Conditions In Asia Research Articles

Parametric development and multi-aspect assessment of a novel solar energy driven plant for synchronic generation of green hydrogen and electricity

Hydrogen as a fuel has drawn the attention of policymakers and scientists in recent years. Also, the exploitation of solar energy based-technologies cannot be ignored due to solar energy abundance and free nature and due to the problems caused by fossil fuel consumption. On the other hand, the integration of solar energy systems with other common technologies can improve the overall performance and reliability of the power plant. The main aim of this paper is to conceptually design a 0.5 MWel power plant based on solar farms consisting of photovoltaic (PV) panels and parabolic trough collectors (PTC) to generate power and green hydrogen. The proposed power plant uses an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system to generate electricity. An alkaline electrolyzer is installed to produce green hydrogen and oxygen gas. The thermal energy required in this cycle is obtained by a solar farm based on concentrating collectors. On the other hand, since solar energy is intermittently in nature, an electrical energy storage system (PH-CA) has been installed in the power plant. The performance of the power plant has been compared with the assumption of implementation in two different climatic conditions in Asia (Kashi and Langfang). Furthermore, three different scenarios based on different capacities of solar PV and ORC sections have been suggested. The proposed energy system and its configuration have a new design that has not been reported in the literature. It was found that the proposed power plant in Kashi can be better than Langfang. Because the power plant in Kashi needs fewer solar arrays and collectors compared to Langfang. In addition, the exergy destruction of the power plant in Kashi is less than Langfang. Also, the lowest exergy destruction of power plants and required organic fluid in both cities is related to the third scenario. Results indicate the size of the storage system should be approximately 2245 m3. Furthermore, the storage efficiency of the power plant was 62.16 %. Finally, nearly 1.4 kg/h of green hydrogen and 2.7 kg/h of oxygen gas can be obtained from the proposed plant at the selected location.

Monographs on invasive plants in Europe N° 5: Ambrosia trifida L.

ABSTRACT Ambrosia trifida L. (giant ragweed, Asteraceae) is native to the North American continent and was introduced into Europe and Asia at the end of the 19th century. In its native range, this tall annual species is common in riparian and ruderal habitats and is also a major weed in annual cropping systems. For nearly a century, A. trifida has also been of great concern in the U.S. for its highly allergenic pollen, necessitating targeted control measures to reduce its impact on human populations. Based on the distribution of A. trifida in North America and in its introduced range, riparian systems in the rest of the world may be particularly at risk to invasion, with potential negative consequences for their biodiversity. Currently, A. trifida has invaded Asia more widely than Europe, likely due to the more favourable local conditions in Asia. Throughout its introduced range, A. trifida is host to a limited number of invertebrates and pathogens and only a few biological agents are available for its control. The main impacts of A. trifida at a global level are on crop yield and human health, resulting in significant socio-economic impacts. The success of A. trifida invasion in areas in which it has been introduced is still unclear, but climate change may increase climate suitability, increasing the potential for A. trifida to spread. While effective management in cultivated fields seems potentially possible, the development and control of A. trifida in natural riparian habitats is of great concern due to the difficulty of management in these areas.

Analysis of Thermal and Light Properties of Greenhouse Considering Greenhouse Sheets Characteristics in Hot and Humid Area in Asia

Food market in Asia is expanding at dramatic rate. In the near future, there will be about 400 million rich people who will eat raw vegetables as well as Japanese people, which is a great business opportunity for the farmer in Japan who has the know-how to produce high-quality vegetables. However, the weather conditions in Asia, especially in south-east Asia, can induce poor growth of plants because of its distinctive high temperature and humidity. In this case, putting a light shielding material on the outside of film can be a good method for cooling the greenhouse. In this study, the authors investigated the effects of some greenhouse shielding sheets on the environment of greenhouse in hot and humid regions of Asia. Consequently, it became possible to analyze the degree of suppression of the temperature rise of the greenhouse due to absorption of heat rays using shielding materials for the greenhouse at high temperature and its mechanism. It was suggested that focusing on the physical value of the film such as absorption rate is important by this simulation.

Evaluation of Yield and Energy of Greenhouse Tomato Production in Each Asian Monsoon Area Using Cultivation Simulator Considering Growth Condition

In recent years, the Asian monsoon region has a large business opportunity for the global food market for Japan. In this study, the authors evaluated the crop growth conditions and energy of greenhouse tomato production in several Asian monsoon areas. In these evaluations, a cultivation simulator considering growth conditions was used. In the calculation of the energy required to maintain the cultivation environment of the greenhouse, the photosynthesis rate of the plants and the transpiration rate were also calculated by simulation. As a result, the difficulty of greenhouse tomato production under high temperature and humidity conditions in Asia and the differences in crop growth conditions among these regions could be clarified by this analysis. In the future, it was suggested that it would be necessary to reduce the temperature of the greenhouse while maintaining the amount of photosynthesis.

