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Infiltration and groundwater have been widely considered as the main factors that cause shallow landslides; however, the effect of runoff has received less attention. In this study, an in-house physical-process-based shallow landslide model is developed to demonstrate the influence of runoff. The model is controlled by coupling the shallow water equation (dynamic) and Richards’ equation. An infinite slope stability analysis is applied to evaluate the possibility of regional landslides. A real, small catchment topography is adopted as a demonstration example. The simulation illustrates the variations of runoff and the factor of safety (FS) during a storm. The results indicate that, after the surface becomes saturated, the FS may keep varying due to the increasing pressure head, which is caused by increasing surface water depth. This phenomenon most likely occurs downstream where the slopes easily accumulate water. The depth of the surface water may also be a factor of slope failure. Therefore, it is essential to increase the accuracy of calculating the runoff depth when assessing regional shallow landslides.

This volume of the 2003 Proceedings of the CRF-Rand Conference contains the unedited papers presented by experts from both China and the U.S., as well as some of the discussant remarks about these papers. Contents: China's Economy, Beyond 2003; Review and Prospect: China's Economy in the SARS Period and Post-SARS Period; U.S. Economic Lookout; Analysis of American Economic Trend (2003-2004); Summary Observations on "The U.S. Economic Outlook;" The Status Quo and Prospect of China's Banking Industry; China's Financial Sector: Challenges and Repercussions; Analysis of China's New Path of Industrialization from a Global Perspective; Remarks on Huang Funzhang's Paper Entitled Analysis of China's New Path of Industrialization from a Global Perspective; Bashing China by Clubbing Multinational Corporations; New Elements in China-U.S. Strategic Relations., ISBN 0-8330-3843-5. Additional funding number DASW01-01-C-004.

The focus of this research is the potential adversities or fault lines (the terms are used synonymously) facing China's economy and affecting its prospects for sustaining high growth through the coming decade. Thus, we deliberately concentrate on what might go seriously awry in the economy and, in the process, slow or even reverse China's double-digit growth rates in the 1980s and high single-digit growth in the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century. This book is the product of a project jointly sponsored by the Office of Net Assessment in the Department of Defense and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Their sponsorship was based on a mutual understanding that their joint support would enable the work to be expanded beyond what would have been possible if funding were confined to one sponsor alone. The project was implemented through RAND's National Defense Research Institute (NDRI), a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies. The book should be of interest and use to those in the policy community and the academic community concerned with China and with the economic and security environment in the Asia-Pacific region.

A proteomic examination of Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021 was undertaken using a combination of 2-D gel electrophoresis, peptide mass fingerprinting, and bioinformatics. Our goal was to identify (i) putative symbiosis- or nutrientstress-specific proteins, (ii) the biochemical pathways active under different conditions, (iii) potential new genes, and (iv) the extent of posttranslational modifications of S. meliloti proteins. In total, we identified the protein products of 810 genes (13.1% of the genome's coding capacity). The 810 genes generated 1,180 gene products, with chromosomal genes accounting for 78% of the gene products identified (18.8% of the chromosome's coding capacity). The activity of 53 metabolic pathways was inferred from bioinformatic analysis of proteins with assigned Enzyme Commission numbers. Of the remaining proteins that did not encode enzymes, ABC-type transporters composed 12.7% and regulatory proteins 3.4% of the total. Proteins with up to seven transmembrane domains were identified in membrane preparations. A total of 27 putative nodulespecific proteins and 35 nutrient-stress-specific proteins were identified and used as a basis to define genes and describe processes occurring in S. meliloti cells in nodules and under stress. Several nodule proteins from the plant host were present in the nodule bacteria preparations. We also identified seven potentially novel proteins not predicted from the DNA sequence. Post-translational modifications such as N-terminal processing could be inferred from the data. The posttranslational addition of UMP to the key regulator of nitrogen metabolism, PII, was demonstrated. This work demonstrates the utility of combining mass spectrometry with protein arraying or separation techniques to identify candidate genes involved in important biological processes and niche occupations that may be intransigent to other methods of gene expression profiling.

The scarcity of usable nitrogen frequently limits plant growth. A tight metabolic association with rhizobial bacteria allows legumes to obtain nitrogen compounds by bacterial reduction of dinitrogen (N2) to ammonium (NH4+). We present here the annotated DNA sequence of the alpha-proteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, the symbiont of alfalfa. The tripartite 6.7-megabase (Mb) genome comprises a 3.65-Mb chromosome, and 1.35-Mb pSymA and 1.68-Mb pSymB megaplasmids. Genome sequence analysis indicates that all three elements contribute, in varying degrees, to symbiosis and reveals how this genome may have emerged during evolution. The genome sequence will be useful in understanding the dynamics of interkingdom associations and of life in soil environments.

This report is the final product of a project dealing with the security implications of Asia's financial and economic turmoil. After considering the sharp economic reversals suffered in the Asian region in 1997 and 1998, and the marked but widely varying evidence of significant recovery among the different countries of the region, the report considers the medium- and longer-term trends with respect to economic growth, military spending, and military investment in five countries in the greater Asian area: Japan, China, India, South Korea, and Indonesia. The five countries included in this study were selected by agreement with the sponsors from a larger set addressed in RAND's previous analyses in 1989 and 1995 of long-term economic and military trends. India, a South Asian country, was included along with the four principal East Asian countries in light of its size and enhanced military prominence.