Collective Memory
Félix Krawatzek
Scholarship on collective memory from an explicit political science perspective has expanded over the last decade. This growth speaks to political dynamics unfolding across the world, as history has once again become part of political confrontations. The ongoing dispute about an acceptable name for Macedonia, the role of truth commissions in post-conflict societies, and the international tensions stemming from the memories of Japanese aggression on the Asian continent during the Asia-Pacific War illustrate that political science needs to include questions of collective memory in its analysis. Although political science’s focus on collective memory is new, it would be erroneous to believe that memory has started to shape politics only recently. The study of the societal significance of present-day representations of past narratives has a long history. Its intellectual forebears can be found notably in late-19th-century French sociology, and the topic has gained in prominence in the humanities and sociology since the 1980s and is now marching into the political sciences. This latter expansion also changes the methods and research strategies that scholarship on collective memory employs. Nevertheless, studying collective memory will remain an inherently interdisciplinary endeavor and uniquely integrates the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. Given the field’s quick shifts, a number of central conceptual tools retain an elasticity less common in other branches of the discipline. Meanwhile, the number of topics that can be approached through the prism of collective memory is inexhaustible. The field is therefore held together primarily by its underlying conceptual apparatus. Conceptual clarity is thus particularly relevant for a dialogue within and across the disciplines, and also to integrate the insights related to collective memory generated in political and social theory. The state of the scholarship illustrates, however, that studies of collective memory have overwhelmingly been motivated by empirical puzzles and at times continue to analyze memory as being a tangible phenomenon. While not necessarily shortcomings, many of the empirical contributions have thereby shied away from a more thorough theoretical investigation.
Geological reconstructions of the East Asian blocks: From the breakup of Rodinia to the assembly of Pangea
Guochun Zhao, Yuejun Wang, Baochun Huang
et al.
Abstract Pangea is the youngest supercontinent in Earth's history and its main body formed by assembly of Gondwana and Laurasia about 300–250 Ma ago. As supported by voluminous evidence from reliable geological, paleomagnetic and paleontological data, configurations of major continental blocks in Pangea have been widely accepted. However, controversy has long surrounded the reconstructions of East Asian blocks in Pangea. To determine whether or not the East Asian blocks were assembled to join Pangea before its breakup, we carried out geological and paleomagnetic investigations on East Asian blocks and associated orogenic belts, supported by a NSFC Major Program entitle “Reconstructions of East Asian blocks in Pangea”. Our results indicate that the breakup of Rodinia around 750 Ma ago led to the opening of the Proto-Tethys and Paleo-Asian oceans in East Asia, with the former separating the South China, North China, Alex Qaidam and Tarim blocks from other East Asian blocks at the margins of Australia and India, whereas the Paleo-Asian Ocean existed between the East Asian blocks and Siberia-Eastern Europe. The Proto-Tethys Ocean closed in the early Paleozoic (500–420 Ma), leading to the collision of South China, North China, Alex, Qaidam and Tarim with other East Asian blocks at the northern margin of Gondwana. The subduction of the Paleo-Asian Ocean formed the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, the largest accretionary orogen in Earth's history, and its closure was diachronous, with its western, central and eastern segments closing at 310–280 Ma, 280–265 Ma and 260–245 Ma, respectively, leading the Tarim, Alex and North China blocks to join Eastern Europe-Siberia as part of Pangea. During the early Devonian (420–380 ma), the East Paleo-Tethys Ocean opened with two branches, of which the north branch is called the Mianlue Ocean that separated the Tarim-Qaidam-Central Qilian-Alex and North China blocks in the north from North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China in the south, and the south branch is the stricto sensu East Paleo-Tethys Ocean that separated North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China from the Sibumasu and South Qiangtang-Lhasa blocks at the northern margin of Gondwana. In the Triassic, the East Paleo-Tethys Ocean (stricto sensu) closed along the Longmu Co – Shuanghu – Changning – Menglian – Inthanon belt, leading to the collision of North Qiangtang-Indochina-South China with Sibumasu and South Qiangtang-Lhasa, forming a single southern continent, which then collided with the Tarim-Qaidam-Central Qilian-Alex and North China blocks to form a coherent East Asian continent that had become part of Pangea by 220 Ma, when the Mianlue Ocean closed, leading to the formation of the E-W-trending Central China Orogenic System.
Late Jurassic–Cenozoic reconstructions of the Indonesian region and the Indian Ocean
R. Hall
Abstract The heterogeneous Sundaland region was assembled by closure of Tethyan oceans and addition of continental fragments. Its Mesozoic and Cenozoic history is illustrated by a new plate tectonic reconstruction. A continental block (Luconia–Dangerous Grounds) rifted from east Asia was added to eastern Sundaland north of Borneo in the Cretaceous. Continental blocks that originated in western Australia from the Late Jurassic are now in Borneo, Java and Sulawesi. West Burma was not rifted from western Australia in the Jurassic. The Banda (SW Borneo) and Argo (East Java–West Sulawesi) blocks separated from western Australia and collided with the SE Asian margin between 110 and 90 Ma, and at 90 Ma the Woyla intra-oceanic arc collided with the Sumatra margin. Subduction beneath Sundaland terminated at this time. A marked change in deep mantle structure at about 110°E reflects different subduction histories north of India and Australia since 90 Ma. India and Australia were separated by a transform boundary that was leaky from 90 to 75 Ma and slightly convergent from 75 to 55 Ma. From 80 Ma, India moved rapidly north with north-directed subduction within Tethys and at the Asian margin. It collided with an intra-oceanic arc at about 55 Ma, west of Sumatra, and continued north to collide with Asia in the Eocene. Between 90 and 45 Ma Australia remained close to Antarctica and there was no significant subduction beneath Sumatra and Java. During this interval Sundaland was largely surrounded by inactive margins with some strike-slip deformation and extension, except for subduction beneath Sumba–West Sulawesi between 63 and 50 Ma. At 45 Ma Australia began to move north; subduction resumed beneath Indonesia and has continued to the present. There was never an active or recently active ridge subducted in the Late Cretaceous or Cenozoic beneath Sumatra and Java. The slab subducted between Sumatra and east Indonesia in the Cenozoic was Cretaceous or older, except at the very western end of the Sunda Arc where Cenozoic lithosphere has been subducted in the last 20 million years. Cenozoic deformation of the region was influenced by the deep structure of Australian fragments added to the Sundaland core, the shape of the Australian margin formed during Jurassic rifting, and the age of now-subducted ocean lithosphere within the Australian margin.
