Hydrogeological typologies of the Indo-Gangetic basin alluvial aquifer, South Asia

The Indo-Gangetic aquifer is one of the world’s most important transboundary water resources, and the most heavily exploited aquifer in the world. To better understand the aquifer system, typologies have been characterized for the aquifer, which integrate existing datasets across the Indo-Gangetic catchment basin at a transboundary scale for the first time, and provide an alternative conceptualization of this aquifer system. Traditionally considered and mapped as a single homogenous aquifer of comparable aquifer properties and groundwater resource at a transboundary scale, the typologies illuminate significant spatial differences in recharge, permeability, storage, and groundwater chemistry across the aquifer system at this transboundary scale. These changes are shown to be systematic, concurrent with large-scale changes in sedimentology of the Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial aquifer, climate, and recent irrigation practices. Seven typologies of the aquifer are presented, each having a distinct set of challenges and opportunities for groundwater development and a different resilience to abstraction and climate change. The seven typologies are: (1) the piedmont margin, (2) the Upper Indus and Upper-Mid Ganges, (3) the Lower Ganges and Mid Brahmaputra, (4) the fluvially influenced deltaic area of the Bengal Basin, (5) the Middle Indus and Upper Ganges, (6) the Lower Indus, and (7) the marine-influenced deltaic areas

Characterization and Quantification of Vortex Flow in the Human Left Ventricle by Contrast Echocardiography Using Vector Particle Image Velocimetry.

The aims of this study were to: 1) assess the feasibility of left ventricular (LV) vortex flow analysis using contrast echocardiography (CE); and 2) characterize and quantify LV vortex flow in normal subjects and patients with LV systolic dysfunction. Vortices that form during LV filling have specific geometry and anatomical locations that are critical determinants of directed blood flow during ejection. Therefore, it is clinically relevant to assess the vortex flow patterns to better understand the LV function. Twenty-five patients (10 normal and 15 patients with abnormal LV systolic function) underwent CE with intravenous contrast agent, Definity (Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, Inc., North Billerica, Massachusetts). The velocity vector and vorticity were estimated by particle image velocimetry. Average vortex parameters including vortex depth, transverse position, length, width, and sphericity index were measured. Vortex pulsatility parameters including relative strength, vortex relative strength, and vortex pulsation correlation were also estimated. Vortex depth and vortex length were significantly lower in the abnormal LV function group. Vortex width was greater and sphericity index was lower in the abnormal LV function group. Relative strength, vortex relative strength, and vortex pulsation correlation were significantly lower in the abnormal LV function group. It was feasible to quantify LV vorticity arrangement by CE using particle image velocimetry in normal subjects and those with LV systolic dysfunction, and the vorticity imaging by CE may serve as a novel approach to depict vortex, the principal quantity to assess the flow structure

Innovation in and from emerging economies: new insights and lessons for international business research

This article argues that innovation in and from emerging economies is largely shaped by the challenges of sustained catching-up with the advanced economies. Just as firms and industries are constantly seeking to upgrade their technological and organizational capabilities, so too are their societies reconfiguring their institutions and networks to improve their knowledge resources. Such a co-evolutionary process requires IB scholars to draw on interdisciplinary work from the innovation and development literatures in order to reconsider the key drivers of innovation at multiple levels within these economies. Innovation is not just limited to technological activities, but includes organizational and transactional improvements, and is largely a process of recombination of local and imported knowledge, shared through multiple forms of collaboration. This can redefine the FSAs of local and foreign firms, often shaped by the strategies of local public and private actors. Simultaneously, policymakers need to develop the appropriate institutions needed to underpin R&D, training, standards, and knowledge coordination. MNEs play unique roles as instigators of innovation, as conduits for new knowledge, and as beneficiaries themselves, via their own recombination capabilities