Multinational survey on the preferred approach to management of Barrett’s esophagus in the Asia-Pacific region

BACKGROUND Major societies provide differing guidance on management of Barrett’s esophagus(BE),making standardization challenging.AIM To evaluate the preferred diagnosis and management practices of BE among Asian endoscopists.METHODS Endoscopists from across Asia were invited to participate in an online questionnaire comprising eleven questions regarding diagnosis,surveillance and management of BE.RESULTS Five hundred sixty-nine of 1016(56.0%)respondents completed the survey,with most respondents from Japan(n=310,54.5%)and China(n=129,22.7%).Overall,the preferred endoscopic landmark of the esophagogastric junction was squamocolumnar junction(42.0%).Distal palisade vessels was preferred in Japan(59.0%vs 10.0%,P<0.001)while outside Japan,squamo-columnar junction was preferred(59.5%vs 27.4%,P<0.001).Only 16.3%of respondents used Prague C and M criteria all the time.It was never used by 46.1%of Japanese,whereas 84.2%outside Japan,endoscopists used it to varying extents(P<0.001).Most Asian endoscopists(70.8%)would survey long-segment BE without dysplasia every two years.Adherence to Seattle protocol was poor with only 6.3%always performing it.73.2%of Japanese never did it,compared to 19.3%outside Japan(P<0.001).The most preferred(74.0%)treatment of non-dysplastic BE was proton pump inhibitor only when the patient was symptomatic or had esophagitis.For BE with low-grade dysplasia,6-monthly surveillance was preferred in 61.9%within Japan vs 47.9%outside Japan(P<0.001).CONCLUSION Diagnosis and management of BE varied within Asia,with stark contrast between Japan and outside Japan.Most Asian endoscopists chose squamo-columnar junction to be the landmark for esophagogastric junction,which is incorrect.Most also did not consistently use Prague criteria,and Seattle protocol.Lack of standardization,education and research are possible reasons.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL ORDER IN THE CONTEXT OF PROFOUND CHANGES UNSEEN IN A CENTURY AND CHINA’S ROLE

Currently,the Asia-Pacific region is experiencing rapid economic growth and the military and security situation is intricate and complex.Major forces converge here in depth while holding different political,economic and security propositions.In the context of profound changes unseen in a century,the order in the AsiaPacific region is undergoing profound changes as well.How to better push for cooperation in this region,safeguard the multilateral trading system,and prevent institutional divisions is a challenge confronting China at present and in a certain period of the future.

Socialization Development of ESG Business Models in Representative Asia-Pacific Countries:A State-of-the-Art Review and Recommendation

The integration of environmental,social,and governance(ESG)principles has become a pivotal factor in shaping sustainable and responsible corporate practices.The present study investigates the integration of ESG principles within corporate governance models in Asia-Pacific countries,focusing on socialization.By examining the governance culture,legal frameworks,and corporate practices in these representative countries,the paper delineates a strategic framework for embedding social governance into corporate strategies.The study introduces a Cultural,Economic,Legal,and Political(CELP)framework to assess corporate social governance,investigating the correlation between business practices and social changes.Through a systematic literature review and detailed thematic analysis,this paper aims to offer actionable insights and recommendations,guiding corporations in their transition towards more sustainable and socially responsible business practices.

Prospects for the Economic Integration in the Asia-Pacific Region

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Security Structure Transformation in the Asia-Pacific Region and the ASEAN Role

After the end of the cold war, the Asia-Pacific security structure has experienced great changes, especially on the occasion of the current "power-sharing" and "power-shifting" between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia-Pacific security structure adjustment is especially significant. On the one hand, the Alliance structure with the United States as the pivot has experienced transformation from a hub-spokes system to a network, has formed the hierarchical layout of new alliance, quasi-alliance and potential alliance, On the other hand, emerging economies represented by China and Russia, while reinforcing the existing coordinate security framework, reshape the Asia-Pacific and even the whole Eurasia geopolitical posture through strategic initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the Eurasian Economic Union. As the third force in the Asia-Pacific security architecture, the Association of South-East Asian Nations(ASEAN) with the construction of a series of multilateral security mechanisms provides dialogue platform for the two security architectures led by major countries, and has also become one of the feasible paths to realize the future holistic security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, the major countries strategic competitions have intensified, which has gradually eroded the ASEAN ‘s cohesion, neutrality and even the central position in a holistic security architecture. The future's reconstruction of the Asia-Pacific security architecture needs to find new strategic consensus and reconfirm the ASEAN central position.

