Center for Strategic and International Studies

The Midyan Peninsula between the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba is the only place along the Red Sea where Lower to Middle Miocene syn-rift sedimentary strata (Aquitanian to Langhian) are continuously exposed, including exceptionally preserved carbonate platforms. We selected four focus areas onshore and one offshore in the Duba Basin to explore the variations in platform morphology, structural setting, spatial distribution, and carbonate factory in the northeast Red Sea. By integrating surface observations, geophysical and well data, and strontium (Sr) isotope stratigraphy, we situate these platforms in the tectonic and paleogeographic context of the opening of the northeastern Red Sea rifted margin. The findings document a transition from mollusk-dominated ramps in the early syn-rift stage (~ 23–21 Ma) to coral- and algal-dominated fringing platforms on normal fault footwalls and delta-top platforms during the rift climax and late syn-rift stages (~ 21–14 Ma). Carbonate production ceased during the Middle to Upper Miocene (~ 13–6 Ma), likely due to very high salinity conditions. New dating indicates that carbonate production resumed at the end of the Miocene (~ 5.5 Ma). Thick, aggrading coral-algal platforms—attached and detached—developed, with their morphology strongly shaped by salt tectonics. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-92219-x.

This article examines the evolving discourse on Korean unification, emphasizing the need for a more contextually grounded concept of peoplehood that reflects the complexities of contemporary Korean identity. Moving beyond rigid, state‐centered frameworks of nationhood, it advocates for a shift toward a more inclusive peoplehood grounded in shared values, democratic principles, and communal flourishing. The ideological divide between President Yoon's recent 8.15 Unification Doctrine and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's two‐state approach underscores the limitations of existing paradigms. In response, this study argues for civic‐based unification narratives that transcend these divisions. At the heart of this vision is a reinterpretation of the 1919 March 1st Declaration as the foundation for a new public ethos that champions human dignity, egalitarian principles, and global responsibility. By broadening the scope of fundamental rights within this reimagined peoplehood, the framework enhances its moral legitimacy and fosters resilience across generational and ideological boundaries. This approach engages deeply with Korea's cultural, historical, and symbolic resources to ensure that unification discourse resonates with the lived experiences of modern Koreans, particularly the Jangmadang generation in North Korea and the MZ generation in South Korea. Ultimately, this article envisions unification not as the imposition of a monolithic state structure but rather as an organic, people‐building process. This process cultivates an adaptive, globally engaged, and pluralistic Korean identity.

Policymakers and development organizations have widely identified homegardening as an activity that can alleviate global pressure on food production and food security in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, studies on homegardens have examined species diversity and conservation, as well as factors influencing species composition and landscape management. However, little attention has been given to understanding the relationship between food security and commercialization. Therefore, this study examines for the role of commercialization of homegardens and its potential to contribute to food security in northern areas of Ghana. A mixed sampling technique was employed to identify and interview 120 homegardeners. Probit regression analysis revealed that homegarden size, ownership status, and water availability, together with farmer’s age and gender, were statistically significant factors influencing market orientation. Propensity score matching and endogenous treatment regression showed that a higher degree of market orientation of homegarden produce significantly contributes to the food security of farmers. Gender, educational status, and access to input subsidies influenced the food security situation of the homegardeners. Our findings suggest that government and development agencies should promote and support homegardens as a promising farming practice that enhances rural development, food security and overall livelihood resilience in Sahel region, such as northern Ghana.

Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal dominant disease that interferes with the formation of arteries. The ENG gene encodes for the protein endoglin which is used to properly develop and remodel arteries. The removal of endoglin forms telangiectasias that cause bleeding from the nose and vital organs. This study investigates the impact of one of the many variants of uncertain significance of ENG associated with HHT. The missense swap of alanine for valine at position 218 (Ala218Val) was characterized through computational metrics from in silico pathogenicity prediction tools, conservation analysis, and molecular dynamics simulation (MDS). The structural residue is highly conserved over multiple species and buried. The missense swap resulted in a difference in movement from the wild type according to MDS in a simulated aqueous environment. Therefore, it is predicted to be likely pathogenic.

