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AbstractAs a relevant topic in reliability theory, the preservation of aging properties under the formation of various coherent structures contributes to improving system performance through better structure design and more effective system maintenance. The classical research in this line usually focuses upon coherent systems with independent component lifetimes. Recently, some authors discussed the preservation of IFR, NBU, and DMRL in the setting of dependent component lifetimes. This paper further investigates sufficient conditions for coherent systems with dependent component lifetimes to preserve aging properties including NBUC, NBU (2), DMRL, and their dual versions. Some examples are presented to illustrate coherent structures and typical copula functions fulfilling the present sufficient conditions as well.

The availability of and demand for water in China is an extreme case of uneven distribution in time and space. In response, the South to North Water Diversion (SNWD) project, the largest inter-basin water transfer scheme in the world, channels large amounts of fresh water from the Yangtze River in southern China to the more arid and industrialised north. In order to keep the SNWD project running smoothly, a comprehensive governance system has been implemented and innovative institutional arrangements have been created to facilitate the transfer of water itself. By taking the SNWD project's Middle Route as one case study and drawing on primary and secondary data, this article examines the project's emerging institutional arrangements. The article outlines the establishment of new institutions for the SNWD project with high administrative rankings at both central and local levels, the encouragement of inter-department cooperation, the adoption of a market mechanism and the integration of market functions into administrative functions. We argue that these institutional arrangements have to some extent overcome common challenges in water governance in China, including an engineering-heavy approach and what Chinese commentators have traditionally called the problem of water being managed by multiple government ministries and municipal authorities as the common metaphor of 'nine dragons managing the water'. Our findings have significant implications for understanding the continuing evolution of water governance in China.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore possible factors leading to a successful mediation in Chinese mediation shows. In China, media always play an indispensable role in information dissemination, morality advocacy and policy explanation.


Design/methodology/approach
This paper employed content analysis of 166 episodes of one representative mediation show, Gold Medal Mediation, and regression technique in data analysis.


Findings
Results of ordinal regression suggested that "secret talking", rather than transparency, between disputants had significant influence on successful mediation. Function of mediators is limited in reaching full mediation. The effective factors leading to full mediation include compromise of rights, secret talking, attitude of the observer cohort. It suggests that the role of mediator is limited, rather than being over-exaggerated, in successful mediation. The successful mediation is largely dependent on disputants' motivations. Additionally, "compromise of rights" by disputants is a key factor in solving disputes.


Research limitations/implications
Findings of this study revealed the role of Chinese mediation shows in propagating mediation in contemporary Chinese society and supporting upheld morality values. Due to the nature of the chosen mediation show, some disputes take more than one episode to solve. However, this study looks at each episode without considering the integrity of the dispute. That is, if the disputes take two episodes, the coder codes the two episodes as two separate disputes instead of looking at it as one dispute.


Originality/value
By exploring various aspects of mediations shows, including the role of mediators, disputants and a cohort of observers, this study can both explicitly show predicted factors to successful mediations on the shows, and can implicitly examine the power and perceived justification of mediation in contemporary China via media.

Of over 7,000 known rare diseases, only 5% currently have an available treatment option worldwide. Moreover, the vast majority of rare disease patients in China have no access to treatment due to limited availability and the lack of appropriate infrastructure in China's healthcare system. Despite increased interest in orphan drug development, drug companies in China with active programs on drugs to treat rare diseases are still limited. Hence, there is a huge unmet need in China, with over 10 million patients suffering from rare diseases. Nonetheless, this has created unprecedented opportunities for the Chinese drug development market. Life science innovation in China has recently received a healthy boost from the 13th National Five-Year Plan and from on-going reform of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA). Rare diseases are now recognized as a national priority with increasing governmental support, creating tremendous opportunities for both domestic and multinational drug companies. China is anticipated to play an increasingly important role in the global fight against rare diseases. To ensure future success, Chinese drug companies should leverage the valuable knowledge assembled over the past three decades by Western countries in the area of orphan drug development.

Mestrado em Engenharia do Ambiente - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - UL ; Diffuse nitrogen (N) emissions from agriculture have been increasing for the past decades constituting a major environmental problem. Instruments have been implemented during the last years such as legislations, technologies and measures to reduce emissions, but the diversity of the cropping systems allied with the complex diffuse N pathways resulted in an overall inefficiency of these instruments. As such, a holistic approach is needed, being the system modelling one important tool for that. The Root Zone Water Quality Model was tested for a sandy soil (Haplic Arenosol) and a sandy loam soil (Haplic Cambisol), cultivated with winter oats (Avena Sativa L.) fertilized with dairy slurry. Field data was collected at Horto de Química Agrícola of the Instituto Superior de Agronomia in Lisbon, consisting of soil water, temperatures and drainage from 2014 to 2016. Data from previous studies (2012 to 2014) relative to nitrate leaching and N2O emissions was also used. The model was then used for scenario analysis. For the winter oats in the sandy soil, the model predicted soil water and drainage with efficiencies of 86 and 94 % respectively, while for nitrate fluxes below the root zone and the N2O emissions to the atmosphere efficiency was 89 and 93% respectively. For the sandy loam system, the calibrated model yielded efficiencies of 87, 94, 62, 76 and 85%, for the control variables. Scenario analysis showed the occurrence of pollution swapping as the hydrologic year changed from very dry to wet, decreasing the N lost through gaseous emissions. As to the temperature scenarios results show that for this type of production systems, the most unfavourable climate change scenario was A1B1 (+4ºC) may produce an increase of 25 and 18 % in the N gas loss contributions for the sandy loam and the sandy soil respectively ; N/A

Recognized as the most common inherited from of intellectual disability (ID) and the most common known monogenic cause of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is identified as an unmet medical need for the development of personalized medicine and targeted therapeutics for neurodevelopment disorders as a result of improved understanding of the genetic and cellular mechanisms. Consequently promising pharmacological targets have emerged from basic and translational research, are now being pursued by global pharmaceutical and biotech companies in early proof-of-concept clinical trials. With the world's largest rare disease population, China potentially has a large number of FXS patients, many of whom are under-diagnosed or even misdiagnosed, barely with any treatment. In spite of improved awareness of FXS in recent years, big gaps still exist between China and developed countries in multiple aspects. With increased public awareness, strong government support and investment, coupled with an increasingly large number of Western-trained experienced researchers engaging in new drug discovery and development, China has the potential to become an important player in the discovery of effective diagnostics and treatments for a rare disease like FXS.

In 2004, China became the third largest trading economy in the world. Although official overall average import tariff rate was reduced to 9.9% as of January 2005, actual tariff rates are likely much lower. Although further tariff reductions may lead to renewed and expanded global trade growth, trade facilitation will play an increasingly important role in promoting global trade. Costs associated with implementation of trade facilitation measures may be classified into four categories: new regulations, institutional changes, training, and equipment and infrastructure. The study was generally not able to determine costs of specific trade facilitation measures in China. However, Customs and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) are the two government departments that are most deeply involved in trade facilitation, and a review of their expenditures in this field provides useful information on equipment/infrastructure costs that may be associated with implementing modern trade facilitation systems.