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"Pacific Rim"
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Pacific rim : man, machines & monsters : the inner workings of an epic film
Explores the making of the film from its initial inspirations to its ambitious shoot to its state-of-the-art special effects, and includes pages from Toro's notebooks, reproductions of props, anti-Kaiju propaganda posters, and other ephemera.
Book
Impacts of recent El Niño Modoki on dry/wet conditions in the Pacific rim during boreal summer
Present work uses 1979–2005 monthly observational data to study the impacts of El Niño Modoki on dry/wet conditions in the Pacific rim during boreal summer. The El Niño Modoki phenomenon is characterized by the anomalously warm central equatorial Pacific flanked by anomalously cool regions in both west and east. Such zonal SST gradients result in anomalous two-cell Walker Circulation over the tropical Pacific, with a wet region in the central Pacific. There are two mid-tropospheric wave trains passing over the extratropical and subtropical North Pacific. They contain a positive phase of a Pacific-Japan pattern in the northwestern Pacific, and a positive phase of a summertime Pacific-North American pattern in the northeastern Pacific/North America region. The western North Pacific summer monsoon is enhanced, while the East Asian summer monsoon is weakened. In the South Pacific, there is a basin-wide low in the mid-latitude with enhanced Australian high and the eastern South Pacific subtropical high. Such an atmospheric circulation pattern favors a dry rim surrounding the wet central tropical Pacific. The El Niño Modoki and its climate impacts are very different from those of El Niño. Possible geographical regions for dry/wet conditions influenced by El Niño Modoki and El Niño are compared. The two phenomena also have very different temporal features. El Niño Modoki has a large decadal background while El Niño is predominated by interannual variability. Mixing-up the two different phenomena may increase the difficulty in understanding their mechanisms, climate impacts, and uncertainty in their predictions.
Journal Article
West Coast wild : a nature alphabet
\"This stunning nature alphabet book explores the fascinating ecosystem of the Pacific West Coast a magnificent area that combines an ancient rainforest, a rugged beach and a vast, open ocean, and where whales, bears, wolves, eagles and a rich variety of marine species thrive in an interconnected web of life...The text and art have been carefully checked for scientific accuracy. The book also includes a note about the Pacific West Coast and suggestions for exploring the region and further reading.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
assessment of cultural ecosystem services in the marine environment using Q methodology
Cultural ecosystem services are generally understood to be the non-material value that can be gained through ecosystems such as a sense of well-being, reflection and spiritual enhancement. These are often linked with a sense of place, culture, heritage and identity. The assessment of cultural ecosystem services, particularly in the marine environment is an inherently complex and difficult task, because they often involve making value judgments which can be hard to quantify. Methods applied to determining the value of these services are often focused on their financial value. Whilst methodologies have been developed to assess the non-material importance of these services, this paper argues that Q methodology provides a highly appropriate way of examining unmeasurable values by being able to convert qualitative, subjective data into quantitative information. The research presents two data sets derived from Q methodology which examined stakeholder views of the cultural values from two marine protected areas; the Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, Canada and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Chichester Harbour, UK. The relevance of using Q methodology as a valuation mechanism in this type of study is examined and justified; whilst highlighting the advantages of tackling a subject of values and intangibility, highly qualitative information, with a structured, semi-automated and primarily quantitative methodology. The findings show that the case-study areas hold three predominant ‘factors’ of value for its stake holders. These include the protected areas; as a place of care for each other and oneself through the natural world; a place of spirituality; and as a place of freedom and refuge. The paper strongly argues for the use of Q methodology in such a study, which ultimately helps to bring about a depth of information that arguably traditional methods are incapable of in the same capacity.
Journal Article
Health systems resilience in managing the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from 28 countries
Health systems resilience is key to learning lessons from country responses to crises such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this perspective, we review COVID-19 responses in 28 countries using a new health systems resilience framework. Through a combination of literature review, national government submissions and interviews with experts, we conducted a comparative analysis of national responses. We report on domains addressing governance and financing, health workforce, medical products and technologies, public health functions, health service delivery and community engagement to prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We then synthesize four salient elements that underlie highly effective national responses and offer recommendations toward strengthening health systems resilience globally.
A review of COVID-19 responses in 28 selected countries identifies elements of highly effective public health responses and offers recommendations toward strengthening health systems resilience.
Journal Article
The History of Enterovirus A71 Outbreaks and Molecular Epidemiology in the Asia-Pacific Region
Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is one of the common causative pathogens for hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) affecting young children. HFMD outbreak can result in a substantial pediatric hospitalization and burden the healthcare services, especially in less-developed countries. Since the initial epidemic of predominantly EV-A71 in California in 1969, the high prevalence of HFMD in the Asia-pacific region and elsewhere around the world represents a significant morbidity in this age group. With the advent of rapid and accurate diagnostic tools, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of laboratory-confirmed EV-A71 infection over the past two decades. The population, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity among countries in the Asia-Pacific region all influence the transmission and morbidity associated with HFMD. This review summarizes the current state of epidemiology of EV-A71 in Asia-Pacific countries based on the most recent epidemiological data and available information on the prevalence and disease burden. This knowledge is important in guiding the prevention, control and future research on vaccine development of this highly contagious disease of significant socioeconomic implications in public health.