Satellite-observed changes in terrestrial vegetation growth trends across the Asia-Pacific region associated with land cover and climate from 1982 to 2011

The Asia-Pacific(AP)region has experienced faster warming than the global average in recent decades and has experienced more climate extremes,however little is known about the response of vegetation growth to these changes.The updated Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies third-generation global satellite Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Normalized Difference Vegetation Index dataset and gridded reanalysis climate data were used to investigate the spatiotemporal changes in both trends of vegetation dynamic indicators and climatic variables.We then further analyzed their relations associated with land cover across the AP region.The main findings are threefold:(1)at continental scales the AP region overall experienced a gradual and significant increasing trend in vegetation growth during the last three decades,and this NDVI trend corresponded with an insignificant increasing trend in temperature;(2)vegetation growth was negatively and significantly correlated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation index and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation(ENSO)in AP;and(3)at pixel scales,except for Australia,both vegetation growth and air temperature significantly increased in the majority of study regions and vegetation growth spatially correlated with temperature;In Australia and other water-limited regions vegetation growth positively correlated with precipitation.

Current status,prospect and policy and institutional support for Conservation Agriculture in the Asia-Pacific region

The current growing demand for Conservation Agriculture(CA)at the national level in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region presents an opportunity to promote its widespread adoption and up-scaling through national policy and institutional support that appears necessary.Despite the obvious benefits of CA,it does not spread automatically unless the constraints that hinder adoption are understood and addressed in specific situations.These can include a combination of intellectual,social,financial,biophysical,technical,infrastructure constraints,or policy related support.Knowing what the bottlenecks are is important in developing strategies to overcome them.This paper presents:(a)some of the generic policy opportunities that exist for the adoption and uptake of CA;(b)a summary proceedings and outcome of the Regional Expert Consultation Workshop held in Beijing and sponsored by FAO Regional Office for Asia-Pacific which describes the status of CA in the Asia-Pacific region;(c)the challenges to CA adoption and uptake in the Asia-Pacific region;and(d)the conditions that need to be taken into account in designing and promoting policy and institutional support strategies for up-scaling CA.

Construction and Application of a Regional Kilometer-Scale Carbon Source and Sink Assimilation Inversion System(CCMVS-R)

CO_(2)is one of the most important greenhouse gases(GHGs)in the earth’s atmosphere.Since the industrial era,anthropogenic activities have emitted excessive quantities of GHGs into the atmosphere,resulting in climate warming since the 1950s and leading to an increased frequency of extreme weather and climate events.In 2020,China committed to striving for carbon neutrality by 2060.This commitment and China’s consequent actions will result in significant changes in global and regional anthropogenic carbon emissions and therefore require timely,comprehensive,and objective monitoring and verification support(MVS)systems.The MVS approach relies on the top-down assimilation and inversion of atmospheric CO_(2)concentrations,as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC)Inventory Guidelines in 2019.However,the regional high-resolution assimilation and inversion method is still in its initial stage of development.Here,we have constructed an inverse system for carbon sources and sinks at the kilometer level by coupling proper orthogonal decomposition(POD)with four-dimensional variational(4DVar)data assimilation based on the weather research and forecasting-greenhouse gas(WRF-GHG)model.Our China Carbon Monito ring and Verification Support at the Regional level(CCMVS-R)system can continuously assimilate information on atmospheric CO_(2)and other related information and realize the inversion of regional and local anthropogenic carbon emissions and natural terrestrial ecosystem carbon exchange.Atmospheric CO_(2)data were collected from six ground-based monito ring sites in Shanxi Province,China to verify the inversion effect of regio nal anthropogenic carbon emissions by setting ideal and real experiments using a two-layer nesting method(at 27 and 9 km).The uncertainty of the simulated atmospheric CO_(2)decreased significantly,with a root-mean-square error of CO_(2)concentration values between the ideal value and the simulated after assimilation was close to 0.The total anthropogenic carbon emissions in Shanxi Province in 2019 from the assimilated inversions were approximately 28.6%(17%-38%)higher than the mean of five emission inventories using the bottomup method,showing that the top-down CCMVS-R system can obtain more comprehensive information on anthropogenic carbon emissions.

