Larger Trends Research Articles

Nordic Seas Heat Loss, Atlantic Inflow, and Arctic Sea Ice Cover Over the Last Century

AbstractPoleward ocean heat transport is a key process in the earth system. We detail and review the northward Atlantic Water (AW) flow, Arctic Ocean heat transport, and heat loss to the atmosphere since 1900 in relation to sea ice cover. Our synthesis is largely based on a sea ice‐ocean model forced by a reanalysis atmosphere (1900–2018) corroborated by a comprehensive hydrographic database (1950–), AW inflow observations (1996–), and other long‐term time series of sea ice extent (1900–), glacier retreat (1984–), and Barents Sea hydrography (1900–). The Arctic Ocean, including the Nordic and Barents Seas, has warmed since the 1970s. This warming is congruent with increased ocean heat transport and sea ice loss and has contributed to the retreat of marine‐terminating glaciers on Greenland. Heat loss to the atmosphere is largest in the Nordic Seas (60% of total) with large variability linked to the frequency of Cold Air Outbreaks and cyclones in the region, but there is no long‐term statistically significant trend. Heat loss from the Barents Sea (∼30%) and Arctic seas farther north (∼10%) is overall smaller, but exhibit large positive trends. The AW inflow, total heat loss to the atmosphere, and dense outflow have all increased since 1900. These are consistently related through theoretical scaling, but the AW inflow increase is also wind‐driven. The Arctic Ocean CO2 uptake has increased by ∼30% over the last century—consistent with Arctic sea ice loss allowing stronger air‐sea interaction and is ∼8% of the global uptake.

Conservation overstretch and long-term decline of wildlife and tourism in the Central African savannas.

When in 2010 the world's governments pledged to increase protected area coverage to 17% of the world's land surface, several Central African countries had already set aside 25% of their northern savannas for conservation. To evaluate the effectiveness of this commitment, we analyzed the results of 68 multispecies surveys conducted in the seven main savanna national parks in Central Africa (1960-2017). We also assembled information on potential drivers of large herbivore population trends (rainfall and number of rangers) and on tourist numbers and revenues. In six out of the seven parks, wild large herbivore populations declined dramatically over time, livestock numbers increased severalfold, and tourism, the pillar under a once thriving local wildlife industry, collapsed. Zakouma National Park (Chad) stood out because its large herbivore populations increased, an increase that was positively correlated with rainfall and number of rangers (a proxy for management inputs). With increasing insecurity and declining revenues, governments find themselves confronted with too few resources to protect vast areas. To deal with this conversation overstretch, we propose to extend the repeatedly promoted solutions--scaled up funding, enhanced management--with a strategic retreat, focusing scarce resources on smaller areas to save wildlife in the Central African savannas.

Undermining the gendered genre: Kabuki in manga

According to Jaqueline Berndt, Thomas LaMarre, and other critics, manga is a highly participatory media form. Narratives with vibrant characters and creative inconsistences in the plotline encourage the reader to recontextualise the text, create new contents and unfold activities which go beyond reading (such as fan art and CosPlay). Recent popularity of manga about Japanese traditional arts – for example, Kabuki – further expanded the potential interaction with manga and other popular media to include (re)discovering traditional Japanese culture. Examples, such as Kabukumon by Tanaka Akio and David Miyahara (Morning 2008-2011), or Kunisaki Izumo no jijō by Hirakawa Aya (Weekly Shōnen Sunday 2010-2014) and a variety of other manga, anime and light novels exemplify this tendency. Consequently, influential franchises, such as Naruto and One Piece boast adaptations as Super Kabuki stage-plays. Furthermore, Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto observes how thematic and stylistic overreaching in contemporary manga further distort the notions of the gendered genre that lays at the foundation of the manga industry. In this case, Kabuki theatre as a theme employs a variety of gender fluid characters and situations. For this purpose, Kabuki manga utilise cross-genre narrative and stylistic tropes, from overtly parodying borrowed tropes, to homage, and covert inclusions. On the example of Kabuki-manga I will explore a larger trend in manga to employ elements of female genres in male narratives, thus expanding the target readership. My paper explores specific mechanism that facilitates reading manga cross-genre, I also inquire what novel critical potential thematic and stylistic exchange between audiences may entail.

