Search

In a pedagogical method increasing in popularity, students of all levels--from elementary to post graduate--are likely to be asked to engage in debate with peers. How they understand the purposes and values of argumentive discourse is likely to affect its effectiveness. The 3 studies presented here involve junior high school, senior high school, and university students in the United States and China, and are based on their responses to scenarios involving either the opportunity for or necessity of argumentive discourse in cases where a difference of viewpoints exists. The results reveal that many, and in some cases most, students do not appreciate the value of such discourse as having the potential to enhance individual or collective understanding. Comparisons of participants from different populations, however, indicate cultural, as well as developmental, differences, although evidence appeared of individual malleability in relation to cultural patterns. (Contains 6 tables.)

The first Sino-German workshop on "Deep-sea mining of massive sulfides: balancing impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem, technological challenges and law of the sea" took place from September 17 to September 23, 2023 in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. Four themes were covered by 20 impulse talks, (1) seabed resources and mineralization systems, marine geology and geochemistry, (2) microbiology and marine ecology, (3) deep-sea mining technology, mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, and (4) law of the sea and international law applicable to the marine environment in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, respectively. In round table discussions, the interdisciplinary understanding deepened regarding (i) the distribution of submarine massive sulfides (SMS), their formation mechanisms and the abundance of SMS resources, (ii) the biodiversity linked to SMS and hydrothermal vents and the environmental protection requirements, (iii) the challenges of mining technology and processing of SMS, as well as (iv) the legal framework, the regulatory challenges, the international environmental liability regime and due diligence obligations for commercial seabed mining. The participants covered all four themes and are affiliated with various universities, research institutions, and governmental geoscientific authorities from China (seven) and Germany (six). During the workshop, a number of recommendations to ISA were defined regarding environmental, methodological, technical, and legal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s rapid economic growth following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. These reforms and their outcomes have been subjected to considerable scrutiny. However, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the changing role of local government, which has itself been subject to substantial restructuring, and the local mediation of the social and environmental impacts of rapid economic growth. This paper investigates the local manifestation of social and environmental change in Zhejiang Province. In particular, it considers the changing role of local government in the regulatory process, and features a case study of Huzhou Municipality. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 48 key-informants from government and public institutions and rural industries is used as the platform for an analysis of the changing nature of local regulation with respect to the provision of key public services (health care and education) and environmental protection (water pollution control). The results reveal the ability of local government to selectively implement national and provincial policies in light of local priorities, which is taken as indicative of the emergence of local agency within local development processes. The case study suggests a need to re-evaluate conventional wisdom on the absence of autonomy at local levels of government in China, particularly as it relates to the continued devolution of administrative responsibility and the emergence of increasingly powerful economic interests. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cites a study to analyze the relationship between the evolution of local government structures and practices and the implementation of agricultural land protection policies in Zhejiang Province, China. Impact of 1978 reforms on the economic development of China; Geographical information related to Zhejiang Province; Need to reevaluate the role of local levels of government in China with respect to agricultural land.

Identifying order of symptom onset of infectious diseases might aid in differentiating symptomatic infections earlier in a population thereby enabling non-pharmaceutical interventions and reducing disease spread. Previously, we developed a mathematical model predicting the order of symptoms based on data from the initial outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in China using symptom occurrence at diagnosis and found that the order of COVID-19 symptoms differed from that of other infectious diseases including influenza. Whether this order of COVID-19 symptoms holds in the USA under changing conditions is unclear. Here, we use modeling to predict the order of symptoms using data from both the initial outbreaks in China and in the USA. Whereas patients in China were more likely to have fever before cough and then nausea/vomiting before diarrhea, patients in the USA were more likely to have cough before fever and then diarrhea before nausea/vomiting. Given that the D614G SARS-CoV-2 variant that rapidly spread from Europe to predominate in the USA during the first wave of the outbreak was not present in the initial China outbreak, we hypothesized that this mutation might affect symptom order. Supporting this notion, we found that as SARS-CoV-2 in Japan shifted from the original Wuhan reference strain to the D614G variant, symptom order shifted to the USA pattern. Google Trends analyses supported these findings, while weather, age, and comorbidities did not affect our model's predictions of symptom order. These findings indicate that symptom order can change with mutation in viral disease and raise the possibility that D614G variant is more transmissible because infected people are more likely to cough in public before being incapacitated with fever., Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: JDM is employed by Materia Therapeutics. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist.