soft balancing a critical and viable strategy for Japan. The prominence of soft balancing is illustrated by analyzing Japan's response to China's widening influence in Southeast Asia, primarily focusing on two areas – East Asian multilateralism and the South China Sea territorial disputes. Empirically, this paper offers a more nuanced analysis of Japan's response to China's strategic rise; and theoretically, explains the way Japan's case strengthens the conceptual utility of soft balancing through the incorporation of a normative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Year 2020 will be a watershed in world politics given the continuing repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The outbreak of this pandemic and its impact seem to suggest the arrival of a new world order. The role of China in the outbreak of this disease has been a subject of discussion, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has given it a clean chit. However, the Western world continues to suspect China's role in the outbreak. This suspicion has drawn a new fault line between the US and China. This new world order, which will be built on a struggle for dominance in international affairs, will have two major poles, with leadership held by two countries: the US (current superpower) and China (emerging superpower). Cold War power politics will resurface, with Asia as the epicenter. Bipolarity concept will arise again in world politics. Ideas like D-10, G-7 extension, Quad grouping and Five Eyes networking seem to bolster this bipolarity idea. Given this background, this paper seeks to examine the relevance of India's space program in South East Asia. South East Asia, which is a part of the Indo-Pacific, is going to witness new developments of this new world order. In this light, the aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of India's space program and its potential applications in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a great demand for dragon fruit in China and Southeast Asia. Manual picking of dragon fruit requires a lot of labor. It is imperative to study the dragon fruit-picking robot. The visual guidance system is an important part of a picking robot. To realize the automatic picking of dragon fruit, this paper proposes a detection method of dragon fruit based on RDE-YOLOv7 to identify and locate dragon fruit more accurately. RepGhost and decoupled head are introduced into YOLOv7 to better extract features and better predict results. In addition, multiple ECA blocks are introduced into various locations of the network to extract effective information from a large amount of information. The experimental results show that the RDE-YOLOv7 improves the precision, recall, and mean average precision by 5.0%, 2.1%, and 1.6%. The RDE-YOLOv7 also has high accuracy for fruit detection under different lighting conditions and different blur degrees. Using the RDE-YOLOv7, we build a dragon fruit picking system and conduct positioning and picking experiments. The spatial positioning error of the system is only 2.51 mm, 2.43 mm, and 1.84 mm. The picking experiments indicate that the RDE-YOLOv7 can accurately detect dragon fruits, theoretically supporting the development of dragon fruit-picking robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of digital twins, high-definition 3D point clouds of cultural relics, such as the bronze drums of ancient Southeast Asia and China, are increasingly available as digital heritage. This study applies an automatic hierarchical clustering method to compare and cluster 14 unstructured 3D models of frogs on drums based on the dissimilarity metric of the minimum error from 2,000 iterations of global registration. Furthermore, this study compares two forms of 3D presentation: surface points and 3D shape skeletons. The experimental results on 14 high-definition frogs showed that four groups – three-legged with baby, four-legged with baby, three-legged without baby, and four-legged without baby – were consistently (TPR = 0.857) detected, regardless of the 3D presentation using point clouds or shape skeletons. Both basic surface points and advanced shape skeleton effectively clustered 3D heritage details for heritage digital twins and advanced heritage documentation. The findings also imply that geospatial analytics using either surface 3D point clouds or skeleton can shed light on unsupervised learning and quantitative understanding of unstructured point clouds of numerous cultural heritages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty years ago Robert Blust published a comprehensive, comparative analysis of what he called the 'thunder complex'. Found among linguistically and culturally diverse populations in the Philippines, Indonesia, and peninsular Malaysia, the complex comprises a series of taboos and rites that centre on a belief that certain actions involving a confusion of categories will bring about a punitive storm and the death of offenders in resulting floods, landslides, or lightning strikes. The most typical and widespread of such taboos concern making fun of animals—for example, by dressing them in human clothes, talking to them, or otherwise making them appear ridiculous and so causing people to laugh. The present paper has three objectives. First, I identify a series of rituals performed by adherents of the complex that involve deliberately breaking taboos on animal mockery in order to produce needed rain. Secondly, I introduce a ceremony performed by ethnic minorities in southwestern China for the same purpose. The ceremony has all the hallmarks of the thunder complex and coexists with taboos on making fun of animals. Finally, I discuss what the complex, found among otherwise culturally and linguistic diverse societies, implies for their ontology in regard to human‐animal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Japan's former prime minister Abe Shinzō, security cooperation with Southeast Asia was central to preventing the South China Sea from turning into a "Lake Beijing" - completely under Chinese control. This paper explains why Abe's security engagement in the region focused mainly on providing Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) to Southeast Asian coast guards agencies to counter China's maritime assertiveness. Answers are provided by looking at not only international but also domestic factors. Based on key variables of post-Cold War Japan's foreign policy, namely the US-Japan alliance, the dominance of economic tools, and normative and institutional constraints on the use of force, the analysis concludes that CBA was an ideal response to the complex demands and restrictions of