Diversity Matters: A 21-Year Review of Trends in Resident Recruitment into Surgical Specialties.

Diversity within the healthcare workforce is essential to improve quality of care, although evaluation of diversity within surgical training remains limited. This study analyzed diversity in recruitment of residents into surgical subspecialties at a large academic medical institution and national trends. A 21-year cross-sectional study of medical school graduates accepted into all surgical subspecialty training programs was performed. The institutional cohort was divided into two groups (1997-2006, 2007-2017). Subspecialty acceptance rates were determined between 2011 and 2018. Data on candidate demographics including gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and origin of medical education at a single institution and nationally were extracted. Two thousand found hundred seventy-two residents were included in this study. From 1997 to 2018, female acceptances increased from 21.1% to 29.7% (p < 0.01), non-White increased from 27.9% to 31.8% (p = 0.01), and international medical graduates decreased from 28.8% to 25.5% (p = 0.02). There was no significant change in accepted Hispanic and Non-US candidates. Female subspecialty rates for subspecialties increased nationally and was comparable to our cohort, except in general surgery. Hispanic subspecialty acceptance rates were less than 10% and Black/African American acceptance rates remained less than 5% across subspecialties nationally and at our institution. Diversity in surgical training has modestly progressed over the last two decades, but the degree of positive change has not been universal and highlights the critical need for improvement and action. Continued institution driven and collaborative strategies are essential to promote diversity in recruitment across all surgical specialties that has implications on our future workforce and surgical leadership.

Semantics and Anomaly Preserving Sampling Strategy for Large-Scale Time Series Data

We propose PASS , a O ( n ) algorithm for data reduction that is specifically aimed at preserving the semantics of time series data visualization in the form of line chart. Visualization of large trend line data is a challenge and current sampling approaches do produce reduction but result in loss of semantics and anomalous behavior. We have evaluated PASS using seven large and well-vetted datasets (Taxi, Temperature, DEBS challenge 2012-2014 dataset, New York Stock Exchange data, and Integrated Surface Data) and found that it has several benefits when compared to existing state-of-the-art time series data reduction techniques. First, it can preserve the semantics of the trend. Second, the visualization quality using the reduced data from PASS is very close to the original visualization. Third, the anomalous behavior is preserved and can be well observed from the visualizations created using the reduced data. We have conducted two user surveys collecting 3,000+ users’ responses for visual preference as well as perceptual effectiveness and found that the users prefer PASS over other techniques for different datasets. We also compare PASS using visualization metrics where it outperforms other techniques in five out of the seven datasets.

Forecasting carbon dioxide emissions in BRICS countries by exponential cumulative grey model

Grey models should give different weights to old and new information when dealing with different cases, whereas existing grey models always give greater weight to new information. With this in mind, a novel grey model is proposed in this paper. The model introduces an exponential parameter that regulates the weight of information by adjusting the size of the parameter. This model is used to study the carbon dioxide emissions of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. Firstly, the intelligent algorithm is used for multiple iterations to find the exponential order that minimizes the simulation error. Secondly, the raw data on CO2 emissions from BRICS countries are processed and grey differential equations are developed. Finally, the least squares method is used to solve the coefficients of the differential equation and to predict the CO2 emissions of these countries based on the corresponding time series. The results show that carbon dioxide emissions in Brazil and Russia are on a downward trend. China and South Africa show a slight upward trend in carbon dioxide emissions. India has a large trend of increasing carbon dioxide emissions. The results can provide reference value for the relevant authorities.

Quantifying the rarity of extreme multi-decadal trends: how unusual was the late twentieth century trend in the North Atlantic Oscillation?

Climate trends over multiple decades are important drivers of regional climate change that need to be considered for climate resilience. Of particular importance are extreme trends that society may not be expecting and is not well adapted to. This study investigates approaches to assess the likelihood of maximum moving window trends in historical records of climate indices by making use of simulations from climate models and stochastic time series models with short- and long-range dependence. These approaches are applied to assess the unusualness of the large positive trend that occurred in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index between the 1960s to 1990s. By considering stochastic models, we show that the chance of extreme trends is determined by the variance of the trend process, which generally increases when there is more serial correlation in the index series. We find that the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 + 6) historical simulations have very rarely (around 1 in 200 chance) simulated maximum trends greater than the observed maximum. Consistent with this, the NAO indices simulated by CMIP models were found to resemble white noise, with almost no serial correlation, in contrast to the observed NAO which exhibits year-to-year correlation. Stochastic model best fits to the observed NAO suggest an unlikely chance (around 1 in 20) for there to be maximum 31-year NAO trends as large as the maximum observed since 1860. This suggests that current climate models do not fully represent important aspects of the mechanism for low frequency variability of the NAO.