On the Major Transformation of the Asia-Pacific Regional Structure

Recent years have witnessedsignificant changes in the Asia-Pacific regionalstructure featuring the shift in power balance among related countries as well as adjust-ments in their respective regional strategies. So what is the prevailing trend in thistransformation and what kind of regional order will likely emerge in the future？ To an-swer these questions, the paper tries to explore the following dimensions： the evolvingregional context, shift in power balance and power conversion, geo-political and geo-e-conomic developments and interactions between them, and evolving regional order. Asthe study shows, the broadening of regional geographical scope, the rise in the numberof actors involved, as well as changesin the relations among them, have combined tocast a pluralistic and complex flavor to the regional structure. While the power balanceamong China, the United States and Japan shifts, and power conversion is also occur-ring. China and Japan are paying increasing attention to their security roles, whereasthe United States under the Obama administration laid more stress on expanding itsgeo-economic clout. In spite of the intensifying geopolitical competition among China,the United States and Japan in recent years, a Sino-US strategic compromise-whichholds the key to regional geopolitics-isother front, some kind of geo-economicmore likely to take place in the future. On thecooperation will probably emerge. In the longerterm, it will be the geo-economic trend thatwill prevail over the geopolitical trend inthe region. Finally, the future evolution of regional order wiI1 mainly follow the eco-nomic logic, accompanied by the dilutionof its hegemonic and hierarchical nature.Hence, a pluralistic and complex regional community will emerge.

Does digitalization mitigate regional inequalities?Evidence from China

Regional inequality significantly influences sustainable development and human well-being.In China,there exists pronounced regional disparities in economic and digital advancements;however,scant research delves into the interplay between them.By analyzing the economic development and digitalization gaps at regional and city levels in China,extending the original Cobb-Douglas production function,this study aims to evaluate the impact of digitalization on China's regional inequality using seemingly unrelated regression.The results indicate a greater emphasis on digital inequality compared to economic disparity,with variable coefficients of 0.59 for GDP per capita and 0.92 for the digitalization index over the past four years.However,GDP per capita demonstrates higher spatial concentration than digitalization.Notably,both disparities have shown a gradual reduction in recent years.The southeastern region of the Hu Huanyong Line exhibits superior levels and rates of economic and digital advancement in contrast to the northwestern region.While digitalization propels economic growth,it yields a nuanced impact on achieving balanced regional development,encompassing both positive and negative facets.Our study highlights that the marginal utility of advancing digitalization is more pronounced in less developed regions,but only if the government invests in the digital infrastructure and education in these areas.This study's methodology can be utilized for subsequent research,and our findings hold the potential to the government's regional investment and policy-making.

Assessment of plant diversity of endemic species of the Saharo-Arabian region in Egypt