Japan's security policy. In particular, the economic benefits of providing CBA are an important finding of the analysis and one that has not yet received much scholarly focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common types of cancers in South China and Southeast Asia. Clinical data has shown that early detection is essential for improving treatment effectiveness and survival rate. Unfortunately, because the early symptoms of NPC are rather minor and similar to that of diseases such as Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS), early detection is a challenge. This paper proposes using machine learning methods to detect NPC using routine medical test data, namely Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), k-Nearest-Neighbor (KNN) and Logistic Regression (LR). We collected a dataset containing 523 newly diagnosed NPC patients before treatment, 501 newly diagnosed CRS patients before treatment as well as 600 healthy controls. The routine medical test data including age, gender, blood test features, liver function test features, and urine sediment test features. For comparison, we also used data from Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) antibody tests, which is a specialized test not included among routine medical tests. In our first test, all four methods were tested on classifying NPC vs CRS vs controls; RF gives the best overall performance. Using only routine medical test data, it gives an accuracy of 83.1%, outperforming LR by 12%. In our second test, using only routine medical test data, when classifying NPC vs non-NPC (i.e. CRS or controls), RF achieves an accuracy of 88.2%. In our third test, when classifying NPC vs. controls, RF using only routine test data achieves an accuracy significantly better than RF using only EBV antibody data. Finally, in our last test, RF trained with NPC vs controls, using routine test data only, continued to perform well on an entirely separate dataset. This is a promising result because preliminary NPC detection using routine medical data is easy and inexpensive to implement. We believe this approach will play an important role in the detection and treatment of NPC in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guest Editorial: Crossing the river by feeling the stones - Alternative imaginaries of China and Southeast Asia in contemporary contexts The second aspect is to uncover alternative imaginaries and responses of the Chinese government's official development discourses such as the BRI in Southeast Asia with historically informed perspectives in examining current and future China-Southeast Asia relations as China repositions itself. On 27 February 2021, I The Economist i published a briefing titled "Tea and Tributaries", stating 'in no region is China's influence felt more strongly than in Southeast Asia', noting that historically Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam were important tributaries to imperial China ( I The Economist i , 2021). Indeed, the balancing act of engaging China and United States fruitfully is ASEAN's bread and butter business, which highlights situating China relationally with other major powers in the alternative imaginaries of China in Southeast Asia. [Extracted from the article]

During the age of sail-powered ships, the maritime trade networks of Southeast Asia were highly cyclical in nature due to the biannually switching wind directions of the East Asian Monsoon. The Selden Map of China provides us with a glimpse of these connections in the early seventeenth century, and it is drawn in a unique way that allows the sailing durations between ports to be measured. In this paper, a novel method of simulating directed sail-powered voyages is developed. The method utilizes ArcGIS Pro's functionality through Python macros, and unlike the previous least-cost path (LCP) sailing models, it is based on sequential LCP analysis using dynamic real-time series wind data. The optimized routes and sailing durations generated by the macros are then compared against the Selden map. In general, the model performs reasonably well in favourable winds, but is unable to simulate tacking properly in adverse conditions. The results allow the visualization of wind patterns in terms of time spent at sea and demonstrate the inherent natural rhythm of maritime movement and trade in the South China Sea region. The macros are freely available and can be modified to simulate directed sailing in other time periods, localities, and environmental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Index and Port Liner Shipping Con‐ nectivity Index developed by UNCTAD, this paper constructs complex network with countries/ regions and ports as nodes respectively, explores the hierarchical structure and its spatial and temporal evolution of the Maritime Silk Road ports network. The results show that: (1) The ports network forms a pattern centered on China, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Europe, and presents a small world as whole, which consistent with the "core-edge" theory; (2) In terms of the hierarchy of the ports network, when countries/regions are used as nodes, they can be divided into four categories: core, semi-core, semi-fringe and fringe; when ports are used as nodes, they can be divided into four categories: core ports, semi-core ports, trunk ports and feeder ports; (3) In terms of spatial and temporal evolution of port networks, among the eight sub-networks formed by 124 ports, the sub-networks of China, Southeast Asia, Europe, North Africa and sub)Saharan Africa are consistent with the whole, showing a trend of decentralization and equaliza‐ tion. The sub-networks of South Asia and West Asia are in the fluctuating stage, and the sub-net‐ works of Northeast Asia show a trend of clustering, and the spatial auto-correlation of each port sub-network is strong. The core status of China, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia have been consolidated; (4) The evolution of network is influenced by cooperation mechanisms, policies and strategies, technological progress, the scale effect and polarization effects of ports. These conclusions provide theoretical basis for China to promote the MSR interconnection, ports coop‐ eration and rational layout of liner shipping routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to contribute to the exploration of the ways through which Malaysia—the fourth largest economy in Southeast Asia—has engaged Chinese investment to pursue industrialization. It does so by comparing and contrasting the different approaches by which two of the most important Chinese-financed automobile projects, Chery Automobile's