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Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I), an inherited lysosomal storage disorder characterized by deficiency of α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) activity, causes multisystemic pathology due to sequelae of accumulated heparan and dermatan sulfates (HS and DS), the substrates of IDUA. Current treatments, though life-prolonging, inadequately address skeletal dysplasia and do not forestall progressive and painful degenerative joint disease. Previous studies demonstrated that intra-articular enzyme replacement cleared cellular lysosomal storage and reduced joint inflammation. Three nontolerized MPS I canines were studied to assess safety, efficacy, and durability of IDUA gene replacement therapy delivered via intra-articular injection. After baseline joint tissue biopsies, the right shoulder and stifle of each animal were injected in the intra-articular space with AAV9-IDUA and contralateral joints with AAV9-eGFP. Animals received either 5E11 or 5E12 vector genomes/joint. Necropsy was performed at 2- or 52-week postinjection. All animals tolerated injections without adverse effects. At two weeks, supraphysiologic IDUA enzyme activity was measured in AAV9-IDUA-treated but not AAV9-eGFP-treated synovium, with corresponding normalization of HS content and synoviocyte morphology. The AAV9-IDUA-treated cartilage had normal physiologic levels of IDUA enzyme, reduced but not normalized HS and DS levels compared to untreated MPS I cartilage, and healthy chondrocyte morphology. Liver IDUA transgene and IDUA enzyme activity were identified, as was serum IDUA activity which was 40% of wild-type serum enzyme activity. At 52-week postinjection, AAV9-IDUA-treated synovium and cartilage IDUA enzyme activity declined in both animals, corresponding to high tissue HS and DS levels and severe lysosomal storage. Liver and serum IDUA activity levels were undetectable. A dose-dependent serum anti-IDUA antibody response was observed which, together with loss of transgene with age, likely contributed to decline in tissue enzyme activity and treatment efficacy. Our study demonstrates successful proof-of-concept for intra-articular gene replacement therapy as a treatment for MPS-related joint dysplasia. Our observations suggest the possibility of multimodal gene replacement therapy to address multiple refractory manifestations of MPS I. Subsequent studies, in conjunction with immune tolerization and functional assessments of joint pathology, will investigate this possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China's water governmentality in advancing the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). It attends to how discourses, used as a political instrument, are framed, justified and contested in the reshaping of international hydrosocial territories. China's official and popular discourses present the LMC as promoting multilateral politics, economic benefits and social integration, while they obscure polarizing politics, external interventions and regional conflicts. Using strategies of positive publicity first, top-down communication and mutual empathy creation, these discourses aim to deflect attention away from controversies and geopolitics in the region to construct governable hydrosocial territories. However, in a transnational context where the Chinese state cannot unilaterally control geographical imaginaries, alternative discourses depict China as a "hydro-hegemon" that poses threats to downstream countries. The discursive dichotomy reflects multiple ontologies of water and power struggles in international river governance, bringing regional stability and sustainable development into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wuijts et al. ([32]) take two Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, as examples and apply a water governance assessment framework (content, organizations and realization) to examine what governance conditions may influence the realization of safe urban bathing waters. Water governance inevitably entails a complex bureaucratic matrix in which various functional agencies and territorially based administrative units operate at various institutional levels. Existing water governance literature has given much attention to the early stages of water cooperation mechanisms, such as the formulation of goals and discourses, deliberation over formal rules, and the establishment and reform of integrated water institutions (Gleick, [6]; Global Water Partnership, [7]; Schoeman et al., [20]). [Extracted from the article]

Although essential to successful environmental governance, public participation has been sporadic and fragmented in China. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, this paper explores how environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) have carried out 'civilian river chiefs' projects as novel approaches to water governance. We propose a framework of 'double embeddedness', within which ENGOs have built political and social legitimacy, reciprocity, and networks that enable their sustained participation in water governance. Our findings suggest that new patterns of state–community–non-governmental organization relationships are key to understanding public participation in China's future environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a qualitative systematic review of English-language academic articles on approaches adopted by the Chinese government to overcome fragmentation and disconnection in water governance. We