We introduce pure amplitude almost periodic structures (APSs) with multi-ring spatial spectra, characterized by four degrees of freedom in the spectral domain: the number of rings, the number of impulses on each ring, the radius of each ring, and the angular positions of the impulses within a ring. A comprehensive mathematical framework is developed to describe the diffraction of arbitrary optical beams by such structures. This framework is theoretically validated and experimentally verified through the analysis of diffraction patterns produced under Gaussian beam illumination. The method is systematically tested on various APS configurations, including structures with one, two, three, and four rings, as well as different impulse arrangements within these rings, demonstrating its robustness and adaptability. Notably, each APS achieves a high diffraction efficiency, transferring approximately 1/((2N+1)(2N)) of the transmitted beam power to each impulse, where 2N represents the total number of impulses excluding the zero-diffraction order. This efficiency is significantly superior to that of conventional spatial light modulators. Additionally, a detailed comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements of power ratios for the diffraction orders confirms the accuracy and reliability of our approach. The versatility of APS makes them highly suitable for a range of applications, including optical communications, optical tweezing, multi-particle trapping, screening, micro-manipulation, and microscopy. For example, APS-enhanced Gaussian lattice beams can improve imaging speed in fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, their ability to enable three-dimensional optical multiple trapping and beam splitting positions APS as a powerful tool for advancing laser and optical research.

A disaster-type event manifested by an earthquake at a dam and a high power hydropower plant, has a very low manifestation likelihood, but the gravity can be catastrophic with a powerful impact over the flood of the area followed by human lives loss, changing and altering the environment hence losing the facility of producing electricity. Such an event can bring extreme damage for the population, society and the state by losing the involved infrastructures, generating extreme prejudice for the energetic and national security. For this reason, the authors have simulated an 8 magnitude on Richter scale earthquake risk scenario at the dam and hydropower plant Vidraru with an impact over the installations of the strategic energy purpose. The final purpose of the paper is to find ways to protect the population in case of the dam-breaking situations, flooding of the downstream areas, and damaging the infrastructures and to allow the intervention for the evacuation in safety conditions and return to a normal state (resilience).

When speakers are exposed to a particular syntactic construction, it can prime them to use similar structures in their own speech. Previous studies have demonstrated that this syntactic priming effect is influenced by a multitude of linguistic, cognitive, and social factors. The current study evaluated the impact of perceived AI interlocutors on syntactic priming. We conducted an experiment where naïve participants played a picture-description and -matching game. In this dialogue task, participants believed that they were interacting with either a human or an AI-powered chatbot. In fact, in both cases the unseen “interlocutor” was a trained research assistant delivering pre-scripted utterances. The results showed that participants were less likely to repeat the syntactic structure of their interlocutors when they perceived them as AI agents, as opposed to humans. These findings suggest that individuals may show varying degrees of communicative accommodation in grammatical choices across different interactional contexts.

Background and Objectives Pregnancy, heat stress, and physical activity are all known to independently increase human water requirements. We hypothesize that climate conditions and behavioral strategies interact to shape water needs in highly active pregnancies. Methodology We recruited 20 female endurance runners who were pregnant (8-16 weeks gestational age; n=13) or planning to be pregnant (n=7) for an observational, prospective cohort study. At three timepoints in the study (preconception, 8-16 weeks, and 32-35 weeks), we measured water turnover using the deuterium dilution and elimination technique, physical activity using ActiGraph wGT3X-BT accelerometers, and heat index using historical temperature and humidity data. We also compared athletes to non-athletes from a previously published study. Results Athletes maintained high water turnover from preconception through the end of pregnancy. Physical activity was positively associated with water turnover among athletes for preconception and early pregnancy time periods, but not for the third trimester. Heat index weakly moderated the relationship between physical activity and water turnover in predicting a more positive slope in hotter and more humid weather conditions. Water turnover in athletes was higher than in non-athletes, but this difference attenuated during the third trimester, as non-athletes increased their water turnover. Conclusions and Implications Athletes experience higher water turnover with greater levels of physical activity, and this relationship is somewhat stronger in higher heat index conditions. With the threat of climate change expected to exacerbate extreme heat conditions, evidence-based, global policies are required for particularly vulnerable populations.

Numerous studies have been conducted to comprehend the economic importance of market participation for producers. However, a significant gap remains, particularly in Central Asia. This study assesses market participation drivers for Kyrgyzstan’s milk producers using the Life in Kyrgyzstan dataset, encompassing a comprehensive nationwide farm-level survey. Findings reveal that household assets boost market entry and sales volume, whereas distance from markets discourages participation but can increase sales for active sellers, reflecting transportation cost strategies. The insights inform policy interventions benefiting rural small-scale milk producers in Central Asian countries that share similar cultural backgrounds.