Rethinking the Global Governance of Migrant Domestic Workers: The Heterodox Case of Informal Filipina Workers in China

The International Labor Organization (ILO)’s agenda for migrant domestic workers promotes formal contracts and special migration programs while almost exclusively associates informality with the harms of human trafficking. This article studies a group of informal Filipina domestic workers in China who are working outside formality yet earning the highest wages and the top-tier working conditions in Asia. Typical labor migration programs (e.g., Singapore) tie the worker’s immigration status to a labor contract and rigidly enforce the contract with immigration law measures. In comparison, the rather uncertain connection between workplace strategies and immigration law enforcement in the informal Chinese market ironically enables workers to renegotiate their jobs after arrival, which significantly enhances their bargaining power inside and outside the workplace household. This case study rebuts the international labor law’s tendency to use formality as a marker for good jobs. Rather, it argues for evaluating the distributional consequences of the legal and nonlegal rules through the lens of workers’ bargaining power. Following this framework, it proposes workers’ access to post-arrival renegotiations as the rule to empower migrant domestic workers.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the incidence and prevalence and 30-year trend of inflammatory bowel diseases in Asia: a study protocol

IntroductionInflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis (UC), Crohn’s disease (CD) and inflammatory bowel disease type unclassified (IBDU), are debilitating conditions that are rapidly growing in developing countries. Given the absence...

A Survey of RDA in Asia and a Vision for Future Development

At the end of 2017, the National Library of China (NLC) was invited by the RDA Board to become the National Institution Representative for Asia. It is a good opportunity for the NLC to be more visible and to contribute to the international community. However, RDA promotion is a demanding task considering the economic and professional conditions in Asia. In this article, we (1) summarize RDA study and practice in China especially NLC’s advances, (2) analyze the survey of Asian libraries conducted by the NLC in 2018 with regard to RDA, and (3) discuss RDA promotion initiatives undertaken by the NLC.

Precarious Work and its Complicit Network: Migrant Labour in Singapore

ABSTRACTHow does precarious work entail social vulnerabilities and moral complicities? Theorists of precarity pose two challenges for analysing labour conditions in Asia. Their first challenge is to distinguish the new kinds of social vulnerability which constitute precarious work. The second is to assign moral responsibility in the social network that produces vulnerability in depoliticised and morally detached ways. In this article, the social and normative dimensions of precarious work are connected through a conceptual investigation into how Singapore allocates responsibility for managing temporary migrant labour. First, it analyses how various management strategies, driven by globalisation and government deregulation, increase worker vulnerabilities. These strategies intensify relations of dependence, disempowerment and discrimination, which the workers may accommodate or resist in limited ways. Second, it assesses why the strategies leave the state, employers, agents and others complicit in producing the vulnerabilities. These actors enable, collaborate with, or condone the production of precarity. Their complicity is complicated by varying support or resistance to reforms. The result is a novel conceptual scheme for analysing the complicit network behind precarious work, which can be used in other sites of precarity where some are complicit in the vulnerability of others.

Boosting sustainability and financial performance: the role of supply chain controversies

In recent years, numerous scandals concerning working conditions in Asia have threatened the reputation of large companies like Wal-Mart and Inditex. Since such scandals call attention to activities harmful to sustainable development, it is very important to study the relationships between concerns for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), sustainability, and organisations’ market value. The added value of our study is, first, to explore SSCM controversies as drivers of or pressures for adopting and applying sustainability practices; and, second, to contribute to the recent but growing literature that analyses the channels through which SSCM and sustainability practices influence the firm’s value. We introduce sustainability environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices as a mediator between SSCM controversies and market value to examine whether SSCM controversies with firms’ stakeholders lead to improvements in the ESG dimensions of organisational sustainability. We also examine the relationships between the ESG dimensions and market value, measured as Tobin’s Q ratio. The results confirm both the positive relationships of SSCM controversies to the ESG dimensions two years later and a positive relationship of the dimension of governance to Tobin’s Q. We also confirm a negative and significant relationship of the social dimension to Tobin’s Q, and a non-significant relationship of the environmental dimension to Tobin’s Q.

Integrated health care systems in Asia: an urgent necessity.

