Groundwater status and associated issues in the Mekong-Lancang River Basin： International collaborations to achieve sustainable groundwater resources

Groundwater is an important and readily available source of fresh water in the Mekong-Lancang River Basin. With a rapid population growth and increasing human activities, an increasing number of countries in the Mekong-Lancang River Basin are experiencing depleted and degraded groundwater supplies. In transboundary river basins, such as the Mekong-Lancang River, prioritizing the use of the shared aquifer by one riparian government may affect the opportunities of other riparian governments and lead to potential water conflicts between neighboring countries. To promote the sharing of strategies and information for the sustainable and equitable use of water resources of the shared basin, international collaborative workshops on groundwater resources have been organized for all Mekong-Lancang River countries. These workshops provide an opportunity to communicate and discuss nationally sensitive issues on groundwater by the associated countries, with topics covering multiple aspects of groundwater, such as the groundwater status in the basin, quality issues, water use conflicts, hydrological information gaps, management policies and capacity building for successful water resource management. Consensus has been reached by all countries on the importance of catchment-based groundwater management and the need for close communication among the countries. Strategies for managing transboundary aquifer issues must foster international collaboration based on the regional network, influence national networks and enhance the capacity to building maps and monitoring systems based on associated databases. The sustainability of water resources cannot be achieved without the integrated involvement and contributions by multiple countries and various stakeholders. Therefore, collaborative workshops provide a great opportunity to further our understanding of the hydrologic processes of the Mekong River Basin, share the benefits of the aquifer and provide a strategy and vision for sustainable water resource management in the Mekong-Lancang River countries.

Large MM and Sub-MM Array Project and International Collaboration

The Large Millimeter and Submillimeter Array (LMSA) is a high priority project for the future large scale ground based astronomical facility of Jpapn. The LMSA is an interferometer array consisting of fifty 10 m antennas covering a frequency range from 80GHz to 890GHz. To achieve efficient operation at the highest frequencies, the array will be located on a high, dry, and flat site in the eastern Atacama Desert of northern Chile. With a 10 km maximum baseline at 350 GHz the LMSA will provide 10 milli arcsecond resolution which has never been achieved with existing millimeter and submillimeter telescopes. The main scientific tragets of LMSA are to reveal the fundamental process of planet formation, and the formation and evolution of galaxies. The LMSA is also expected to provide a very powerful tool in the researches of cosmology, active galactic nuclei, star formation, interstellar matter, and planetary science. It is being proposed to realize more powerful array and cost saving by merging the LMSA with European LSA, and U.S. MMA projects. The main motivation of the proposal is: all three projects identified the same area in Northern Chile as their potential site, and U.S. and European communities also recognize the importance of submillimeter performance which has been the main target of the LMSA. If a huge array of hundred 10 12 m antennas is realized, the collecting area and number of baselines are 2.5 and 4.0 times larger than the original LMSA, respectively.

International Collaborations In Geodesy Advance Geoscience Research

UNAVCO supports geoscience research at 113 US academic Member institutions,and another 104 Associate Member institutions include international universities,laboratories,observatories,academies of science,and a museum.This diverse membership shares UNAVCO’s purpose at home and abroad,giving UNAVCO global reach in advancing geodesy.Since the mid-1980s,modern geodesy has evolved into a cutting-edge,multi-faceted toolbox with remarkably diverse research and real-world applications,including studies and observation or forecasting of solid-Earth hazards,the dynamics of the atmosphere,climate,near-Earth space environment,and of key environmental parameters such as water storage,soil moisture,and seaand lake-level changes.UNAVCO operates facilities on behalf of the U.S.National Science Foundation to support investigators who use geodetic tools across all of these Earth and atmospheric domains.UNAVCO has built a number of large dense regional networks of GPS stations,including the Earth Scope Plate Boundary Observatory in North America,the COCONetCaribbean network,TLALOCNet in Mexico,GNET in Greenland,and ANET in Antarctica.Going forward,UNAVCO plans to federate the Plate Boundary Observatory(USA),TLALOCNet(Mexico),and COCONet(Caribbean)GPS networks as the Network of the Americas,with upgrades to state-of-the-art,multi-sensor,multi-GNSS observations.While UNAVCO community scientists actively engage in using space and terrestrial geodetic techniques to study geodynamics at all scales,this proliferation of continuous networks is the basis for a suite of recent contributions that focus on improved daily positioning to sense Earth’s elastic response and other perturbations to loading by atmospheric and surface water,oceans,and ice.Day-to-day and sub-daily variations in the GPS vertical and horizontal correlate to increasingly well-understood short-term mass variability,such as monsoonal flooding in Bangladesh,sub-daily changes in tidal loading at continent scales,day-to-day surface water and ice storage in the western U.S.,variations in the rate of GIA in Greenland across a variety of scales,and improved understanding of the inter-annual variation in sea level rise due to changes in terrestrial water storage.

Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Research and the Changing International Collaboration Structure

Research in Information Science and interdisciplinary areas suggested the formation of a growing network of international research collaboration.The massive transmission of COVID-19 worldwide especially after the identification of the Omicron variant could fundamentally alter the factors shaping the network's development.This study employs network analysis methods to analyze the structure of the COVID-19 research collaboration from 2020 to 2022,using two major academic publication databases and the VOSviewer software.A novel temporal view is added by examining the dynamic changes of the network,and a fractional counting method is adopted as methodological improvements to previous research.Analysis reveals that the COVID-19 research network structure has undergone substantial changes over time,as collaborating countries and regions form and re-form new clusters.Transformations in the network can be partly explained by key developments in the pandemic and other social-political events.China as one of the largest pivots in the network formed a relatively distinct cluster,with potential to develop a larger Asia-Pacific collaboration cluster based on its research impact.

Global trends in international research collaboration, 1980-2021

Purpose:The aim of this study is to analyze the evolution of international research collaboration from 1980 to 2021.The study examines the main global patterns as well as those specific to individual countries,country groups,and different areas of research.Design/methodology/approach:The study is based on the Web of Science Core collection database.More than 50 million publications are analyzed using co-authorship data.International collaboration is defined as publications having authors affiliated with institutions located in more than one country.Findings:At the global level,the share of publications representing international collaboration has gradually increased from 4.7%in 1980 to 25.7%in 2021.The proportion of such publications within each country is higher and,in 2021,varied from less than 30%to more than 90%.There are notable disparities in the temporal trends,indicating that the process of internationalization has impacted countries in different ways.Several factors such as country size,income level,and geopolitics may explain the variance.Research limitations:Not all international research collaboration results in joint co-authored scientific publications.International co-authorship is a partial indicator of such collaboration.Another limitation is that the applied full counting method does not take into account the number of authors representing in each country in the publication.Practical implications:The study provides global averages,indicators,and concepts that can provide a useful framework of reference for further comparative studies of international research collaboration.Originality/value:Long-term macro-level studies of international collaboration are rare,and as a novelty,this study includes an analysis by the World Bank’s division of countries into four income groups.

International Collaboration in Brazilian Higher Education

This paper examines the approach Brazil has taken to promote the internationalization of higher education over the last decade.Three key areas are identified:human resources development,institution building,and international partnerships.Our analyses of initiatives in these areas demonstrate that Brazil does not follow global trends such as the creation of world-class universities or the pursuit of“excellence initiatives”to help universities reach higher positions in global rankings.Instead,recent strategies for international collaboration in higher education follow variegated domestic goals that encompass the logics of foreign policy and the internal priorities of federal research and education agencies.The nature and limitations of these strategies are discussed.

An international program on Silk Road Disaster Risk Reduction--a Belt and Road initiative (2016-2020)

Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) is a Chinese national strategy which calls for cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange at the global level along the ancient Silk Road. The overwhelming natural hazards located along the belt and road bring great challenges to the success of BRI. In this framework, a 5-year international program was launched to address issues related to hazards assessment and disaster risk reduction(DRR). The first workshop of this program was held in Beijing with international experts from over 15 countries. Risk conditions on Belt and Road Countries(BRCs) have been shared and science and technology advancements on DRR have been disseminated during the workshop. Under this program, six task forces have been setup to carry out collaborative research works and three prioritized study areas have been established. This workshop announced the launching of this program which involved partners from different countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Russia, Italy, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan. The program adopted the objectives of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 and United Nation Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and was implemented to assess disaster risk in BRCs and to propose suitable measures for disaster control which can be appropriate both for an individual country and for specific sites. This paper deals with the outcomes of the workshop and points out opportunities for the near future international cooperation on this matter.