Journal Article
The European Union in the Asia-Pacific
Since the mid-1990s, the European Union has defined the Asia-Pacific as one of its key strategic targets on its ambitious road towards global power. The EU has ever since made consistent efforts to implement strategies, policies and activities in the Asia-Pacific. Over the past decades, big changes have taken place on both sides and the wider world. It is high time to evaluate the EU’s performance in its Asian policy. In fact, the EU is at crossroads with its Asia Pacific policy. On several aspects, the EU is compelled to redefine its interests and roles, and rethink its strategies and policies towards the dynamic and ever-important Asia-Pacific region of the contemporary world. This volume addresses this theme, by elaborating the general context, major issues and countries in the EU’s Asia-Pacific policy. It covers issues and areas of traditional security, economy and trade, public diplomacy, and human security and focuses on the EU’s relations with China, Japan, the ASEAN countries and Australasia.
eBook
Evaluating the Influences of Health Expenditure, Energy Consumption, and Environmental Pollution on Life Expectancy in Asia
This study examines the effects of health expenditure, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, population size, and income on health outcomes in 46 Asian nations between 1997 and 2019. Cross-sectional dependence (CSD) and slope heterogeneity (SH) tests are utilized due to the close linkages between Asian nations as a result of commerce, tourism, religion, and international agreements. The research uses unit root and cointegration tests of the second generation after validating CSD and SH issues. Due to the results of the CSD and SH tests, it is clear that conventional methods of estimation are inappropriate, so a new panel method, the inter autoregressive distributive lag (CS-ARDL) model, is used instead. In addition to CS-ARDL, the study’s results were checked with a common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) method and an augmented mean group (AMG) method. According to the CS-ARDL study, higher rates of energy use and healthcare spending lead to better health outcomes for Asian countries over the long run. CO2 emissions are shown to be harmful to human health, according to the study. The influence of a population’s size on health outcomes is shown to be negative in the CS-ARDL and CCEMG, but favorable in the AMG. Only the AMG coefficient is significant. In most instances, the results of the AMG and CCEMG corroborate the results of the CS-ARDL. Among all the factors influencing life expectancy in Asian countries, healthcare spending is the most influential. Hence, to improve health outcomes, Asian countries need to take the required actions to boost health spending, energy consumption, and long-term economic growth. To achieve the best possible health outcomes, Asian countries should also reduce their CO2 emissions.
Journal Article
Economic growth, renewable energy and financial development in the CPTPP countries
The trade agreement is generally considered an effective mechanism to encourage trading activities. However, trade activities may lead to environmental degradation because more trade is generally associated with more energy consumption. In addition, financial development with an increased flow of capital among members is required to fund trading activities. Renewable energy can be a moderating factor to balance the effects of trade activities and financial development on the economy and the environment. This paper focuses on the inter-relationship between growth-energy-finance nexus for the CPTPP members in the 1971–2020 period. While the energy-growth-environment nexus has been extensively investigated, the energy-growth-finance relationship has been largely ignored in existing literature, particularly for the CPTPP countries. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, we find that renewable energy consumption does reduce CO 2 emission while financial development does not necessarily increase environmental degradation. Second, financial development is found to cause renewable energy usage bilaterally. Finally, when different proxies are used for financial development, a bilateral causality relationship between renewable energy usage, financial development and economic growth is confirmed. These important findings imply that the governments of the CPTPP countries should encourage renewable energy usage to achieve the dual objectives from the CPTPP trade agreement: (i) to increase trade activities; and (ii) to support further financial development within the region. These two objectives together support economic growth.
Journal Article
Present and Future Losses of Storage in Large Reservoirs Due to Sedimentation: A Country-Wise Global Assessment
Reservoir sedimentation is often seen as a site-specific process and is usually assessed at an individual reservoir level. At the same time, it takes place everywhere in the world. However, estimates of storage losses globally are largely lacking. In this study, earlier proposed estimates of sedimentation rates are applied, for the first time, to 47,403 large dams in 150 countries to estimate cumulative reservoir storage losses at country, regional, and global scales. These losses are estimated for the time horizons of 2022, 2030, and 2050. It is shown that 6316 billion m3 of initial global storage in these dams will decline to 4665 billion m3 causing a 26% storage loss by 2050. By now, major regions of the world have already lost 13–19% of their initially available water storage. Asia-Pacific and African regions will likely experience relatively smaller storage losses in the next 25+ years compared to the Americas or Europe. On a country level, Seychelles, Japan, Ireland, Panama, and the United Kingdom will experience the highest water storage losses by 2050, ranging between 35% and 50%. In contrast, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, and Niger will be the five least affected countries losing less than 15% of storage by 2050. The decrease in the available storage by 2050 in all countries and regions will challenge many aspects of national economies, including irrigation, power generation, and water supply. The newly built dams will not be able to offset storage losses to sedimentation. The paper is an alert to this creeping global water challenge with potentially significant development implications.
Journal Article