A rapidly aging population along with the increasing burden of patients with chronic conditions in Asia requires efficient health systems with integrated care. Although some efforts to integrate primary care and hospital care in Asia are underway, overall care delivery remains fragmented and diverse, eg, in terms of medical electronic record sharing and availability, patient registries, and empowerment of primary health care providers to handle chronic illnesses. The primary care sector requires more robust and effective initiatives targeted at specific diseases, particularly chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, depression, and dementia. This can be achieved through integrated care – a health care model of collaborative care provision. For successful implementation of integrated care policy, key stakeholders need a thorough understanding of the high-risk patient population and relevant resources to tackle the imminent population demographic shift due to the extremely rapid rate of increase in the aging population in Asia.

E.T. Sheaf, Australian ‘Trade Commissioner in the East’, 1922–25

Of the four trade officials assigned abroad by the Hughes government, E.T. Sheaf is the least well known. As the literature acknowledges, Sheaf’s appointment in 1921 was clearly the consequence of patronage. This article traces his appointment to his personal links with Hughes’ National Federation. The circumstances, hitherto obscure, of Sheaf’s early activities are established drawing in part on his extensive photographic archive. Despite his irregular preferment, Sheaf was a highly perceptive analyst of trading conditions in Asia and provided important market intelligence for the Australian government. However, insufficient use was made of his work by Australia’s still rudimentary trade bureaucracy. Following his government service, he was a frequent sojourner in Asia, but many of his discoveries had to be repeated by the 1930s trade service.

Asian droughts in the last millennium: a search for robust impacts of Pacific Ocean surface temperature variabilities

This study investigates the robustness of hydroclimate impacts in Asia due to major drivers of climate variability in the Pacific Ocean, namely the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Composite analyses are carried out on a tree ring-based Palmer Drought Severity Index as well as on a long coupled global climate model control experiment. El Nino (La Nina) has a robust impact on wet (dry) conditions in West Asia and dry (wet) conditions in South Asia. For the PDO, impacts are found throughout the Asia domain. However, identifying the robust signals due to PDO from these analyses is more challenging due to the limited lengths of the data. Results indicate that West Asia (South and Southeast Asia) experiences wet (dry) conditions during periods of positive PDO. For East Asia, there is indication that positive (negative) PDO is associated with wet (dry) conditions around and southward of 30°N and dry (wet) conditions north of this latitude. This result is consistent with the current understanding of the role of PDO in the “southern-flood northern-drought” phenomenon in China. We suggest that specific extreme events or periods have regional impacts with strong intensities that cannot be fully explained through the composite analysis of ENSO, PDO, or any combination thereof. Two such examples are shown to illustrate this: the Strange Parallel Drought (1756–1768 CE) and the Great Drought (1876–1878 CE). Additionally, during these climate events, ENSO and PDO can be in phases which are not consistent with the required phases of these drivers that explain the concurrent drought and pluvial conditions in Asia. Therefore, not all historical drought and pluvial events in Northeast Asia and northern China can be related back to ENSO or PDO. Finally, we also examine the dynamical characteristics of the reported hydroclimatic impacts in the global climate model experiment. There is moisture transport into (out of) regions that exhibit wet (dry) conditions in a manner consistent with the various ENSO and PDO composites, thereby providing physical explanation of the index-based results.

