The trade network of the Belt and Road Initiative and its topological relationship to the global trade network

Unimpeded trade is one of the cooperation priorities in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China. On 15 May 2017, the Joint Communique of the Leaders Roundtable of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation reaffirmed the participants’ shared commitment to build an open economy and ensure free and inclusive trade. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only China's new action to drive its open and global development, but also a platform for an increasing number of countries to explore free and inclusive trade and promote a universal, rule-based, open, non-discriminatory, and equitable multilateral trade system. It is therefore important to examine the topological relationship between the BRI and global trade networks. More specifically, this article first analyzes the community structure of trade networks using a community detection algorithm, and then estimates the topological relationship between different trade communities. The findings of this article are as follows. First, this research identified three trade communities and two sub-communities in the BRI trade network, in which China is the core, Russia is the sub-core of the biggest trade community, and India, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are cores of the second trade community (South Asia-West Asia). Second, it identified five trade communities in the global trade network, centred on China, USA, Russia, India-United Arab Emirates, and Germany- Netherlands-France-Britain and other European developed countries. Third, the topological analysis indicated that in the global trade network, most BRI countries are attracted by the core nodes of the BRI regions, such as the China, Russia and India-United Arab Emirates core nodes, and have strong trade contacts with BRI countries. Most Central-East European countries are mainly attracted by Germany-Netherlands-France-Britain and other developed European countries with a low penetration of BRI trade. Although some Southeast Asian countries are incorporated into the Asia-Australia-South Africa community with China as the core, they still need to strengthen trade linkages with BRI countries.     

Dynamic Prediction Model of Overburden Settlement in Deep Mining Areas based on Space–Time Relationship

Natural Resources Research - Depletion of shallow mineral resources caused by deep mining has become an inevitable trend, and deep mining can increase safety accidents and geological hazards....     

On Evaluating Characteristics of the Solute Transport in the Arid Vadose Zone

The transport of bromide (Br) under matric heads of 0, ?2, ?5, and ?10 cm using undisturbed soil columns was investigated for understanding the solute transport in arid soils. Undisturbed soil cores were collected at ground surface, directly below where tension infiltrometer measurements were made in the Amargosa Desert, Nevada, United States. Laboratory experiments were conducted by introducing water containing Br tracer into a soil column maintained at steady‐state conditions. The observed data of breakthrough curves (BTC) were well fitted to an one‐region model, except for the cores at saturation, and a core at the matric head of ?5 cm, from which the observed data were better fitted to a two‐region model. Fitted pore water velocities with the one‐region model ranged from 1.2 to 56.6 cm/h, and fitted dispersion coefficients (D) ranged from 2.2 to 100 cm²/h. Results for the core analyzed with the two‐region model indicated that D ranged from 27.6 to 70.9 cm²/h at saturation, and 25.7 cm²/h at the matric head of ?5 cm; fraction of mobile water (β) ranged from 0.18 to 0.65, and mass transfer coefficient (ω) ranged from 0.006 to 0.03. In summary, the water fluxes and Br dispersion coefficients at investigated matric heads were very high due to the coarseness of the soils and possibly due to preferential flow pathways. These high water fluxes and Br dispersion coefficients would lead to a higher risk of deeper leaching accumulating nitrate nitrogen to the groundwater, and have significant effects on the desert ecosystem.     

Evolution of short period meteoroid streams

The dynamical evolution of meteoroid streams associated with cornets Encke, Halley, Machholz 1986 VIII and asteroid Phaethon is discussed. It is shown that the planetary perturbations can greatly increase the streams thickness and each stream may produce several couples of meteor showers active in different seasons of the year. The theoretical and observed data are in a satisfactory accordance.     

Storage and density of soil organic carbon in urban topsoil of hilly cities: A case study of Chongqing Municipality of China

Rapid urbanization results in the conversion of natural soil to urban soil,and consequently,the storage and density of the soil carbon pools change.Taking Chongqing Municipality of China as a study case,this investigation attempts to better understand soil carbon pools in hilly cities.First,the vegetated areas in the study area were derived from QuickBird images.Then,topsoil data from 220 soil samples(0-20 cm) in the vegetated areas were collected and their soil organic carbon(SOC) densities were analyzed.Using the Kriging interpolation method,the spatial pattern of SOC was estimated.The results show that the SOC density exhibited high spatial variability in the urban topsoil of Chongqing.First,the SOC density in topsoil decreased according to slope in the order 2°-6° < 25°-90° < 0°-2° < 6°-15° < 15°-25°.Second,the newly developed areas during 2001-2010 had a lower SOC density than the areas built before 1988.Third,urban parks and gardens had a higher SOC density in topsoil,residential green land followed,and scattered street green land ranked last.For hilly cities,the variability of terrain affects the distribution of SOC.The Kriging results indicate that Kriging method combining slope with SOC density produced a high level of accuracy.The Kriging results show that the SOC density to the north of the Jialing River was higher than the south.The vegetated areas were estimated to amount to 73.5 km2 across the study area with an SOC storage of 0.192 Tg and an average density of 2.61 kg/m2.     