assembly operations in 2008 and Zhejiang Geely's partial acquisition of local producer Proton in 2017, have been embedded into the Malaysian political economy. While Chery Automobile ended up with a conundrum of extremely low local sales, Zhejiang Geely has fostered mutually beneficial partnerships with Proton and its cohort of suppliers that are shaped by the industry's ethnopolitical directives. More recently, Zhejiang Geely has exported an increasingly larger proportion of vehicles from its Malaysian operations. The contrasting fate of these projects illustrates that while they are driven by Chinese money and technological know-how, they are not necessarily Chinese-dominated. It is domestic politics—the establishment of a functional politico-commercial coalition in particular—that matters in shaping the outcome and impact of Chinese investment in Malaysia. More importantly, the paper highlights how foreign direct investment and the supposed (positive and negative) externalities are intimately tied to local factors such as political institutions and ethnocentric directives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 2019 China Invested Firms and Employees Survey (CIFES), this study explores the convergence of Chinese enterprise and employee (E&E) evaluation in Southeast Asian countries. The results show that convergence varies greatly across the nine Southeast Asian countries. Union organisations and economic factors play a key role in convergence. Firms with labour unions report a more effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance than others, while employees in the construction sector report their firms' CSR and those in the manufacturing and service sectors. Interestingly, the number of years worked by an employee correlates positively with their perception of firms' CSR performance. This paper uses China Invested Firms and Employees Survey data to compare employer‐reported and employee‐perceived corporate social responsibility performance of Chinese firms in nine Southeast Asian countries in terms of employees' union participation, working experience as well as industrial sector of the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and intensification of transcontinental exchange during both the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age profoundly influenced the social history of Eurasia. While scholars have intensively discussed east-west long-distance communication along the proto-Silk Road, the north-south transport networks that connected China to South and Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age have attracted much less attention in the scholarly literature based on archeological science data. In this paper, we find new radiocarbon dates from 11 Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in northwestern and central Yunnan in Southwest China, a key entrance into South and Southeast Asia from China. Combined with previously published archeological records and radiocarbon dates, we attempt to disentangle and understand the timing and routes of the networks linking China to South and Southeast Asia during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. We propose three north-south land routes that played essential roles in the cultural exchanges in addition to the proto-Silk Road and maritime routes. This includes the trans-Himalayan routes, trans-Hengduan Mountain routes, and the trans-Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau routes. The north-south exchange between China and South and Southeast Asia probably emerged in the fifth millennium BP (before the present) mainly through a low-frequency trans-Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau and trans-Himalayan routes. The exchange frequency significantly increased after the fourth millennium BP, with the synchronous development of the three primary north-south passageways. Trans-Hengduan routes might have been the most crucial artery connecting China and South and Southeast Asia during 3000–2200 BP, but more archeological records are needed to understand the detailed evolution of these transport networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new species of the thread-legged bug genus Ademula McAtee & Malloch, 1926 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini, formerly Ploiariolini) from China, A. callipennis, new species, and A. corniculata, new species, are described and illustrated in the present paper. COI barcodes of these two new species and an updated key to the Oriental species of Ademula are provided. The distribution of Ademula in East and Southeast Asia is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Xi Jinping era, China is actively implementing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) around the globe. Under the BRI, infrastructure development has become the main agenda for China to create connectivity. One of the infrastructure projects in the energy sector is the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project. The Nam Ou River is a tributary of the Mekong River located in Laos and borders China. For Laos, this project is part of their vision to be "The battery of Southeast Asia." Therefore, this article attempts to explain that Nam Ou Hydropower has implications for China's dominance in the Mekong region. The circle hydro-hegemony is used as the conceptual framework for analyzing the phenomenon. This article also applies a qualitative method with secondary data. The article shows that the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project in Laos elevates China's influence in the Mekong region. By actively pulling and pushing its neighbors into cooperation, China exercises its power as an upstream country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intense period of human population expansion over the past 250 years is about to cease. Total fertility rates are falling dramatically all over the world such that highly industrialized nations, including China and the tiger economies of SE Asia, will see their populations decline significantly in the coming decades. The socioeconomic, geopolitical and environmental ramifications of this change are considerable and invite a multidisciplinary consideration of the underlying mechanisms. In the short-term, socioeconomic factors, particularly urbanization and delayed childbearing are powerful drivers of reduced fertility. In parallel, lifestyle factors such as obesity and the presence of numerous reproductive toxicants in the environment, including air-borne pollutants, nanoplastics and electromagnetic radiation, are seriously compromising reproductive health. In the longer term, it is hypothesized