find that the Chinese government has deployed technical, institutional and discursive instruments, ranging from 'hard' to 'soft' ways, to improve connectivity between different administrative levels, functional agencies and territorially based units. Although these approaches are conducive to reconciling conflicts, boosting collaboration and bridging gaps in interjurisdictional, cross-level and cross-sectoral interactions, they also have unexpected implications for cost-effectiveness, practicality and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between NGOs and rural communities in China are an important yet understudied subject. By examining a water conservation project undertaken by an international NGO, this article probes how NGOs and rural communities interact through village cadres, who have considerable influence in shaping the operation and outcomes of NGO projects. In this case, the international NGO struggled to fulfill its aspirations despite making strategic adjustments to either avoid or form alliances with the village cadres. The agency problems inherent in the multiple principal–agent relationships between village cadres and the local government, between village cadres and villagers, and between village cadres and the NGO, gave rise to complicated dynamics of selective implementation by the village cadres, thus creating local constraints on the NGO's community project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding urban expansion at the watershed scale is important because watersheds are important carriers of ecological and environmental impacts. However, current analyses are mainly restricted to administrative units only. Here, we used a long‐term multitemporal data set of urban land to quantify the spatiotemporal trends in the extent and form of urban expansion from 1992 to 2016 in endorheic and exoreic watersheds, globally. Overall, urban expansion in 70% of watersheds (154/220) showed a decelerating trend. The average urban expansion speed of these watersheds in the last 6 years was approximately half of that in the last 24 years. Urban expansion speed in endorheic watersheds lagged behind the counterparts in exoreic watersheds, with the former approximately 1/4 of the latter. More importantly, the pattern of urban expansion in endorheic watersheds was following the low‐density and sprawling trend in exoreic watersheds, which could exert far‐reaching impacts on the sustainability of endorheic watersheds located in arid lands. These findings suggest the need to look beyond administrative city boundaries for land use planning and policies in the context of watershed management. Plain Language Summary: Urban expansion and its impacts are not restricted in urban boundary, but manifest at broader scales, such as watersheds. Previous studies mainly examine the characteristics of urban expansion from the perspective of administrative division, while a comprehensive understanding of the watershed scale is lacking. This study investigated five features of urban expansion (speed, trend, heterogeneity, mode, and efficiency) among thousands of watersheds globally, and compared these features between endorheic and exoreic watersheds. The results show that, globally, urban expansion slowed down in most of the watersheds. However, the unevenness and low‐density development of urban land still dominated in both endorheic and exoreic watersheds. This study could provide a benchmark and proxy for measuring human activities and their environmental impacts at the watershed scale. It also calls for a governance shift from administrative boundary to watershed boundary. Key Points: We quantify five features of urban expansion among 220 watersheds globally for the last 25 yearsMost of the watersheds globally experienced a decelerating and sprawling urban expansionRapid and low‐density of urban expansion in endorheic watersheds may threaten their sustainability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional concerns regarding Hong Kong's water security have centred on water quantity, quality and pricing. In contrast, this article embraces an integrative conceptualization of water security from a governance perspective. A technocratic and supply-oriented water system may overlook challenges stemming from scalar mismatches at the territorial, institutional and discursive levels, as well as at the science–policy interface. Resilience thinking could identify new areas of concern and provide contextually sensitive insights into Hong Kong's water security, which will be subject to the restructuring of the water governance system, which concerns changing discourses, power relations and institutional mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The applications of payments for ecosystem/environmental services (PES) are diverse. However, the changing characteristics of these applications in different contexts have not been adequately elucidated. This article provides a conceptual analysis of China's water eco-compensation mechanism (ECM), a notion reported in the PES literature, through the lens of public–private, state–market, central–local and interjurisdictional relationships. It argues that the water ECM is essentially a state-centric utilitarian approach to mediating regional conflicts and inequalities. The Chinese practices of water ECM indicate an alternative approach to incentive-based conservation, highlighting the potential of integrating government-led instruments with market-oriented mechanisms in the development of a PES framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban water governance in China has received increasing academic and policy attention owing to frequent urban water crises. Drawing on documentary analysis and field investigations, this article analyzes the administrative system and recent policy developments vis-à-vis urban water governance in China. It demonstrates the main problems of, and mechanisms for, interdepartmental and interjurisdictional coordination, and reviews new policy instruments addressing urgent urban water governance issues. The article argues that coordination mechanisms such as the river chief system are promising but their long-term effectiveness remains to be clarified, and more attention should be paid to policy enforcement and market mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on peasant resistance in China have been typically associated with antagonistic actions against the state. This article examines a new form of peasant resistance nested in interactions between peasants and a non-governmental organization (NGO). Through the lens of a post-earthquake reconstruction programme in which peasants cannot be simply regarded as subordinates or a powerless group, it offers an alternative view on theories of 'rightful resistance' and 'everyday forms of resistance'. With rural relations become more complex, the authors argue that contextually sensitive analyses which include multilateral interactions are needed for more in-depth understanding of diverse peasant resistance in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to bridge critical institutionalism and fragmented authoritarianism in China. Moving beyond the predictive functionalist perspective and the overemphasis on state primacy, the paper focuses on how top‐down water policies are exercised by local agencies, collective communities, and individuals at the county level and below. Through a case of irrigation management in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, this paper posits that institutional bricolage and fragmentation are prevalent despite the imposition of the authoritarian state. Moreover, it shows that local water policy implementation is reshaped by various contested discourse, the pursuit of different interests, social relations, and broad transformative forces. This high degree of diversity not only manifests an increasing institutional flexibility, as water policies are operated outside China's hierarchical bureaucratic system, but also is embedded in an era of socio‐economic transformation where the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and neo‐liberalization have changed the dynamics of rural governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, water conflicts have been traditionally framed as the external costs of economic development and tackled with technocratic measures. This study examines water conflicts through the lens of water diversion, water allocation and water functional zoning. It reframes water conflicts as a result of coordination problems nested in complex inter-jurisdictional interactions. With a game-theoretic illustration, it identifies that individual and group heterogeneities are two challenges to effective coordination. It argues that China’s state-centric water institutions are tailored to optimize overall social utilities, yet they constrain coordination due to insufficient costs and benefits redistribution mechanisms at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The problem of trust is a paradigmatic social dilemma. Previous literature has paid much academic attention on effects of peer punishment and altruistic third-party punishment on trust and human cooperation in dyadic interactions. However, the effects of centralized sanctioning institutions on decentralized reciprocity in hierarchical interactions remain to be further explored. This paper presents a formal two-level trust game with incomplete information which adds an authority as a strategic purposive actor into the traditional trust game. This model allows scholars to examine the problem of trust in more complex game theoretic configurations. The analysis demonstrates how the centralized institutions might change the dynamics of reciprocity between the trustor and the trustee. Findings suggest that the sequential equilibria of the newly proposed two-level model simultaneously include the risk of placing trust for the trustor and the temptation of short-term defection for the trustee. Moreover, they have shown that even a slight uncertainty about the type of the newly introduced authority might facilitate the establishment of trust and reciprocity in social dilemmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common-pool resource (CPR) dilemmas distinguish themselves from general public good problems by encompassing both social and physical features. This paper examines how a physical mechanism, namely asymmetric payoff; and a social mechanism, reciprocity; simultaneously affect collective cooperation in theoretical water sharing interactions. We present an iterative N-person game theoretic model to investigate the joint effects of these two mechanisms in a linear fully connected river system under three information assumptions. From a simple evolutionary perspective, this paper quantitatively addresses the conditions for Nash Equilibrium in which collective cooperation might be established. The results suggest that direct reciprocity increases every actor’s motivation to contribute to the collective good of the river system. Meanwhile, various upstream and downstream