Savanna, semi-deserts, and hot deserts characterize the Saharo-Arabian region, which includes Morocco, Mauretania, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, southern Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. Its neighboring regions, the Sudano-Zambezian region belonging to the Paleotropical Kingdom and the Mediterranean and Irano-Turanian regions included in the Holarctic Kingdom, share a large portion of their flora with the Saharo-Arabian region. Despite the widespread acknowledgment of the region's global importance for plant diversity, an up to date list of the Saharo-Arabian endemics is still unavailable. The available data are frequently insufficient or out of date at both the whole global and the national scales. Therefore, the present study aims at screening and verifying the Saharo-Arabian endemic plants and determining the phytogeographical distribution of these taxa in the Egyptian flora. Hence, a preliminary list of 429 Saharo-Arabian endemic plants in Egypt was compiled from the available literature. Indeed, by excluding the species that were recorded in any countries or regions outside the Saharo-Arabian region based on different literature, database reviews, and websites, the present study has reduced this number to 126 taxa belonging to 87 genera and 37 families. Regarding the national geographic distribution, South Sinai is the richest region with 83 endemic species compared with other eight phytogeographic regions in Egypt, followed by the Isthmic Desert(the middle of Sinai Peninsula, 53 taxa). Sahara regional subzone(SS1) distributes all the 126 endemic species, Arabian regional subzone(SS2) owns 79 taxa, and Nubo-Sindian subzone(SS3) distributes only 14 endemics. Seven groups were recognized at the fourth level of classification as a result of the application of the two-way indicator species analysis(TWINSPAN) to the Saharo-Arabian endemic species in Egypt, i.e., Ⅰ Asphodelus refractus group, Ⅱ Agathophora alopecuroides var. papillosa group, Ⅲ Anvillea garcinii group, Ⅳ Reseda muricata group, V Agathophora alopecuroides var. alopecuroides group, Ⅵ Scrophularia deserti group, and Ⅶ Astragalus schimperi group. It's crucial to clearly define the Saharo-Arabian endemics and illustrate an updated verified database of these taxa for a given territory for providing future management plans that support the conservation and sustainable use of these valuable species under current thought-provoking devastating impacts of rapid anthropogenic and climate change in this region.

Investigation of Groundwater Quality with Borehole Depth in the Basin Granitoids of the Ashanti Region of Ghana

The dependence of groundwater quality on borehole depth is usually debatable in groundwater studies, especially in complex geological formations where aquifer characteristics vary spatially with depth. This study therefore seeks to investigate the relationship between borehole depth and groundwater quality across the granitoid aquifers within the Birimian Supergroup in the Ashanti Region. Physicochemical analysis records of groundwater quality data were collected from 23 boreholes of public and private institutions in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, and the parametric values of iron, fluoride, total hardness, pH, nitrate, and nitrite were used to study the groundwater quality-depth relationship. The results showed that the depth-to-groundwater quality indicated a marginal increase in water quality in the range of 30 to 50 m, which is mathematically represented by the low-value correlation coefficient (r2 = 0.026). A relatively significant increase occurs in the depth range of 50 to 80 m, which is given by a correlation coefficient of r2 = 0.298. The mean percent parameter compatibility was 74%, 82%, 89%, and 97% at 50, 60, 70, and 80 m depths, respectively. The variations in groundwater quality per depth ratio ranged from 1.48, 1.37, 1.27, and 1.21 for 50, 60, 70, and 80 m depth, respectively. The recommended minimum borehole depth for excellent groundwater quality is suggested with a compatibility per meter depth ratio of 1.37. This results in a range between 50 and 70 m as the most desirable drilling depth for excellent groundwater quality within the granitoids of the Birimian Supergroup of the Ashanti Region in Ghana.

Enhancing Autonomy Capability in Regional Power Grids:A Strategic Planning Approach withMultiple Autonomous Evaluation Indexes