that the reduction in family size that accompanies the demographic transition will decrease selection pressure on high fertility genes leading to a progressive loss of human fecundity. Paradoxically, the uptake of assisted reproductive technologies at scale, may also contribute to such fecundity loss by encouraging the retention of poor fertility genotypes within the population. Since the decline in fertility rate that accompanies the demographic transition appears to be ubiquitous, the public health implications for our species are potentially devastating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In reorienting its foreign policy to counter China, the United States must grasp China's ambitions deeply. Understanding the historical roots and driving forces behind Chinese actions is vital. Previous research analyzed the global ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its strategic means to realize them, with a focus on Southeast Asia. It highlighted the CCP's pursuit of hegemony and its use of malign influence, avoiding actions that might provoke a US military response. This second installment of research proposes a revised US strategy, emphasizing partnerships in Southeast Asia to limit China's ability to act against US interests. Relevant to foreign relations experts and military operations, this research advocates for shaping the regional environment to constrain China's power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice–crayfish co-culture system, a representative of Agri-aqua food systems, has emerged worldwide as an effective strategy for enhancing agricultural land use efficiency and boosting sustainability, particularly in China and Southeast Asia. Despite its widespread adoption in China's Jianghan Plain, the exact spatiotemporal dynamics and factors influencing this practice in this region are yet to be clarified. Therefore, understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of the rice–crayfish fields (RCFs) is crucial for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system, and optimizing land use policies. In this study, we identified the spatial distribution of RCF using Sentinel-2 images and land use spatiotemporal data to analyze its spatiotemporal dynamics during the period of 2016–2020. Additionally, we used the Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the key factors influencing RCF's spatiotemporal changes. Our findings reveal that (1). the RCF area in Jianghan Plain expanded from 1216.04 km2 to 2429.76 km2 between 2016 and 2020, marking a 99.81% increase. (2). RCF in Jianghan Plain evolved toward a more contiguous and clustered spatial pattern, suggesting a clear industrial agglomeration in this area. (3). The expansion of the RCFs was majorly influenced by its landscape and local agricultural conditions. Significantly, the Aggregation and Landscape Shape Indexes positively impacted this expansion, whereas proximity to rural areas and towns had a negative impact. This study provides a solid foundation for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system and sustainably developing related industries. To ensure the sustainable development of rice–crayfish co-culture industries in Jianghan Plain, we recommend that local governments optimize the spatial layout of rural settlements, improve transportation infrastructure, and enhance regional agricultural water sources and irrigation system construction, all in line with the national strategy of rural revitalization and village planning. Additionally, promoting the concentration and contiguity of RCF through land consolidation can achieve efficient development of these industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and utilization of gold beads in China were influenced by foreign civilizations and cultures, while the exploration of composite beads in China has been relatively limited compared to single-material beads. Metal foil glass beads represent a distinct type of composite beadwork popular in ancient times. This paper presents findings from a study conducted on a group of beads that were unearthed in Nanyang City, Henan Province. Theoretical calculations and CT imaging suggested that a particular class of gold beads, previously misidentified as single-material beads, actually consisted of gold foil wrapped around an inner layer of glass beads. Elemental analysis techniques such as pXRF, SEM and μ-EDXRF were used to reveal that the purity of the gold foil of the two differently shaped beads is around 95% and 98.5%, while the silver foil of the silver beads is also around 85% due to corrosion. Microscopic observation confirmed that the gold leaf was applied through foil-fusion gilding. Lead isotope analysis indicated that the gold beads originated from different sources, whereas the silver beads likely originated from the Central Plains region. Furthermore, the evidence of beadwork from Southeast Asia and South China supports the view that the gold beads may have been originally exotic but gradually adaptated through indigenous learning, allowing the creation of high-quality imitations. This study emphasizes the importance of scientific analyses for the proper determination of bead types and craftsmanship, and contributes to a better understanding of the ancient bead circulation network. • A special type of beadwork that wraps glass in a gold leaf is recognized. • The purity of the gold foil of two differently shaped beads is around 95% and 98.5%. • These gold beads may have originated in Southeast Asia and then spread to China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxonomic notes on the Talaus species from China are provided. Two new species, T. yuyang Yao & Liu, sp. nov. and T. zhangjiangkou Yao & Liu, sp. nov. are described and illustrated, and a further three species are redescribed based on their genitalic characters: T. dulongjiang Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008, T. niger Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008, and T. sulcus Tang & Li, 2010. The species T. xiphosus Zhu & Ono, 2007 is considered a junior synonym of T. triangulifer Simon, 1886 based on an examination of many recently collected female and male specimens from Guangxi Province, China. Diagnoses, detailed illustrations and a map of distributional records of the six treated species of Talaus in China are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeast Asia's technological achievements and economic prosperity have become the key drivers of the development of both regional and worldwide dynamics. As an organisation that represents all Southeast Asian member countries, ASEAN, as one of the region's primary actors, plays