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The article discusses a research misconduct case that damaged the reputation of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, Japan. Topics include papers on pluripotent stem cells in the journal "Nature" that discussed the use of the stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) technique by biochemist Haruko Obokata, a committee report led by materials scientist Teruo Kishi, and the impact of media scrutiny on the scandal.

The article presents Shanghai, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with Fudan University as the city's largest contributing institution. Fudan is strongest in materials chemistry with papers on composite nanofibers used in lithium batteries and nanotubes as cathode materials for rechargeable batteries. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is most open to collaboration with other institutes in chemistry and life sciences.

The article presents Hong Kong's contribution to China's Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific papers published in 2013, with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as the city's largest contributing institution. HKU's main outputs are in microbiology, with topics such as the infectivity and transmission of avian and swine influenza viruses. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's papers deal mainly with the physical sciences, such as graphene and metamaterials.

The article presents Hefei, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) as the city's largest contributing institution. USTC's contributed papers include topics on chemistry such as the development of graphene-like materials and carbon aerogels, and on physics like quantum optics. The Hefei University of Technology focused on engineering topics like nanowires.

The article presents the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the world's largest scientific organization with researchers and institutes spread across China, led by the Institute of Chemistry, Institute of Physics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences. Chemistry papers were top contributors to the country's Nature Index while life science articles command a dominant share in journal publications.

The article presents Changchun, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with Jilin University as the city's largest contributing institution. Jilin's outputs include the design and synthesis of porous materials for water purification applications. Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry's papers include topics on artificial enzymes, catalysis and cell imaging and development of enzymatic fuel cells to produce energy.

The article focuses on global academic-industrial collaborations. It comments on the trend of businesses clustering around top universities and states technology clusters can include larger corporate research centers, university spin-off businesses, and collaborative university-industry research initiatives. It includes charts showing regional clusters of business-academic collaboration and a graph of interactions between regional institutional clusters with corporate relations mixed in.

The article examines cooperative research and if government initiatives are the best method of promoting interdisciplinary and international connections. It comments on the Japanese Government's World Premier International Research Center Initiative which has focused on astrophysics and astronomy, geosciences, and high-energy physics. It talks about rules in the European Union designed to improve the performance of states with weaker science records and mentions research into climate modeling.

The article presents a profile of the activities and administration of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as of 2015, highlighting its reappraisal of research evaluation methods. Topics addressed include an overview of the size and scope of the Academy's research and organizational reach, its transition away from relying on quantitative metrics and ranking for research evaluation, and how it is seeking to promote more cooperation and communication between fellow members of its institutes.

The article focuses on souring relations between Russia and Western countries and how Russian President Vladimir Putin's isolationism and anti-Western rhetoric may negatively impact Russian science. It states Russian research institutes and universities have started to instruct scientists to gain permission from the Federal Security Services prior to submitting papers or giving talks at scientific conferences. It mentions concerns of foreign-funded foundations they could be placed on a list of undesirable organizations.

The article argues that research institutions and colleges and universities must be transparent in the construction and use of metrics utilized in scientific research. It discusses a British report on the use of research metrics authored in part by British scholar James Wilsdon, the importance of peer review in academia, and public accessibility to academic citations and outputs in research.

The article discusses the warnings issued by the Francis Crick Institute, a medical research center in London, England, which held that vibrations and electromagnetic fields generated by the proposed Crossrail 2 could interfere with scientific work. The warnings first emerged from the Medical Research Council, owner of major shares of the Crick's construction budget and will move staff from the National Institute of Medical Research. Details of the proposed construction are noted.

The article reports on the opening of the Attosecond Science Laboratory at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in February 2015. The facility hosts an attosecond laser which generates ultrashort pulses of light that can image invisible electrons as they move similarly fast within atoms. The facility is the result of a 2008 collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany and the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including European Union countries trying to rebuild research capacities and Central Europe lagging behind in scientific output.

The article presents Nanjing, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with Nanjing University as the city's largest contributing institution. Nanjing's outputs include topics on fluorescent sensors with bioimaging applications, electrochemiluminescence, and astrophysics. Southeast University has the second largest output focused on physical sciences, with articles dealing with transformation optics in stealth devices.

The article presents Guangzhou, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with Sun Yat-Sen University's (SYSU) School of Medicine as the city's largest contributing institution. SYSU's outputs are on chemistry with topics on metal-organic frameworks used for water decontamination. The focus of Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health is medical research with index output split between chemistry and life sciences.