Everyday Intimacies and Inter-Ethnic Relationships: Tracing Entanglements of Gender and Race in Multicultural Singapore

Through the proposed frame of ‘everyday intimacies’, this article explores the entanglements of race and gender in inter-ethnic relationships. ‘Everyday intimacies’ brings together the minority experiences of everyday racism, the state practices and policies of multiculturalism, and their inflections in intimate relationships of marriage, friendship, and dating. This approach demonstrates not just how the state regulates people’s intimate life through policies of marriage and family, but also how other indirect processes of multicultural governance mediate intimate life. Drawing on biographical narratives of mainly Indian women from in-depth life story interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, the article brings the literature on intimacies in conversation with the scholarship on race and ethnic relations in Singapore. Through a focus on intimacy, the article illustrates how tacit knowledge and embodied effects of everyday racism relate to larger trends of intermarriages, rising singlehood among Indian women and possibilities of co-ethnic friendships and solidarities. In doing so, the article presents novel insight into race and gender relations in Singapore.

Estimation of land-cover linkage to trends in hydrological variables of river basins in the Indian sub-continent using satellite observation and model outputs

The Indian subcontinent suffers from a decline in the per capita of water resources in the course of recent decades due to exponential population growth. In India, the majority of the population is reliant on agribusiness which is in turn primarily dependent on water from monsoons. Regions that get lower precipitation than needed experience water deficits which impact agriculture. However, investigation of linkages between the trends in water balance components and land-cover distribution has not been performed. In our work, we focus on the water balance for the major river basins in India utilizing the following satellite and model-based datasets: Terrestrial Water Storage Anomaly (TWSA) from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), Precipitation (P) from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Evapotranspiration (ET) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Total Runoff (surface overflow and baseflow) (R) from the NASA Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS). We assessed the seasonal spatio-temporal changes in the water balance from 2002 to 2019 and observed that ‘Agriculture’ and ‘Urban’ are the two most disrupted land-cover types displaying a monotonic increasing/decreasing trend in the components of water balance. We also observed from the SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) analysis that the inherent spatial variability between P-ET-R and TWSA do not correlate well. We also found that North-Eastern India and regions in Southern India along the west coast show large negative trends of P (-15 to −20 mm) and R (-10 to −15 mm) in the monsoon season, indicating that these regions suffer from drier monsoon seasons over the study period (2002–2019). From the land-cover linkages, it was found that 74% of monotonic trends observed in several of river basins were linked to ‘Agricultural’ land cover type and 19% were linked to ‘Urban’ land cover type. These linkages suggest that agricultural lands are more vulnerable to changes in the components of the water balance.

The inherent uncertainty of precipitation variability, trends, and extremes due to internal variability, with implications for Western US water resources

AbstractThe approximately century-long instrumental record of precipitation over land reflects a single sampling of internal variability. Thus, the spatiotemporal evolution of the observations is only one realization of `what could have occurred' given the same climate system and boundary conditions, but different initial conditions. While climate models can be used to produce initial-condition large ensembles that explicitly sample different sequences of internal variability, an analogous approach is not possible for the real world. Here, we explore the use of a statistical model for monthly precipitation to generate synthetic ensembles based on a single record. When tested within the context of the NCAR Community Earth System Model version 1 Large Ensemble (CESM1-LE), we find that the synthetic ensemble can closely reproduce the spatiotemporal statistics of variability and trends in winter precipitation over the extended contiguous United States, and that it is difficult to infer the climate change signal in a single record given the magnitude of the variability. We additionally create a synthetic ensemble based on the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) dataset, termed the GPCC-synth-LE; comparison of the GPCC-synth-LE with the CESM1-based ensembles reveals differences in the spatial structures and magnitudes of variability, highlighting the advantages of an observationally-based ensemble. We finally use the GPCC-synth-LE to analyze three water resource metrics in the Upper Colorado River Basin: frequency of dry, wet, and whiplash years. Thirty-one year ‘climatologies’ in the GPCC-synth-LE can differ by over 20% in these key water resource metrics due to sampling of internal variability, and individual ensemble members in the GPCC-synth-LE can exhibit large near-monotonic trends over the course of the last century due to sampling of variability alone.