an essential role. ASEAN's attempts to fulfil its objectives include engagement with important partners outside of the area, termed "ASEAN Plus." China is one of ASEAN's key regional allies. In this scientific essay, the author wishes to comment on the potential and problems that ASEAN-China face, notably in establishing cybersecurity collaboration. Cyber security is a serious concern in Southeast Asia. The expansion of the digital economy is assisting Southeast Asia's economic progress. On the one hand, China invests in artificial intelligence and profits from open commerce in Southeast Asia. However, ASEAN lacks policies and a framework to combat cyber threats, which are akin to non-traditional threats such as drugs, human trafficking, and terrorism. In this article, the author expands on cybersecurity challenges such as the lack of cyber threat mitigation policies and the Southeast Asian region's large technology disparity. The author also examines the opportunities for ASEAN and China to expand their cybersecurity cooperation. Cooperation between ASEAN and China can focus on developing cybersecurity rules, increasing human resource capability, and transferring technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knoxia roxburghii is a well-known medicinal plant that is widely distributed in southern China and Southeast Asia. Its dried roots, known as hongdaji in traditional Chinese medicine, are used to treat a range of diseases, including cancers, carbuncles, and ascites. In this study, we report a de novo chromosome-level genome sequence for this diploid plant, which has a length of approximately 446.30 Mb with a contig N50 size of 42.26 Mb and scaffold N50 size of 44.38 Mb. Approximately 99.78% of the assembled sequences were anchored to 10 pseudochromosomes and 3 gapless assembled chromosomes were included in this assembly. A total of 24,507 genes were annotated, along with 68.92% of repetitive elements. Overall, our results will facilitate further active component biosynthesis for K. roxburghii and provide insights for future functional genomic studies and DNA-informed breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an aggressive malignancy with high propensity for lymphatic spread and distant metastasis. It is prominent as an endemic malignancy in Southern China and Southeast Asia regions. Studies on NPC pathogenesis mechanism in the past decades such as through Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) infection and oncogenic molecular aberrations have explored several potential targets for therapy and diagnosis. The EBV infection introduces oncoviral proteins that consequently hyperactivate many promitotic pathways and block cell-death inducers. EBV infection is so prevalent in NPC patients such that EBV serological tests were used to diagnose and screen NPC patients. On the other hand, as the downstream effectors of oncogenic mechanisms, the promitotic pathways can potentially be exploited therapeutically. With the apparent heterogeneity and distinct molecular aberrations of NPC tumor, the focus has turned into a more personalized treatment in NPC. Herein in this comprehensive review, we depict the current status of screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in NPC. Subsequently, based on the limitations on those aspects, we look at their potential improvements in moving towards the path of precision medicine. The importance of recent advances on the key molecular aberration involved in pathogenesis of NPC for precision medicine progression has also been reported in the present review. Besides, the challenge and future outlook of NPC management will also be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread species that inhabit diverse environments possess large population sizes and exhibit a high capacity for environmental adaptation, thus enabling range expansion. In contrast, narrow-range species are confined to restricted geographical areas and are ecologically adapted to narrow environmental conditions, thus limiting their ability to expand into novel environments. However, the genomic mechanisms underlying the differentiation between closely related species with varying distribution ranges remain poorly understood. The Niviventer niviventer species complex (NNSC), consisting of highly abundant wild rats in Southeast Asia and China, offers an excellent opportunity to investigate these questions due to the presence of both widespread and narrow-range species that are phylogenetically closely related. In the present study, we combined ecological niche modeling with phylogenetic analysis, which suggested that sister species cannot be both widespread and dominant within the same geographical region. Moreover, by assessing heterozygosity, linkage disequilibrium decay, and Tajima’s D analysis, we found that widespread species exhibited higher genetic diversity than narrow-range species. In addition, by exploring the “genomic islands of speciation”, we identified 13 genes in highly divergent regions that were shared by the two widespread species, distinguishing them from their narrow-range counterparts. Functional annotation analysis indicated that these genes are involved in nervous system development and regulation. The adaptive evolution of these genes likely played an important role in the speciation of these widespread species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on many industries around the world. Internationally-funded enterprises have been greatly affected by COVID-19 prevention and control measures, such as border controls. However, few studies have examined the impact of COVID-19 on internationally-funded enterprises. To this end, this paper considered 12 of China's industrial parks situated in Southeast Asia, while comparing the operation status before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 based on remote sensing of nighttime lights (NTL). The NTL is generally used as a proxy for economic activity. First, six parameters were proposed to quantify and monitor the operation status based on NTL data. Subsequently, these parameters were calculated for the parks and for 10 km buffer zones surrounding them to analyze the differences in operating conditions. The results showed that (1) despite the negative impact of COVID-19, 9 out of the 12 parks had a mean NTL greater than 1, indicating that these parks are in better operating condition in 2020 than 2019; (2) 7 out of the 10 km buffer zones around the parks showed a decline in mean NTL. Only three parks showed a decline in mean NTL. The impact of COVID-19 on surrounding areas was greater than the impact on parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swine