actors manifest individual disparities as a result of the direct reciprocity and asymmetric payoff mechanisms. More specifically, the downstream actors are less willing to cooperate unless there is a high probability that long-term interactions are ensured; however, a greater level of asymmetries is likely to increase upstream actors’ incentives to cooperate even though the interactions could quickly end. The upstream actors also display weak sensitivity to an increase in the total number of actors, which generally results in a reduction in the other actors’ motivation for cooperation. It is also shown that the indirect reciprocity mechanism relaxes the overall conditions for cooperative Nash Equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction land expansion often occurs on cultivated land in developing countries during rapid urbanization and industrialization. Understanding its characteristics and driving mechanisms is of great significance for land-use policy and sustainable development. This paper depicted the spatio-temporal patterns of China's urban–rural expansion and its occupation of cultivated land based on national land survey data from 1996 to 2006. It further explored the influencing mechanism of cultivated land occupation for urban–rural construction land. The results showed that the establishment and expansion of various economic development zones contribute to more than half of the occupation of cultivated land while the expansion of cities and towns is relatively slower, and their sources of construction land are more diverse. The empirical results showed that (1) economic growth and investment play key roles in shaping the spatio-temporal patterns of the occupation of cultivated land for urban–rural construction land, and (2) the mechanisms of cultivated land occupation in different stages of regional development are different. In particular, the establishment of national economic development zones is conducive to the intensive use of construction land and the protection of cultivated land in inland regions, whereas provincial economic development zones have led to a waste of land resources in coastal regions. Based on the results, this study suggested that the policies to the intensive use of land resources and cultivated land protection required regional disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicator systems can improve water governance by integrating and simplifying data on water resources. However, to our knowledge, no indicator systems have been comprehensively assessed against the water governance framework within which they operate. We assess the policy relevance of the Freshwater Health Index (FHI) to the governance frameworks of Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Viet Nam. These governance frameworks were chosen because the FHI has been applied to the transboundary Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong (3S) river basin, which traverses the three nations. We conduct an institutional analysis, assessing the FHI indicators against each nation's relevant laws, plans, policies and strategies, as well as international agreements. The FHI indicators varied in their alignment with the 3S's transboundary water governance framework. Ecosystem Vitality indicators, which measure environmental health, tended to show a greater alignment than Ecosystem Service indicators. The Governance and Stakeholders indicators, which assess aspects of the governance system, were highly relevant. Comparing the 3S FHI assessment results to the water governance framework provided a case for delivering environmental flows and headwater reforestation, and improving biodiversity protection and fish passage. The generally close alignment of FHI metrics with the 3S's water governance frameworks shows that the FHI is a policy-relevant tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation of freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide is a primary cause of increasing water insecurity, raising the need for integrated solutions to freshwater management. While methods for characterizing the multi-faceted challenges of managing freshwater ecosystems abound, they tend to emphasize either social or ecological dimensions and fall short of being truly integrative. This paper suggests that management for sustainability of freshwater systems needs to consider the linkages between human water uses, freshwater ecosystems and governance. We present a conceptualization of freshwater resources as part of an integrated social-ecological system and propose a set of corresponding indicators to monitor freshwater ecosystem health and to highlight priorities for management. We demonstrate an application of this new framework —the Freshwater Health Index (FHI) — in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China, where stakeholders are addressing multiple and conflicting freshwater demands. By combining empirical and modeled datasets with surveys to gauge stakeholders' preferences and elicit expert information about governance mechanisms, the FHI helps stakeholders understand the status of freshwater ecosystems in their basin, how ecosystems are being manipulated to enhance or decrease water-related services, and how well the existing water resource management regime is equipped to govern these dynamics over time. This framework helps to operationalize a truly integrated approach to water resource management by recognizing the interplay between governance, stakeholders, freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]