Global Collaboration in Artificial Intelligence:Bibliometrics and Network Analysis from 1985 to 2019

Purpose:This study aims to explore the trend and status of international collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence(AI)and to understand the hot topics,core groups,and major collaboration patterns in global AI research.Design/methodology/approach:We selected 38,224 papers in the field of AI from 1985 to 2019 in the core collection database of Web of Science(WoS)and studied international collaboration from the perspectives of authors,institutions,and countries through bibliometric analysis and social network analysis.Findings:The bibliometric results show that in the field of AI,the number of published papers is increasing every year,and 84.8%of them are cooperative papers.Collaboration with more than three authors,collaboration between two countries and collaboration within institutions are the three main levels of collaboration patterns.Through social network analysis,this study found that the US,the UK,France,and Spain led global collaboration research in the field of AI at the country level,while Vietnam,Saudi Arabia,and United Arab Emirates had a high degree of international participation.Collaboration at the institution level reflects obvious regional and economic characteristics.There are the Developing Countries Institution Collaboration Group led by Iran,China,and Vietnam,as well as the Developed Countries Institution Collaboration Group led by the US,Canada,the UK.Also,the Chinese Academy of Sciences(China)plays an important,pivotal role in connecting the these institutional collaboration groups.Research limitations:First,participant contributions in international collaboration may have varied,but in our research they are viewed equally when building collaboration networks.Second,although the edge weight in the collaboration network is considered,it is only used to help reduce the network and does not reflect the strength of collaboration.Practical implications:The findings fill the current shortage of research on international collaboration in AI.They will help inform scientists and policy makers about the future of AI research.Originality/value:This work is the longest to date regarding international collaboration in the field of AI.This research explores the evolution,future trends,and major collaboration patterns of international collaboration in the field of AI over the past 35 years.It also reveals the leading countries,core groups,and characteristics of collaboration in the field of AI.

A Comprehensive Systematic Review: Advancements in Skin Cancer Classification and Segmentation Using the ISIC Dataset

The International Skin Imaging Collaboration(ISIC)datasets are pivotal resources for researchers in machine learning for medical image analysis,especially in skin cancer detection.These datasets contain tens of thousands of dermoscopic photographs,each accompanied by gold-standard lesion diagnosis metadata.Annual challenges associated with ISIC datasets have spurred significant advancements,with research papers reporting metrics surpassing those of human experts.Skin cancers are categorized into melanoma and non-melanoma types,with melanoma posing a greater threat due to its rapid potential for metastasis if left untreated.This paper aims to address challenges in skin cancer detection via visual inspection and manual examination of skin lesion images,processes historically known for their laboriousness.Despite notable advancements in machine learning and deep learning models,persistent challenges remain,largely due to the intricate nature of skin lesion images.We review research on convolutional neural networks(CNNs)in skin cancer classification and segmentation,identifying issues like data duplication and augmentation problems.We explore the efficacy of Vision Transformers(ViTs)in overcoming these challenges within ISIC dataset processing.ViTs leverage their capabilities to capture both global and local relationships within images,reducing data duplication and enhancing model generalization.Additionally,ViTs alleviate augmentation issues by effectively leveraging original data.Through a thorough examination of ViT-based methodologies,we illustrate their pivotal role in enhancing ISIC image classification and segmentation.This study offers valuable insights for researchers and practitioners looking to utilize ViTs for improved analysis of dermatological images.Furthermore,this paper emphasizes the crucial role of mathematical and computational modeling processes in advancing skin cancer detection methodologies,highlighting their significance in improving algorithmic performance and interpretability.

Advancing the understanding of variations of Arctic sea ice optical and thermal behaviors through an international research and mobility project

In recent decades, significant changes of Arctic sea ice have taken place. These changes are expected to influence the surface energy balance of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. To quantify this energy balance and to increase our understanding of mechanisms leading to observed changes in the Arctic sea ice, the project ＂Advancing Modelling and Observing solar Radiation of Arctic sea ice--understanding changes and processes （AMORA）＂ was initiated and conducted from 2009 to 2013. AMORA was funded and organized under a frame of Norway-China bilateral collaboration program with partners from Finland, Germany, and the USA. The primary goal of the project was achieved by developing an autonomous spectral radiation buoy, deploying it on drifting sea ice close to the North Pole, and receiving a high-resolution time series of spectral radiation over and under sea ice from spring （before melt onset） to autumn （after freeze-up） 2012. Beyond this, in-situ sea ice data were collected during several field campaigns and simulations of snow and sea ice thermodynamics were performed. More autonomous measurements are available through deployments of sea ice mass balance buoys. These new observational data along with numerical model studies are helping us to better understand the key thermodynamic processes of Arctic sea ice and changes in polar climate. A strong scientific, but also cultural exchange between Norway, China, and the partners from the USA and Europe initiated new collaborations in Arctic reseach.

R & D ACTIVITIES ON AEROSPACE MATERIALS IN KOREA

This paper briefly reviews research and development programs in Korean aerospace industry,with an emphasis on aircraft materials technology. International collaborations in these areas are outlined and the R & D activities are highlighted against the background of the national economy.It is shown that the investment from government agencies and large enterprises has led to healthy development of aerospace materials industries in Korea.