are a primary source for the emergence of pandemic influenza A viruses. The intensification of swine production, along with global trade, has amplified the transmission and zoonotic risk of swine influenza A virus (swIAV). Effective surveillance is essential to uncover emerging virus strains; however gaps remain in our understanding of the swIAV genomic landscape in Southeast Asia. More than 4,000 nasal swabs were collected from pigs in Cambodia, yielding 72 IAV-positive samples by RT-qPCR and 45 genomic sequences. We unmasked the cocirculation of multiple lineages of genetically diverse swIAV of pandemic concern. Genomic analyses revealed a novel European avian-like H1N2 swIAV reassortant variant with North American triple reassortant internal genes, that emerged approximately seven years before its first detection in pigs in 2021. Using phylogeographic reconstruction, we identified south central China as the dominant source of swine viruses disseminated to other regions in China and Southeast Asia. We also identified nine distinct swIAV lineages in Cambodia, which diverged from their closest ancestors between two and 15 B.P., indicating significant undetected diversity in the region, including reverse zoonoses of human H1N1/2009 pandemic and H3N2 viruses. A similar period of cryptic circulation of swIAVs occurred in the decades before the H1N1/2009 pandemic. The hidden diversity of swIAV observed here further emphasizes the complex underlying evolutionary processes present in this region, reinforcing the importance of genomic surveillance at the human--swine interface for early warning of disease emergence to avoid future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines China and India's status-seeking efforts in Southeast Asia through the lens of disaster relief cooperation. It explores status-seeking processes and the region's responses, as well as how these shape the regional security order in the Asia-Pacific. We argue that the outcomes of China and India's status-seeking are determined by their own behaviours and the region's interpretations of them. Our analysis reveals that China seeks to elevate its status to become a leading security partner of Southeast Asia, which has only been partially accepted by the region, as demonstrated by its active and institutionalized cooperation with ASEAN but its haphazard bilateral HADR engagement with individual Southeast Asian countries. Meanwhile, India has gone from a low-key player to an important partner, primarily in military terms, as shown by its membership in regional multilateral institutions, the holding of regular bilateral exercises and an acceptance by Southeast Asian states of the deployment of its military for HADR missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the current and future dynamics of Southeast Asia's maritime cooperation with China and India. Southeast Asian states do not only have diverse agendas when it comes to non-traditional and traditional maritime security issues, but their prioritization of these threats also vary. Those variations primarily define Southeast Asian interests for partnerships with actors such as India and China. Given China's geographical centrality, its strong economic relationship with countries in the region and the proximity of its military power, Southeast Asia states will remain far more invested in maritime security cooperation with China than India. Yet, China's territorial and maritime jurisdictional disputes in the South China Sea, and its overpowering shadow on the region, have contributed to anxiety among Southeast Asian states and their search for other security partners. The evolving threat of China's rise and polarization within the region gives New Delhi opportunities to engage. India-China rivalry is also a significant motivation for New Delhi to engage in Southeast Asia's maritime security. Two avenues for this include naval arms transfers and training for sea denial missions to claimant countries in the South China Sea, and cooperation in Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeast Asian states face numerous security challenges that require the assistance of external partners. China and India, two Indo-Pacific powerhouses, could offer potential solutions but their relations with Southeast Asian states vary considerably. At the same time, escalating tensions between China and India increase the risks of their engagement with Southeast Asian states leading to greater polarization in the region. By utilizing the "4-C Calculus", which comprises cost, complexity, credibility and capacity, this special issue seeks to understand how Southeast Asian states evaluate China and India as potential security cooperation partners, and whether cooperation with both--together or individually--can help address the region's security needs. The articles in this special issue employ the 4-C framework to analyse five key security concerns: defence modernization; health security; the post-coup crisis in Myanmar; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; and maritime security. They contribute to the literature on security partnerships by providing fresh insights into our understanding of why and how smaller states partner with larger powers over shared security challenges, as well as by illustrating how certain policy considerations can influence the direction and quality of security partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crude oil transportation is a vital component of the global energy supply, and the global Crude Oil Maritime Transportation Network (COMTN) plays a crucial role as a carrier for crude oil transportation. Once the network faces attacks that result in the failure of certain routes, a severe threat is posed to the crude oil supply security of importing countries. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the reliability of the COMTN. This study proposes a model for evaluating the reliability of the imported COMTN by analyzing the impact of node failures. Firstly, the network is constructed using complex networks (CNs) theory, with ports, canals, and straits as nodes, and shipping routes as directed edges. Secondly, based on the Weighted Leader Rank algorithm, a comprehensive evaluation metric for CNs is established, and a node importance assessment model is developed to rank the nodes accordingly. Thirdly, a case study is conducted using China's imported COMTN as an example, evaluating the connectivity reliability (CR) under random and deliberate attack scenarios. Finally, measures and recommendations are provided to enhance the CR of China's imported COMTN. The findings indicate that deliberate attacks pose a greater threat, and reliability varies across maritime routes, with the Americas route exhibiting higher reliability compared to the Middle East and Southeast Asia routes. The results of this study can provide relevant recommendations for policy makers. The model proposed in this study can also be applied to other countries and regions to assess the connectivity reliability of their local COMTNs and develop appropriate measures for the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L. rhinocerotis , an edible and medicinal mushroom, has long been utilized as folk medicine and nutritional food in Southeast Asia and southern China. Polysaccharides are the main bioactive substances of L. rhinocerotis sclerotia, and they have attracted extensive attention of researchers both at home and abroad. In the past few decades, various methods have been applied to extract polysaccharides from L. rhinocerotis (LRPs) and the structural features of LRPs are closely related to the used methods of extraction and purification. Many studies have confirmed that LRPs possess various remarkable bioactivities, including immunomodulatory, prebiotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities and intestinal mucosa protective effect. As a natural polysaccharide, LRP has the potential to be a drug and functional material. This paper systematically reviews the recent studies on structural characteristics, modification, rheological properties and bioactivities of LRPs, and provides a theoretical basis for an in-depth study of the structure-activity relationship, and utilization of LRPs as therapeutic agents and functional foods. Additionally, the further research and development of LRPs are also prospected. [Display omitted] • Different extraction and purification methods of LRPs are reviewed and compared. • Structure, modification and rheological properties of LRPs are summarized. • Multiple biological activities and molecular mechanisms of LRPs are outlined. • The structure-activity relationship of LRPs is discussed. • Future direction of research and development of LRP is also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While outward FDI inflows have increased since 2008, the volume of Southeast Asia's exports to China has slowed down, prompting discussion about whether this will affect Southeast Asia's growth. This article empirically tests China's impact on Southeast Asia's growth using a nonlinear framework, and finds that economic linkages between Southeast Asia and China have been changing since the mid-1990s, especially during the 1997 and 2008 financial crises and the 2012 bilateral diplomatic change; that FDI is more important to economic growth than exports across Southeast Asia; and that there is no industrial technology gap between Southeast Asia and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian and East Asian summer monsoons are globally significant meteorological features, creating a strongly seasonal pattern of precipitation, with the majority of the annual precipitation falling between June and September. The stability the monsoons is of extreme importance for a vast range of ecosystems and for the livelihoods of a large share of the world's population. Simulations are performed with an intermediate-complexity climate model in order to assess the future response of the South Asian and East Asian monsoons to changing concentrations of aerosols and greenhouse gases. The radiative forcing associated with absorbing aerosol loading consists of a mid-tropospheric warming and a compensating surface cooling, which is applied to India, Southeast Asia, and eastern China both concurrently and independently. The primary effect of increased absorbing aerosol loading is a decrease in summer precipitation in the vicinity of the applied forcing, although the regional responses vary significantly. The decrease in precipitation is not ascribable to a decrease in the precipitable water and instead derives from a reduction in the precipitation efficiency due to changes in the stratification of the atmosphere. When the absorbing aerosol loading is added in all regions simultaneously, precipitation in eastern China is most strongly affected, with a quite distinct transition to a low precipitation regime as the radiative forcing increases beyond 60 W m -2. The response is less abrupt as we move westward, with precipitation in southern India being least affected. By applying the absorbing aerosol loading to each region individually, we are able to explain the mechanism behind the lower sensitivity observed in India and attribute it to remote absorbing aerosol forcing applied over eastern China. Additionally, we note that the effect on precipitation is approximately linear with the forcing. The impact of doubling carbon dioxide levels is to increase precipitation over the region while simultaneously weakening the circulation. When the carbon dioxide and absorbing aerosol forcings are applied at the same time, the carbon dioxide forcing partially offsets the surface cooling and reduction in precipitation associated with the absorbing aerosol response. Assessing the relative contributions of greenhouse gases and aerosols is important for future climate scenarios, as changes in the concentrations of these species has the potential to impact monsoonal precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a rise in global investments in the digital economy. The growing digital reach of Chinese tech companies is responsible for at least part of this transformation. Yet, little is known about how host country citizens view China's increasing stature in the digital sphere. Focusing on Chinese investments in mobile payment platforms (CIM), this article explains citizens' levels of approval of Chinese outward investments in the digital economy. Based on online surveys conducted in four selected Southeast Asian countries – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines – this research shows that citizens of these four countries perceive the benefits of CIM to outweigh the risks, with approval rates to be higher for Thailand and Malaysia, and lower for Indonesia and the Philippines. We find these high levels of approval for CIM to be significantly associated with perceived personal benefit, such as price reductions and an increase in purchasing choices. By contrast, country-level factors, such as geopolitical concerns about China, do matter in some contexts, but overall show less explanatory influence. These results shed light on citizens' views of different types of foreign investments and of China, and support previous arguments on the separation between consumer behavior