油松树轮记录的过去134年伏牛山5-7月平均最高温度

利用豫西伏牛山的两组油松树轮宽度年表,重建了该区域1874年以来5-7月的平均最高温度.并用Jackknife和Bootstrap等方法进行了方程稳定性检验,统计检验参数表明重建序列与实测序列吻合较好,且方程稳定可信,重建方程的解释方差为40%(调整自由度后为39%).重建显示,在过去134年中,豫西伏牛山区5-7月平均最高气温经历了4次冷期和5次暖期.其中,20世纪20-30年代末是最显著的暖期,之后开始降温,至50年代降到谷底,温度小幅回升后,在70-80年代中期又显著下降,80年代末以后开始增温.该重建温度序列与秦岭中部南五台地区温度序列有较好的一致性.     

广州市环境噪声总体水平分析及其控制：以越秀区为例

随着广州市改革开放的深入发展，作为广州市中心区的越秀区环境噪声总体水平居高不下，而且还有上升趋势。本文分析了越秀区环境噪声现状和发展，对环境噪声总体水平的控制提出建议和对策。     

BORDER PORT MANZHOULh URBAN FUNCTION AND SPACE DEVELOPMENT

Manzhouli is the largest land port city on the Sino-Russia border, transit cargo through the land port amount-ed to 5.95 million tons, transit tourists were 304 500 in 2000. It stands at the joint place of China, Mongolia and Russi-a, faces to Siberia area of Russia, receives direct support from the Northeast China and Bohai Sea Rim Area, and possess-es priorities in geographical location, land port infrastructure, water resources, coal resources, tourist resources andgreat potentiality in economic cooperation with Russia. The future urban function is a key port on the First Eurasia Continen-tal Bridge. Manzhouli Port will keep its first place between China and Russia land transport, and it is forecasted that thetransit amount through Manzhouli Port will go up to 10 million tons in 2005 and 20 million tons in 2010. It will be construct-ed to be a trade center of the peripheral area extending to Russia and Mongolia, a key export-oriented processing industri-al zone supported by industries such as export processing industries, export agriculture, trade services, technology trad-ing and the other service industries. It keeps being a well-known touring city for trade, shopping, sightseeing, vocation,local food, recreation and cultural events. To build Manzhouli Export Processing Industry Zone will improve city econom-ic structure, and the main sectors are organic food processing, livestock products processing, garment and furniture indus-try. Moreover, Manzhouli Export Processing Industry Zone will eventually be upgraded to be a border free trade zone.The city functional transition will inevitably affect urban spatial restructure and its expansion. The city space transforma-tion will develop as such: one development axis of No. 301 highway paralleling with Bin - Zhou(Harbin - Manzhouli) rail-way which cuts through central part of Manzhouli City, and links Zhalainuocr District with central city; three urban unitsincluding central city, Zhalainuocr District and Manzhouli Interchange Trade Zone; cohesion with Aoerjin and Cuogangpastures; regional dual-nuclei structure of Hailaer City and Manhzouli City; and the Manzhouli-Zabaykalsk Free TradeZone.     

珍珠囊发育中马氏珠母贝血清免疫因子的变化规律

马氏珠母贝育珠贝插核手术后的第1、第2、第3、第10、第15、第20、第30和第60天,抽取育珠贝血清,并研究其非特异性免疫因子酸性磷酸酶(ACP)、碱性磷酸酶(AKP)、过氧化氢酶(CAT)、超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)和溶菌酶(LSZ)的活性变化。结果表明:在珍珠囊发育初期(插核后3～10d),育珠贝血清的免疫因子ACP、AKP、CAT、SOD均比对照组(未经插核的马氏珠母贝)显著性增大(P<0.05),LSZ在插核后1～3d比对照组LSZ活性显著性增大(P<0.05);在珍珠囊发育中期(插核后第15～20天),各种免疫酶活性都逐渐降低;珍珠囊发育后期(插核30d后),育珠贝血清中的各种免疫酶活性都已恢复到对照组水平。