Trends in the Airglow Temperatures in the MLT Region—Part 3: Ground-Based and SABER Measurements

Ground-based temperature measurements at Svalbard, Wuppertal, and Hohenpeissenberg were analyzed to obtain F10.7, Ap index, and Dst index trends. The trends were then compared to those obtained from Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) temperature measurements at the same locations. Trend analysis was carried out for overlapped time periods, full range of available data, and the CO2-detrended full range of available data. The Svalbard meteor radar (SABER) temperature showed a weak (moderate) correlation with F10.7 and a moderate (weak) correlation with Ap and Dst indices. The trends in the Wuppertal OH* temperature compare well with the SABER temperature when a full range of data is used in the analysis. Both temperatures had a similar F10.7 trend with the same level of correlation coefficient. The F10.7 trend in the Hohenpeissenberg OH* temperature compared well with that obtained by SABER, but the former displayed a weak correlation. The Hohenpeissenberg data displayed a very weak correlation with Ap and Dst indices. Our study clearly shows that a longer dataset would better capture trends in temperature, as was evidenced by the results of Wuppertal data. The CO2-detrended temperatures overall showed slightly larger trend values with a slightly better correlation.

Prediction of China’s Express Business Volume Based on FGM (1, 1) Model

With the continuous development of the economy, people’s lifestyle has changed greatly, online shopping has become a better choice for many people, and the express business volume is also increasing. Forecasting express business volume is of benefit to the healthy development of the logistics industry. Based on the data of China’s express business volume from 2015 to 2019, this paper uses the improved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to calculate the fractional-order r of the FGM (1, 1) model and forecasts China’s express business volume from 2020 to 2023. The results indicate that in the next few years, China’s express business volume will show a large growth trend, indicating that the express delivery industry still has a lot of room for development.

Fruit trees drive small‐scale movement of elephants in Kibale National Park, Uganda

AbstractUnderstanding what motivates animal spatial behavior requires discerning the relationship between animals and the landscape in which they move. Many studies have focused on large scale trends that drive migrations and movement across broad landscapes, but few studies have focused on drivers of local movement within smaller areas based on fine‐scale landscape heterogeneity. This is especially true for African elephants (Loxodonta africana), whose movements in relation to landscape variables have frequently been studied across vast areas, but infrequently on a small scale. We report on how the local distribution of an important resource—fruit trees—shapes elephant movement patterns in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We hypothesized that the spatial location of elephant trails, and especially intersections in the network of trails, would be heavily associated with fruit trees, with trail density being higher in areas with greater fruit availability. Elephant trails and nearby fruit trees were mapped within a 64 km2 area within the interior of the Park. Trail and fruit tree sampling were conducted along 16 evenly spaced one‐km control transects and compared to 28.6 km of elephant trails arrayed throughout the park. Fruit tree basal area was higher along trails and at trail intersections. Trail density was also positively correlated with fruit tree density. Fruit trees may thus serve as a determinant of small‐scale elephant movement and could be used to predict patterns of elephant spatial behavior across forested habitat, which has potential implications for elephant management in the area.

Modeling tree radial growth in a warming climate: where, when, and how much do potential evapotranspiration models matter?

