From isolated dams to basin governance platforms: China’s dam reforms suggest a new model for hydraulic governance
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Oct-2026 02:16 ET (27-Oct-2026 06:16 GMT/UTC)
The article reframes dams as basin governance platforms through three interconnected pathways: engineering safety as the baseline, addressing sedimentation and structural risks; system operations as the core, shifting from single-purpose management to multiobjective coordination across safety, ecology, and public benefits; and digital-intelligent governance as the frontier, institutionalizing transparent and anticipatory decision-making. Drawing on China's experience with approximately 95,000 reservoirs, the authors demonstrate how this platform model can enhance resilience, ecological integrity, and public accountability. The framework offers transferable principles for global hydraulic infrastructure governance, contingent upon enabling institutional, financial, and data conditions.
A novel EMS-induced barley male-sterile mutant (N13401) was identified and characterized, and it shows defective pollen starch accumulation. The male sterility gene msgN13401 was fine-mapped to a 576.9 kb region on chromosome 2H using a wild-cultivated barley cross to overcome the low polymorphism of cultivated barley.
Single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of equine skeletal muscle reveals donkey and horse distinct cell types, with species-specific age-related shifts in muscle fiber composition. The conserved upregulation pattern of LDHA reveals the critical role of propanoate metabolism in energy supply for equine locomotion. Cross-species transcriptomic comparison delineates a highly conserved atlas of skeletal muscle cell types.
Researchers developed an exosome-loaded microneedle patch that significantly accelerates oral ulcer healing. By enabling localized and sustained delivery, the patch reduces inflammation and promotes tissue regeneration. Multi-omics analysis reveals that the treatment works by modulating macrophage–epithelial interactions through the TSP-1/CD47/NF-κB signaling pathway.
Researchers found that a small change in 3D-printing settings can help produce better-fitting permanent dental crowns. Crowns printed at moderate angles performed best overall. Thinner layers improved accuracy and fit, while thicker layers produced more consistent results across repeated prints.
Quantum particles in imperfect or quasiperiodic environments may spread, become localized, or enter critical states with fractal wave functions. These behaviors can combine into seven fundamental localization phases, but a unified framework for all of them has been missing. A team led by Prof. Xiong-Jun Liu at Peking University has now developed a generic spin-1/2 quasiperiodic system that captures all the fundamental phases, proves three theorems, constructs new exactly solvable models, and proposes the implementation with ultracold atoms in optical Raman lattices.