After the integration of large-scale DistributedGeneration(DG)into the distribution network,the randomness and volatility of its output result in a reduction of spatiotemporal alignment between power generation and demand in the distribution network,exacerbating the phenomenon of wind and solar power wastage.As a novel power system model,the fundamental concept of Regional Autonomous Power Grids(RAPGs)is to achieve localized management and energy autonomy,thereby facilitating the effective consumption of DGs.Therefore,this paper proposes a distributed resource planning strategy that enhances the autonomy capabilities of regional power grids by considering multiple evaluation indexes for autonomy.First,a regional Energy Storage(ES)configuration strategy is proposed.This strategy can select a suitable reference value for the upper limit of ES configuration based on the regional load andDGoutput to maximize the elimination of source load deviations in the region as the upper limit constraint of ES capacity.Then,a control strategy for regional ES is proposed,the charging and discharging reference line of ES is set,and multiple autonomy and economic indexes are used as objective functions to select different proportions of ES to control the distributed resources of the regional power grid and establish evaluation indexes of the internal regional generation and load power ratio,the proportion of power supply matching hours,new energy consumption rate and tie line power imbalance outside the region to evaluate changes in the regional autonomy capabilities.The final simulation results showthat in the real regional grid example,the planning method in the planning year in the region of the overall power supply matching hour ratio and new energy consumption rate increased by 3.9%and 4.8%on average,and the power imbalance of the tie line decreased by 7.8%on average.The proposed planning approach enables the maximization of regional autonomy while effectively smoothing the fluctuation of power exchange between the regional grid and the higher-level grid.This presents a rational and effective planning solution for the regional grid,facilitating the coordinated development between the region and the distribution network.

The Inspiration of European Integration to Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation

The two different developing trends in current Asia are in sharp contrast with each other. One is relying on military means to solve regional conflicts, the other is coordinating and stabilizing inter-state relations through economic integration. The latter is undoubtedly the target to be sought after. Summarizing Europe’s experience is conducive to reaching the goal.

Uncertainties of ENSO-related Regional Hadley Circulation Anomalies within Eight Reanalysis Datasets

El Nino-Southern Oscillation(ENSO),the leading mode of global interannual variability,usually intensifies the Hadley Circulation(HC),and meanwhile constrains its meridional extension,leading to an equatorward movement of the jet system.Previous studies have investigated the response of HC to ENSO events using different reanalysis datasets and evaluated their capability in capturing the main features of ENSO-associated HC anomalies.However,these studies mainly focused on the global HC,represented by a zonal-mean mass stream function(MSF).Comparatively fewer studies have evaluated HC responses from a regional perspective,partly due to the prerequisite of the Stokes MSF,which prevents us from integrating a regional HC.In this study,we adopt a recently developed technique to construct the three-dimensional structure of HC and evaluate the capability of eight state-of-the-art reanalyses in reproducing the regional HC response to ENSO events.Results show that all eight reanalyses reproduce the spatial structure of HC responses well,with an intensified HC around the central-eastern Pacific but weakened circulations around the Indo-Pacific warm pool and tropical Atlantic.The spatial correlation coefficient of the three-dimensional HC anomalies among the different datasets is always larger than 0.93.However,these datasets may not capture the amplitudes of the HC responses well.This uncertainty is especially large for ENSO-associated equatorially asymmetric HC anomalies,with the maximum amplitude in Climate Forecast System Reanalysis(CFSR)being about 2.7 times the minimum value in the Twentieth Century Reanalysis(20CR).One should be careful when using reanalysis data to evaluate the intensity of ENSO-associated HC anomalies.

Regional economic assessment of a novel place-based model for sustainable food systems

Several actions from both the environmental and human viewpoints have already been made to meet the sustainability goals targeted at food systems.Still,new place-based ideas to improve sustainability are needed.Agroecological symbiosis(AES),a novel food system model,is an example of a suggested system-level change to attain sustainability targets;it is a symbiosis of food production and processing using renewable energy that uses its own feedstock.AES has already been found advantageous from the ecological and biophysical viewpoints,but a regional economic evaluation of the model is still lacking.Thus,the aim of our paper is to assess the regional economic impact of a possible systemic change in the food system using the network of agroecological symbiosis(NAES)as an example.We applied scenarios representing different ways of moving towards envisioned NAES models in Mäntsälä,Finland,and a computable general equilibrium model to evaluate the regional economic impact.According to our results,both regional economy and employment would increase,and the regional production base would diversify with NAES implementation applied to the region,but the extent of the benefits varies between scenarios.The scenario that includes change in both public and private food demand,production of bioenergy and utilization of by-products would cause the largest impacts.However,realizing NAES requires investments that may influence the actual implementation of such models.Nonetheless,a change towards NAES can promote an economically and spatially just transition to sustainability,as NAES seems to be economically most beneficial for rural areas.