U.S.-India Relations under President Trump: Promise and Peril

U.S.-India Relations under President Trump:Promise and Peril Rajesh Rajagopalan (bio) The structural conditions in Asia are ripe for closer U.S.-India strategic relations. China's rise and aggressive behavior, coupled with the massive imbalance of power between China and India, leaves India with little choice but to attempt to balance China. Moreover, its choice of partners is limited. India could attempt to create a regional balance by banding together with the many other Asian states that share its concerns about China, but this promises to be difficult and may not work. The United States' dominance over Asia, an essential component of its global role, is also under threat from China. Though the United States can probably still counter China by itself, it would be a lot easier to do this in concert with other Asian powers such as India. This strategic picture suggests significant promise for U.S.-India relations in the longer term. But whether this will lead to a closer relationship during the presidency of Donald Trump is less clear. The Trump administration's transactional approach to its strategic partners, the nonstrategic focus on Pakistan by both India and the United States, economic nationalism in both countries, and the potential for deepening domestic political chaos in the United States all complicate the outlook for U.S.-India relations over the next four years. The following essay will first examine the strategic rationale for closer ties and then assess the challenges confronting the partnership under the Trump administration. The Strategic Rationale China's rise is the central strategic challenge facing India. India's economy was larger than China's in 1962, the year that India suffered a devastating military defeat at China's hands. By the late 1970s, however, China had overtaken India. The Chinese economy had become twice as large as India's by 1995 and is now four times the size.1 This gross imbalance itself should be worrisome for India, but what makes the situation even more [End Page 39] troubling is that it is married to many active disagreements between the two sides. India and China have a significant unresolved territorial dispute that simmers and occasionally boils, which more than a dozen rounds of negotiations over two decades have not brought any closer to resolution. China's relationship with Pakistan is seen in New Delhi as not just political balancing but as a military threat so grave that Indian defense planners are now seriously considering a two-front war contingency.2 China's relations with India's other South Asian neighbors are likewise interpreted as an effort to undermine India. New Delhi refused to send a delegation to the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May because it regards the initiative as a Chinese design for Asian dominance. China's scuttling of India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and its refusal to support India's permanent membership in the UN Security Council are also seen in New Delhi as part of China's efforts to undermine India.3 India's options to balance China are limited. China's defense budget is at least four times as large as India's and its infrastructure in Tibet is far superior, allowing China much greater ease in military operations along the disputed border. To balance China, India has improved defense relations with other countries in Asia. It is developing a trilateral partnership with Japan and Australia, which seeks to enhance defense ties between the three and is clearly focused on China. India is also stepping up defense cooperation with Vietnam and Singapore. But though these efforts can supplement India's other balancing efforts, they cannot by themselves provide sufficient ballast to right the Asian balance of power. For one, even when these countries' capabilities are combined, China still significantly outmatches them in defense spending. For another, the geography of the region is an obstacle to mutual support because of the great distance of these secondary powers from each other. Finally, there is no history of mutual security cooperation between India and these countries, and it will take a while for cooperation to reach a level that can provide domestic...

A climatic risk analysis of the threat posed by the South American leaf blight (SALB) pathogen Microcyclus ulei to major rubber producing countries

South American leaf blight (SALB) of the Para rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg., caused by the plant pathogenic fungus Microcyclus ulei (Henn.) Arx, is recognized as the most serious threat to the natural-rubber industry worldwide. While the pathogen is currently restricted to South America, the warm humid climatic conditions in Asia and Africa, which contribute to over 97 % of world’s natural rubber production are similar to the South American tropics, indicating a significant threat to global rubber production, should the pathogen be introduced to these regions. The present study aims to assess climate suitability for the occurrence of M. ulei in different parts of the world, based on the available literature for M. ulei pathogen establishment, including temperature, relative humidity and precipitation. The risk analysis study provides a preliminary indication of the likely threat of M. ulei in different rubber growing areas of the world and highlights the need for more information on pathogen biology, diversity and environmental tolerance.

Multiple mobilities and entrepreneurial modalities among Chinese marriage migrants in Malaysia

This research focuses on the migration trajectories of mainland Chinese women marriage migrants in Malaysia. It finds that their migratory motivations and pathways reveal formerly overlooked mobility patterns that depart from the institutionally organized, commercially arranged, or kinship and social network-mediated migration patterns. The authors argue that the state’s attempts to grow its regulatory capacity, the increasing ‘cost’ of legality and the multiplying of illegal-but-licit spaces through which migrants can navigate produce particular forms of mobile subjectivities which the authors broadly term ‘entrepreneurial’. The aim in this article is to begin to fill this gap in scholarship on entrepreneurialism and feminized migration with an ethnographic study of these gendered entrepreneurial strategies. The authors propose two interlinked concepts in vernacular Chinese – ‘out’ ( chu出) and ‘through’ ( zuan钻) – as a set of lenses to examine the marriage migrants’ variable motivations, their non-linear paths to upward and outward mobility, their careful negotiations and manoeuvring across and within state boundaries, and gender politics in intimate relations. This presents a more nuanced way of framing migrants’ mobile subjectivities as produced by a contextualized understanding of human agency operating within the particular conditions of Asia’s migration regimes.

Installation Challenges Posed by Extreme Ground and Environmental Conditions in Asia

Installation Challenges Posed by Extreme Ground and Environmental Conditions in Asia

Uncertainties in predicting rice yield by current crop models under a wide range of climatic conditions.

Predicting rice (Oryza sativa) productivity under future climates is important for global food security. Ecophysiological crop models in combination with climate model outputs are commonly used in yield prediction, but uncertainties associated with crop models remain largely unquantified. We evaluated 13 rice models against multi-year experimental yield data at four sites with diverse climatic conditions in Asia and examined whether different modeling approaches on major physiological processes attribute to the uncertainties of prediction to field measured yields and to the uncertainties of sensitivity to changes in temperature and CO2 concentration [CO2 ]. We also examined whether a use of an ensemble of crop models can reduce the uncertainties. Individual models did not consistently reproduce both experimental and regional yields well, and uncertainty was larger at the warmest and coolest sites. The variation in yield projections was larger among crop models than variation resulting from 16 global climate model-based scenarios. However, the mean of predictions of all crop models reproduced experimental data, with an uncertainty of less than 10% of measured yields. Using an ensemble of eight models calibrated only for phenology or five models calibrated in detail resulted in the uncertainty equivalent to that of the measured yield in well-controlled agronomic field experiments. Sensitivity analysis indicates the necessity to improve the accuracy in predicting both biomass and harvest index in response to increasing [CO2 ] and temperature.