Process-based models of tree-ring width are used both for reconstructing past climates and for projecting changes in growth due to climate change. Since soil moisture observations are unavailable at appropriate spatial and temporal scales, these models generally rely on simple water budgets driven in part by temperature-based potential evapotranspiration (PET) estimates, but the choice of PET model could have large effects on simulated soil moisture, moisture stress, and radial growth. Here, I use four different PET models to drive the VS-Lite model and evaluate the extent to which they differ in both their ability to replicate observed growth variability and their simulated responses to projected 21st century warming. Across more than 1200 tree-ring width chronologies in the conterminous United States, there were no significant differences among the four PET models in their ability to replicate observed radial growth, but the models differed in their responses to 21st century warming. The temperature-driven empirical PET models (Thornthwaite and Hargreaves) simulated much larger warming-induced increases in PET and decreases in soil moisture than the more physically realistic PET models (Priestley–Taylor and Penman–Monteith). In cooler and more mesic regions with relatively minimal moisture constraints to growth, the models simulated similarly small reductions in growth with increased warming. However, in dry regions, the Thornthwaite- and Hargreaves-driven VS-Lite models simulated an increase in moisture stress roughly double that of the Priestley–Taylor and Penman–Monteith models, which also translated to larger simulated declines in radial growth under warming. While the lack of difference in the models’ ability to replicate observed radial growth variability is an encouraging sign for some applications (e.g. attributing changes in growth to specific climatic drivers), the large differences in model responses to warming suggest that caution is needed when applying the temperature-driven PET models to climatic conditions with large trends in temperature.

Lake-Level Changes and Their Paleo-Climatic Implications at the MIS12 Lower Paleolithic (Middle Pleistocene) Site Marathousa 1, Greece

Lithics and cut-marked mammal bones, excavated from the paleo-lake Marathousa 1 (MAR-1) sediments in the Megalopolis Basin, southern Greece, indicate traces of hominin activity occurring along a paleo-shoreline ca. 444,000 years (444 ka) ago. However, the local environment and climatic conditions promoting hominin activity in the area during the MIS12 glacial remain largely unknown. In order to reconstruct the paleo-environment including paleo-lake levels and governing paleo-climatic factors on a high temporal resolution, we analyzed a 6-meter-long sediment sequence from the archeological site MAR-1 and a Bayesian age model was computed for a better age constrain of the different sedimentary units. A multiproxy approach was applied using ostracods, sponge spicules, diatoms, grain sizes, total organic carbon, total inorganic carbon and conventional X-ray fluorescence analysis. The results from the site represent a protected region surrounded by high mountains under the constant influence of water, either as a shallow partly anoxic water body surrounded by reed belts (&amp;gt;463–457 ka, &amp;lt;434–427 ka), a riverine-lake deltaic system (∼457–448 ka), a floodplain (∼448–444 ka) or a seasonal freshwater pond (∼444–436 ka). The local changes of water levels resemble large trends and rhythms of regional records from the Mediterranean and appear to directly respond to sea surface temperature (SST) changes of the North Atlantic. In particular, when the SSTs are high, more moisture reaches the study area and vice versa. Additional water reaches MAR-1 through melting of the surrounding glaciers after brief warm phases during MIS12 in the Mediterranean realm, which leads to the formation of smaller fresh water ponds, where also the horizon of the excavated remains is placed. Such ponds, rich in ostracods and other microorganisms, provided mammals and humans valuable resources, such as potable water, a wide range of plant species and hunting opportunities. These deposits therefore bear a high archeological potential. The results from our study suggest that the Megalopolis Basin could have served as a refugium for hominins and other organisms due to its capacity to retain freshwater bodies during glacial and interglacial periods.

Why humility is vital to effective humanitarian aid leadership: a review of the literature.

Organisational scientists are paying increasing attention to humility, following a larger trend in scholarship highlighting the relational and interdependent nature of leadership and business. A growing body of evidence identifies humility as vital to effective organisational leadership, facilitating positive organisational outcomes, such as lower voluntary turnover and greater follower job satisfaction. To date, research on the subject has focused on certain specific organisational contexts, including businesses, hospitals, and schools. This paper reviews the existing literature and explores why humility may be an especially important leader trait in international humanitarian aid organisations and relief work-a context that is not only uniquely challenging, but also one that would seemingly stand to benefit keenly from the quality. It argues that humility is essential for effective leadership because it is normative of good character, it is predictive of positive outcomes, and it corresponds to a genuine representation of the nature of humanitarian aid.

Milankovitch cyclicity in the latest Cretaceous of the Gulf Coastal Plain, USA

Upper Cretaceous marine sequences in the Gulf Coastal Plain (USA) span the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) transition, allowing for detailed studies of one of the most severe extinction events of the Phanerozoic. To improve the temporal resolution of the stratigraphic record that represents environmental change leading up to the K–Pg boundary, we constructed a high-resolution chemostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy of upper Maastrichtian shallow marine deposits located in the state of Mississippi (USA). Upper Maastrichtian strata in this area consist of alternating decimeter scale chalk and marl rhythmites deposited in a hemipelagic setting. New geochemical proxy records were used to test whether rhythmic sedimentation was driven by Milankovitch cycles. Stable isotopes (δ13Ccarb, δ18Ocarb), carbonate content (wt% CaCO3), and elemental concentrations (Ti, K, Fe) integrated with microfossil and ammonite biostratigraphy reveal astronomical forcing in the studied record. Spectral estimation suggests that rhythmic bedding was associated with climate change driven by precession (~20 kyr). Obliquity signals are also apparent in our analysis, and short eccentricity (~100 kyr) is inferred from amplitude modulation of precession. Studied sections were correlated at the precession scale with the recently tuned K–Pg succession near Morello, Italy which is stratigraphically equivalent to the well-characterized K–Pg sites in Gubbio, Italy (Bottaccione, Contessa Highway). Additionally, carbon isotope records from the study area exhibit large scale trends throughout the latest Maastrichtian, similar to those observed in the Morello and Bottaccione sections. Thus, we show that Milankovitch-scale climatic signals and low-amplitude carbon isotope shifts (<0.5‰) of the late Maastrichtian of the Gulf Coastal Plain are well-preserved and can be correlated globally.

Muslim like us: mobilizing minority identities in popular Australian entertainment media as sites of transnational representation

In the context of sustained interest in the mobilization of Muslimness beyond generic and hence immobile identity tropes, I consider how Australian mainstream television and film productions work to challenge and disrupt essentialist representations of Muslimness. Case studies feature two television series and a feature film, examined through the lens of transnational mobility theory and in the context of mediated anti-racism. The productions I discuss, ‘The Spice Journey’, ‘The Mosque Next Door’, and ‘Down Under’, all turn on intra- and inter-communal mobility of Muslim identities. They are part of a larger trend in popular media productions in current Australian film and on television, which reacts to Islamophobic sentiments in the country by drawing attention to embodied multiple subjectivities. Findings suggest that Australian entertainment media can add meaningful input to the diverse and complex negotiations of culture and identity among Muslims in Australia but may sidestep other forms of racism like anti-Indigeneity in the process.

Research on Temperature Compensation of the Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor and the Resistance Strain Gauge

The fiber Bragg grating sensor is widely used in strain monitoring of large metal structure and trend to replace the resistance strain gauge due to its advantages of strong stability, high measurement accuracy, multiple points measuring, strong environmental suitability and long transmission distance. The temperature-induced strain, which can have the same order of magnitudes as the mechanically-induced strain, will cause great errors in the strain monitoring. Therefore, the temperature compensation for the sensors is essential to guarantee the measurement accuracy. The existing theoretical models and experiment platforms for analyzing the temperature compensation are established by assuming that the testing temperature is constant. However, the surrounding temperature of some large metal structure is not stable, and the effect of temperature change cannot be neglected. This paper aims to establish an analytic model and an experiment platform to compare the temperature compensation of the fiber bragg grating sensor and the resistance strain gauge. The superiority of the temperature compensation for the fiber bragg grating sensor is verified. The result provides theoretical support for choosing the fiber bragg grating sensor in the long-time strain monitoring.

Experiencing Southeast Asian Studies in China: A reverse culture shock

Southeast Asian Studies (SEAS) in China has experienced significant changes in the past twenty years. China's rising political and economic power has stimulated growing demands for better understanding of the wider world, resulting in the rapid development of area studies in recent years. Although SEAS in China predated the relatively recent notion of ‘area studies’ by at least half a century, the boom in area studies has profoundly transformed the field, most notably by attracting a large number of scholars to conduct policy-relevant research. Not only does the ‘policy turn’ reflect shifts of research paradigms in the field of SEAS, but it is also consistent with some larger trends prevailing in China's higher education sector and rapidly changing society in general. This article shows that SEAS in China has grown even more imbalanced, as indicated by the rapid growth of language programmes, absolute domination of short-term policy research, and further marginalisation of humanistic subjects. To respond, Chinese universities have adopted new approaches to SEAS depending on their distinct disciplinary foundations, language coverage, faculty interests, and local governments’ policy preferences.