哈工大软件学院“MSE+X”软件工程硕士跨国联合培养项目(英文)

In the information time,the information technology and industry plays more and more important role in development of economy,promoting the world to be unified and emphasizing the globalization through such tendency of their own.The IT application area also becomes larger and diverse through the mergence of multiple disciplines and multiple domains.IT industry demands the inter-disciplinary talent,who are believed to be industrialized,internationalized,and equipped with multi-disciplinary and inter-domain knowledge,and the ability of international competence.Facing the challenge of the new globalization tendency of international industry especially the IT and software industry,universities keep make great efforts to provide qualify graduates to fulfill the demand of industry.This paper introduces a novel joint Master programme which aims at establishing an international education system and platform.The schema,the characteristics,the execution principles are discussed wishing to share our practice and experience with our education colleagues.

UBI-HIT联合硕士课程的正规模型(英文)

Existing university training curricular are usually presented using text and tables.Semantics and inter-relationships between courses are often implicit or even not defined.This paper tentatively presents a formal model of the joint UB1-HIT international master curriculum.The courses of the two years are modelled using UML and the relationships between the two years are explicitly shown.Complementarities between years 1 and 2 are also identified and possible improvements are discussed.

International Mentorship and Research Collaboration: Evidence from European-Trained Chinese PhD Returnees

Drawing on a unique dataset that combines returnees’survey data and their information on research publications extracted from the Scopus database,this study systematically examines whether and how international doctoral mentorship for Chinese students in European countries promotes research collaboration before and upon the return of these Chinese PhDs to China.The results show that a considerable proportion of European-trained Chinese PhD returnees had co-authorship with their supervisors during their PhD study,and most of them maintained this research partnership after returning to China.In addition to the co-authorship during doctoral study,some individual characteristics(e.g.,gender and marital status)and organizational factors(e.g.,country of doctoral study and current work unit)were also found to contribute to international research collaboration upon the return to China of these Chinese PhD holders.This study sheds new light on the mobility and research collaboration of international students and provides policy implications for promoting Sino-foreign student exchange and research collaboration.

A Novel Method for Resolving and Completing Authors' Country Affiliation Data in Bibliographic Records

Purpose: Our work seeks to overcome data quality issues related to incomplete author affiliation data in bibliographic records in order to support accurate and reliable measurement of international research collaboration(IRC).Design/methodology/approch: We propose, implement, and evaluate a method that leverages the Web-based knowledge graph Wikidata to resolve publication affiliation data to particular countries. The method is tested with general and domain-specific data sets.Findings: Our evaluation covers the magnitude of improvement, accuracy, and consistency. Results suggest the method is beneficial, reliable, and consistent, and thus a viable and improved approach to measuring IRC.Research limitations: Though our evaluation suggests the method works with both general and domain-specific bibliographic data sets, it may perform differently with data sets not tested here. Further limitations stem from the use of the R programming language and R libraries for country identification as well as imbalanced data coverage and quality in Wikidata that may also change over time.Practical implications: The new method helps to increase the accuracy in IRC studies and provides a basis for further development into a general tool that enriches bibliographic data using the Wikidata knowledge graph.Originality: This is the first attempt to enrich bibliographic data using a peer-produced, Webbased knowledge graph like Wikidata.

Research topics in the international research collaboration measurement domain

Here we report on a study that combined a scoping review with co-occurrence analysis to assess the current state of publications and research topics in the area of international research collaboration measurement(IRCM).Our study found that IRCM studies have been published in source titles of diverse subject areas and that there are two core research topics that have been commonly discussed across different subject areas in the IRCM domain-scientific productivity measurement and scientific impact measurement.The appearance of papers about IRCM in venues beyond those concerned only with bibliometric measures indicates the broad importance of IRCM for diverse research subjects,and that studies of IRC within particular fields should draw on diverse venues to provide a holistic and interdisciplinary picture of IRCM.