A safe and secure coal industry gives a strong energy industry and economy. Just in this way Romania can become a good and strong strategic partner with powerful energy states from all over the world. Thus, energy security becomes one of the most important pillars of Romanian security. For a secure energy industry, Romania needs strategic energy resources and highly specialized human resources, and Romania has a key role creating stability and security factors for the supply of energy resources that are quantified by coal. The authors consider that the security supply with coal of Romania is a strictly national and European security issue because the lack of coal can cause enormous damage to the European industry and economy, which are almost entirely dependent on coal-energy resources. But EU policy is contrary to this energy resource which is coal, but most EU countries are dependent on this. If coal mining is stopped, the EU may enter into energy insecurity, which is very harmful to the current security environment. The SWOT analysis of the security supply with coal to the National Energy System, comes in the context in which the possibility of a black-out is very likely, and the lack of coal can cause major damage through enormous financial losses, which through the domino effect can spread economic and Romanian insecurity. In this context, the analysis of the security supply with coal becomes an essential issue of European security and makes this paper of real interest.

The power equation in the Asia-Pacific region is transforming due to the intense competition between the US and China. The US is trying to alter the traditional political order, while China intends to enhance its economic stature. Various developments are underway, including the formation of alliances, defense cooperation among allies, and muscle-flexing between rival states in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean. These developments make the Asia-Pacific region the epicentre of this new Cold War competition between Washington and Beijing. However, in view of the US, power play in the region is impossible without forming alliances. This research study delves into the recognition of the competition between the US and China, tracing US attempts to form alliances in the region and putting China into a security dilemma. The study will also shed light on the reasons why the presence of China is perceived as a threat to US hegemony in the region. The consequence of the competition between the US and China in the Asia-Pacific will enormously exacerbate the strategic stability in South Asia due to the US's action in developing bloc politics. This research study also highlights challenges for Pakistan as India has become a key ally of the US in the quest for power drive in the region.

This article reveals the socio-economic factors of centrifugal tendencies in the modern Spain (the Basque Country case) from 2009 to 2020. A correlation is revealed between the preferences of Basques regarding the territorial and political structure of Spain and a number of socio-economic factors such as GDP per capita, the unemployment rate, the level of average wages and the Consumer Price Index. The article also acquaints readers with the attitude of the Basques towards the regional government and their assessment of the economic situation in the region. The author concludes that one of the key factors is the Consumer Price Index, since as the price level rises, separatist sentiments also grow. Another important factor is the attitude of citizens towards the regional government: despite the assessment of the economic situation (bad or good), if the attitude towards the regional government is positive, centrifugal tendencies become more intense.

The article focuses on analyzing the reasons behind the differing approaches of the Republican and Democratic parties to the issue of climate change. Party positions on this matter significantly influence the development of economic and energy policies in the U.S. Furthermore, the U.S.'s involvement in international efforts to combat global warming is also shaped by the power dynamics between these parties in the presidential administration and Congress. These stances directly impact other vital aspects of U.S. economy and politics, particularly in areas such as energy and Washington's role in international endeavors to achieve net-zero emissions. The climate agenda has become a significant point of contention in EU-US relations, a topic that holds particular relevance today. The findings of the study indicate an increasing partisan divide on the climate agenda, signifying deepening divisions in American society as the 2024 presidential election approaches.

In China, the urgent need to formulate food policies that address both nutritional health and climate challenges has become increasingly apparent. This study constructs a theoretical framework and a multi-objective programming model that takes into account income disparities, aiming to delineate a sustainable healthy diet for Chinese residents and pinpoint key areas for dietary transformation. Our findings reveal that a sustainable healthy diet in China should involve moderate adjustments to staple foods, such as reducing rice consumption in favor of alternatives like flour and other grains. The diet should emphasize low-fat consumption, increased intake of fruits and vegetables, and a balanced intake of animal products by reducing meat, poultry, eggs, and fish, while ensuring sufficient consumption of chicken, shrimp, and dairy products. Furthermore, it recommends reducing alcohol consumption and limiting high-calorie snacks like cakes. This proposed diets achieves multiple objectives: it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the food system by 12.8%, decrease food expenditure by 1.1%, and significantly improve dietary quality. However, the study also highlights a trade-off between consumer interests and environmental benefits across different income groups. For the low-income group, minimal dietary changes result in a 2.0% increase in food expenses and an 11.1% increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Conversely, while the diet may slightly misalign with the preferences of middle and high-income groups, these groups benefit from reductions in food expenses (ranging from 0.4 to 4.8%) and greenhouse gas emissions (ranging from 14.5 to 23.4%). Thus, initiating reforms from the consumer end of the food system and guiding dietary patterns towards a healthier and more sustainable pattern through targeted food policies could be a crucial strategy for addressing nutritional and environmental challenges. However, it is essential to balance environmental benefits with ensuring the welfare of different income groups within China’s diverse economic landscape. This calls for differentiated policies to safeguard the wellbeing of the population.

Objectives Health Technology Assessment (HTA) practitioners recognize the significance of qualitative methodologies that focus on how a technology is feasible, meaningfulness, acceptable, and equitable. This mapping aimed to delineate the frameworks employed to synthesize qualitative evidence and assess the quality of synthesis in HTA . Methods Mapping was conducted using Medline, LILACS, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, JBI, and ScienceDirect databases. Gray literature searches included PROQUEST, Open Grey, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health’s Grey Matters, Google Scholar, and HTA agency websites. The inclusion criteria were centered on global qualitative evidence synthesis frameworks. The data are presented in the tables. Results Of the 2054 articles, 31 were included, mostly from Europe. Guide was the type of document more cited, and most authors are from HTA agencies and universities. Incorporating both patient and family perspectives is the most cited reason for include qualitative evidence. Regardless of the framework or tool, SPICE was the main acronym, and RETREAT was preferred for approach selection. Thematic synthesis dominated analytic methods, and CASP was the primary quality appraisal tool. GRADE-CERQual graded evidence synthesis, with ENTREQ as the top reporting guidance. The GRADE evidence-to-decision framework was mentioned for recommendations. Conclusion This mapping highlights the movement incorporate qualitative evidence in HTA employing specific frameworks. Despite the similarities among documents, most of them describe part of the process to synthesize qualitative evidence. Standardizing procedures to incorporate qualitative evidence into HTA can enhance decision-making. These findings offer essential considerations for HTA practice.

Due to the significant increase in transportation, traditional fossil fuels utilised in internal combustion engines will only be accessible for a limited duration. Additionally, the harmful pollutants produced by these fuels, including CO, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons, smoke, and a small amount of particulate matter, have a severe negative impact on the environment. Although biodiesel proves efficient without necessitating engine modifications, its performance is hindered by its higher viscosity. Consequently, this research aims to enhance performance by introducing acetylene alongside tamanu methyl ester (biodiesel); however, this approach results in elevated NOx levels. To mitigate NOx emissions, a combination of ethanol and biodiesel is employed. This study investigates the performance and emission attributes of Acetylene + TME90E10 as the fuel. The combustion pressure and heat release rate of TME90E10 with 6 lpm, improved by 5.41% and 9.1% than diesel. When compared to regular diesel fuel, the introduction of 6 l per minute of acetylene with TME90E10 yields a substantial 24.4% decrease in hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. Furthermore, employing TME90E10 at the same acetylene flow rate demonstrates the lowest carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, registering at 0.07%, in contrast to the 0.13% emissions observed throughout the exhaust cycle when using pure diesel fuel.

Background Screen exposure, particularly recreational screen exposure, is an integral part of children’s lives. However, little is known about how family factors influence children’s excessive screen exposure, especially in the context of 69 million left-behind children experiencing parent–child separation in China. This study mainly concentrates on the correlation between parental migration, type of caregiver, depression and disciplinary practices of the caregiver and children’s screen exposure, including average daily screen time (on weekdays or weekends) and screen content (recreational activities or learning activities). Methods For a cross-sectional study, we collected data of family basic features, parental migration status and children’s screen use in the past week from caregivers of 1,592 children aged 1–66 months in Anhui province. Children were classified into left-behind children (LBC), previously left-behind children (PLBC) and never left-behind children (NLBC) based on their parental migration. Multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression were used to identified the association between family factors and children’s screen exposure. Results Overall, PLBC had higher rates of screen exposure, as well as higher average daily exposure times, than NLBC and LBC. The results of logistic regression showed that PLBC had a higher likelihood of excessive screen use compared to NLBC (60 min/day, OR = 1.40, p < 0.05; 120 min/day, OR = 1.76, p < 0.05). The higher the score of disciplinary practices, the less time children spent on screens for entertainment (B = -3.37, p < 0.01). Conclusions Our findings provide insights into the risks of children’s screen exposure in different contexts of parental migration. The study emphasizes the urgent need to pay attention to PLBC’s screen use and to strengthen caregivers’ discipline and supervision over children’s screen exposure.