and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: In 2019, China experienced massive dengue outbreaks with high incidence and expanded outbreak areas. The study aims to depict dengue's epidemiology and evolutionary dynamics in China and explore the possible origin of these outbreaks. Methods: Records of confirmed dengue cases in 2019 were obtained from the China Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. The sequences of complete envelope gene detected from the outbreak provinces in China in 2019 were retrieved from GenBank. Maximum Likelihood trees were constructed to genotype the viruses. The median-joining network was used to visualize fine-scale genetic relationships. Four methods were used to estimate the selective pressure. Results: A total of 22,688 dengue cases were reported, 71.4% of which were indigenous cases and 28.6% were imported cases (including from abroad and from other domestic provinces). The abroad cases were predominantly imported from Southeast Asia countries (94.6%), with Cambodia (3,234 cases, 58.9%), and Myanmar (1,097 cases, 20.0%) ranked as the top two. A total of 11 provinces with dengue outbreaks were identified in the central-south of China, of which Yunnan and Guangdong provinces had the highest number of imported and indigenous cases. The primary source of imported cases in Yunnan was from Myanmar, while in the other ten provinces, the majority of imported cases were from Cambodia. Guangdong, Yunnan and Guangxi provinces were China's primary sources of domestically imported cases. Phylogenetic analysis of the viruses in outbreak provinces revealed three genotypes: (I, IV, and V) in DENV 1, Cosmopolitan and Asian I genotypes in DENV 2, and two genotypes (I and III) in DENV 3. Some genotypes concurrently circulated in different outbreak provinces. Most of the viruses were clustered with those from Southeast Asia. Haplotype network analysis showed that Southeast Asia, possibly Cambodia and Thailand, was the respective origin of the viruses in clade 1 and 4 for DENV 1. Positive selection was detected at codon 386 in clade 1. Conclusion: Dengue importation from abroad, especially from Southeast Asia, resulted in the dengue epidemic in China in 2019. Domestic transmission between provinces and positive selection on virus evolution may contribute to the massive dengue outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosols are a significant source of dissolved black carbon (DBC) in the ocean. However, how anthropogenic activities, including fossil fuel (FF) burning and human‐initiated biomass burning (BB), would affect the seasonal variations in the concentration and condensation degree of aerosol DBC was not well constrained. To fill this knowledge gap, we collected 33 aerosol samples from December 2018 to September 2019 at a southeast coastal site in China. Concentrations of DBC, water‐soluble organic carbon (WSOC), and elemental carbon (EC) were determined, and air quality data were collected. DBC concentration was 0.02–0.23 μgC m−3, with significantly higher values in spring and winter, and was affected by sources, rainfall frequency, and secondary processes. The source of DBC, as indicated by DBC/WSOC (range: 0.009–0.045) and DBC/EC (range: 0.007–0.065), was dominated by FF burning. Furthermore, the significantly higher DBC/WSOC value in late April to July indicated enhanced contribution from BB that was mainly associated with airmass transported from Southeast Asia (SEA). We further estimated that ∼30% of aerosol DBC was from BB from May to July. The condensation degree of DBC was variable, with significantly higher values in winter and spring, which might be associated with prolonged photo‐dissolution. Significant correlations were also observed between DBC and PM10 and PM2.5, which might be utilized to estimate DBC deposition flux, albeit requiring more studies. Our study emphasized the influence of human activities (including BB activities) on atmospheric DBC deposition, which might affect the regional and even global DBC pools. Plain Language Summary: As a significant source of dissolved black carbon (DBC) to the ocean, the sources and temporal variation in its concentration and condensation degree were not well constrained. In this study, we collected 33 aerosol samples at a coastal site in China. We determined concentrations of DBC, water‐soluble organic carbon, and elemental carbon (EC). Air quality and meteorological parameters were also collected. Our results showed that DBC at this coastal site was primarily derived from fossil fuel (FF) burning, with enhanced contribution from biomass burning that was brought by East Asian Monsoon. In addition, DBC concentration varied significantly among seasons, and was influenced by changes in sources, rainfall frequency as well as secondary processes. Moreover, we found that DBC concentration was significantly positively correlated with PM10 and PM2.5, which provided a potential way to predict DBC depositional flux in other regions that was mainly affected by FF burning. Our study indicated that human activities (FF burning and human‐initiated biomass burning) could have significant impact on atmospheric DBC deposition, which might also affect the oceanic DBC pool in the future. Key Points: The seasonal variation in the dissolved black carbon (DBC) concentration was affected by sources, rainfall frequency, and secondary processes in XiamenThe sources of DBC in the aerosols mainly originated from the burning of fossil fuelThe DBC concentration was highly significantly correlated with PM10 and PM2.5, which could be a simple way to estimate DBC deposition flux [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oiltea-camellia (C. oleifera) is a widely cultivated woody oil crop in Southern China and Southeast Asia. The genome of oiltea-camellia was very complex and not well explored. Recently, genomes of three oiltea-camellia species were sequenced and assembled, multi-omic studies of oiltea-camellia were carried out and provided a better understanding of this important woody oil crop. In this review, we summarized the recent assembly of the reference genomes of oilteacamellia, genes related to economic traits (flowering, photosynthesis, yield and oil component), disease resistance (anthracnose) and environmental stress tolerances (drought, cold, heat and nutrient deficiency). We also discussed future directions of integrating multiple omics for evaluating genetic resources and mining key genes of important traits, and the application of new molecular breeding and gene editing technologies to accelerate the breeding process of oiltea-camellia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]