Malaria from hyperendemicity to elimination along international borders in Yunnan, China during 2003‒2020: a case study

Background: Border malaria is one of the most intractable problems hindering malaria elimination worldwide.Movement of both the human population and anopheline mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium spp.can cause cross-border malaria transmission.The Yunnan border area was still hyperendemic for malaria in the early part of this century.The objective of this case study was to analyze the strategies,interventions and impacts of malaria control and elimination in the Yunnan border area.Main text: A total of 10,349 malaria cases and 17.1 per 10,000 person-years of annual parasite incidence(API)were reported in the border area in 2003.Based on natural village-based stratification,integrated interventions,including mass drug administration for radical cures and preventive treatment,clinically presumptive treatment of all febrile patients for malaria and indoor residual spraying or dipping bed nets with insecticides were successfully carried out from 2003 to 2013.The overall API was reduced to 0.6 per 10,000 person-years by 2013,while effective cross-border collaboration interventions dramatically reduced the malaria burden in the neighbouring border areas of Myanmar.From 2014 forward,the comprehensive strategy,including universal coverage of surveillance to detect malaria cases,a rapid response to possible malaria cases and effective border collaboration with neighbouring areas,successfully eliminated malaria and prevented reintroduction of malaria transmission in the Yunnan border area.Conclusions: In Yunnan malaria burden has successfully reduced by dynamically accurate stratification and comprehensive interventions;and then the region achieved elimination and prevented reintroduction of malaria transmission through intensive surveillance,rapid response and border collaboration.Other border areas should perform their own intervention trials to develop their own effective strategy.

A 60-year journey of mycorrhizal research in China:Past,present and future directions

The significance of mycorrhizas(fungal roots in 90% of land plants) in plant nutrient acquisition and growth,element biogeo-chemical cycling and maintaining of terrestrial ecosystem structures has been globally established for more than 120 years.Great progress in mycorrhizal research in the past 60 years(1950-2009,1981-2009 in particular) has also been made across China,particularly in the mainland,Hong Kong and Taiwan.For instance,a total of 20 new and ~120 records of arbuscular mycorrhizal(AM) fungal species,30 new and ~800 records of ectomycorrhizal(EM) fungal species,a dozen of new and ~100 records of orchid mycorrhizal(OM) fungal species have been isolated by morphological observation and/or molecular identification in China since the 1950s.Great accomplishment has also been made in the following area,including fungal species richness and genetic structure,relationships between species composition and plant taxa,effects of mycorrhizal fungi on plant nutrient uptake and growth,resistances to pathogens and interactions with other soil microorganisms,potential of mycorrhizal fungi in phytoremediation and/or land reclamation,alterations of enzymatic activities in mycorrhizal plants,and elevated CO2 and O3 on root colonization and species diversity.Unfortunately,the international community cannot easily appreciate almost all Chinese mycorrhizal studies since the vast majority of them have been published in Chinese and/or in China-based journals.The aim of this review is to make a comprehensive exposure of the past and present China's major mycorrhizal research to the whole world,and then to suggest potential directions for the enhancement of future mycorrhizal research within and/or between the Chinese and international mycorrhizal community.

Laboratory biosafety in China: past, present, and future

The launch of the new journal,Biosafety and Health,presents me with a unique opportunity to recount the progress of laboratory biosafety(LB)in China and my contribution to this area over the past 30 years.Since the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003,China has constructed a primary network of high-level biosafety laboratories at different levels and established an expert team on LB.Furthermore,a series of LB management documents,including laws,regulations,standards,and guidelines,have been developed and published.This gradually maturing LB system has played a pivotal role in emerging infectious disease control and prevention,as well as in research,which in turn contributes to public health.In recent years,international collaboration between China and other countries has also been accelerated.Despite these achievements,we are still facing many challenges and opportunities in the field of LB.Sustainable LB development requires the joint efforts of the entire society and continuous international cooperation to safeguard global public health.

Challenges and recent progress in the governance of biosecurity risks in the era of synthetic biology

Considerable progress has been achieved in basic research and the biotechnological application of biological sciences in recent years.Synthetic biology integrates systems biology,engineering,computer science,and other disciplines to achieve the“modification of life”or even the“creation of life”via the redesign of existing natural systems or the development of new biological components and devices.However,the research and application of synthetic biology can create potential risks,such as aggravation of species with complex gene modifications,threats to species diversity,abuse of biological weapons,laboratory leaks,and man-made mutations.Without a suitable governance system,such research activities could result in harm to humans,plants,and animals,as well as to natural ecological systems.In this article,we first briefly summarize technical progress in synthetic biology in recent years and the potential bioethical and biosecurity risks,and then describe current international treaties,guidance documents,and national regulatory measures designed to address potential harm caused by the dual-use property of synthetic biology,including the Biological Weapons Convention,the Convention on Biological Diversity,and the Model Code of Conduct for Biological Scientists(Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists).In addition,we also present some recommendations for better governance of synthetic biology research and applications in China,including strengthening the biosecurity capacity,improving the biosecurity regulatory system,and promoting multilevel international cooperation to effectively address the potential biosecurity risks of synthetic biology.