Policy trends of strategic environmental assessment in Asia

Abstract This paper provides an overview on the policy trends of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Asia. SEA is promoted as a system of incorporating environmental considerations into policies, plans and programmes (PPP). SEA has evolved from an alternative of environmental impact assessments (EIA) to a potential environmental policy integration (EPI) tool in national policy planning. Nevertheless, SEA trends in Asia require a re-examination on its role and effectiveness to avoid SEA implementation in Asia mimicking SEA developments in Europe without customizing its application to local conditions in Asia. Policy trends of SEA in Asia indicate that it is currently an important environmental policy consideration for countries in the region with the formulation of SEA legislations in Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia. Nevertheless, SEA implementation also has been impeded by challenges in realizing practical SEA public participation especially in countries with traditionally high cultural power distance dynamics such as China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Meanwhile, countries such as Japan and Pakistan have voluntarily implemented SEA elements such as public participation without legislative provisions while countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are resisting the adoption of SEA. The primary problem of SEA implementation in Asia has been its limited integration in strategic decision making due to the highly political nature of policy planning framed within the cultural context of Asian countries. Notable progress of SEA implementation in Asia has been the emerging awareness on the need for SEA. Interestingly, SEA prospects in Asia seem to be in the development of international regional cooperation on SEA capacity building. Meanwhile, SEA implementation range from the use of structured policy instruments such as legislative frameworks to non-structured policy instruments such as stakeholder engagement. Consequently, the SEA paradigm analysis suggests that SEA integration in Asia requires a paradigm shift to address the primary strategic gap of over-reliance on structured policy instruments such as legislation. This fundamentally means an adaptation towards a hybrid of structured and non-structured policy instruments to super-stream the benefits of SEA. In conclusion, SEA trends in Asia indicate a sagacious realization that SEA in theory may be a strategic and rationale approach to integrating environmental considerations. However, SEA in practice is a complex, dynamic and challenging process that requires political will, legislative framework and a transparent stakeholder engagement process framed within the cultural context of Asian countries.

Characteristics of gastric cancer in Asia

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most common cancer in the world with more than 70% of cases occur in the developing world. More than 50% of cases occur in Eastern Asia. GC is the second leading cause of cancer death in both sexes worldwide. In Asia, GC is the third most common cancer after breast and lung and is the second most common cause of cancer death after lung cancer. Although the incidence and mortality rates are slowly declining in many countries of Asia, GC still remains a significant public health problem. The incidence and mortality varies according to the geographic area in Asia. These variations are closely related to the prevalence of GC risk factors; especially Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and its molecular virulent characteristics. The gradual and consistent improvements in socioeconomic conditions in Asia have lowered the H. pylori seroprevalence rates leading to a reduction in the GC incidence. However, GC remains a significant public health and an economic burden in Asia. There has been no recent systemic review of GC incidence, mortality, and H. pylori molecular epidemiology in Asia. The aim of this report is to review the GC incidence, mortality, and linkage to H. pylori in Asia.

Effect of DEE Injection in Pongamia Pinnata Biodiesel Fulled CI Engine Using Hydrogen as Secondary Fuel

In advancing modern world, the recent technological advancements especially in the field of automobile and industrial sectors have created a hike in energy demand. The fossil fuels, which are the main sources of energy, are non-renewable. Due to excessive exploitation, the fossil fuels are depleting rapidly and have created a need for alternate fuel. The researches have been conducted on various biodiesel worldwide to acquire an efficient biodiesel. The biodiesel of pongamia pinnata is one such feasible alternative since the tropical climatic conditions of Asia supports its large cultivation. This paper investigates the characteristics of engine fuelled by pongamia pinnata biodiesel. The use of biodiesel as primary fuel causes reduction in the engine performance. The performance of biodiesel fuelled engine is improved by the induction of hydrogen into air intake manifold. The induction of hydrogen increases the brake thermal efficiency by 3.41%. The hydrogen induction increases NOXin the exhaust. In order to reduce the NOXemission, Diethyl ether is injected in to the engine at constant rate of 0.7 gm/min. The DEE injection reduces the NOXand also increases the engine performance to a significant level.