The State of the World's Mangrove Forests: Past, Present, and Future
D. Friess, Kerrylee Rogers, C. Lovelock
et al.
Intertidal mangrove forests are a dynamic ecosystem experiencing rapid changes in extent and habitat quality over geological history, today and into the future. Climate and sea level have drastically altered mangrove distribution since their appearance in the geological record ∼75 million years ago (Mya), through to the Holocene. In contrast, contemporary mangrove dynamics are driven primarily by anthropogenic threats, including pollution, overextraction, and conversion to aquaculture and agriculture. Deforestation rates have declined in the past decade, but the future of mangroves is uncertain; new deforestation frontiers are opening, particularly in Southeast Asia and West Africa, despite international conservation policies and ambitious global targets for rehabilitation. In addition, geological and climatic processes such as sea-level rise that were important over geological history will continue to influence global mangrove distribution in the future. Recommendations are given to reframe mangrove conservation, with a view to improving the state of mangroves in the future.
Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture
Yang He, Yi Yin, M. Zech
et al.
Epidemiology of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: a systematic review
J. Dent, H. El‐Serag, M. Wallander
et al.
The East Asian Financial Crisis: Diagnosis, Remedies, Prospects
S. Radelet, J. Sachs
The Great Divergence
K. Pomeranz
"The Great Divergence" brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia? As Ken Pomeranz shows, as recently as 1750, parallels between these two parts of the world were very high in life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. Perhaps most surprisingly, Pomeranz demonstrates that the Chinese and Japanese cores were no worse off ecologically than Western Europe. Core areas throughout the eighteenth-century Old World faced comparable local shortages of land-intensive products, shortages that were only partly resolved by trade.Pomeranz argues that Europe's nineteenth-century divergence from the Old World owes much to the fortunate location of coal, which substituted for timber. This made Europe's failure to use its land intensively much less of a problem, while allowing growth in energy-intensive industries. Another crucial difference that he notes has to do with trade. Fortuitous global conjunctures made the Americas a greater source of needed primary products for Europe than any Asian periphery. This allowed Northwest Europe to grow dramatically in population, specialize further in manufactures, and remove labor from the land, using increased imports rather than maximizing yields. Together, coal and the New World allowed Europe to grow along resource-intensive, labor-saving paths.Meanwhile, Asia hit a cul-de-sac. Although the East Asian hinterlands boomed after 1750, both in population and in manufacturing, this growth prevented these peripheral regions from exporting vital resources to the cloth-producing Yangzi Delta. As a result, growth in the core of East Asia's economy essentially stopped, and what growth did exist was forced along labor-intensive, resource-saving paths--paths Europe could have been forced down, too, had it not been for favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas.
1673 sitasi
en
Economics, Political Science
Randomised trial of a perindopril-based blood-pressure-lowering regimen among 6,105 individuals with previous stroke or transient ischaemic attack.
S. MacMahon, B. Neal, C. Tzourio
et al.
Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication
B. Vonholdt, J. Pollinger, K. Lohmueller
et al.
748 sitasi
en
Medicine, Biology
Second Asia–Pacific Consensus Guidelines for Helicobacter pylori infection
K. Fock, P. Katelaris, K. Sugano
et al.
<em>Mister</em> Bang en la literatura coreana de la liberación
Álvaro Trigo Maldonado
El siguiente trabajo presenta una traducción del cuento “Miseuto Bang” 미스터 방 (Mister Bang) (1946), de Chae Mansik, una obra clásica del periodo de la liberación de Corea aún no publicada en español. El estudio incluye un análisis interpretativo que explora el significado del cuento en el contexto histórico en que emerge y reflexiona sobre el proceso de descolonización que propone el autor desde la lente de la ficción. Este análisis pretende enfatizar la importancia histórica y cultural de esta obra y aportar a los lectores un entendimiento de su temática y su perspectiva.
History of Asia, History of Africa
Anxiety and depression among patients with migraine: A single-center cross-sectional study in Malaysia.
Sathiapriya Padmanathan, Juen Kiem Tan, Chen Fei Ng
et al.
<h4>Background</h4>Migraine is a chronic neurological problem with a psychological comorbidity. However, anxiety and depression among patients with migraine have not been thoroughly investigated in Southeast Asia. Thus, we aimed to elucidate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with migraine, as well as the associated factors.<h4>Methods</h4>This cross-sectional study was conducted between March 2022 and March 2024 at the National University of Malaysia. The participants' data were collected prior to completing two questionnaires, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), which were used to evaluate depression and anxiety, respectively.<h4>Results</h4>A total of 246 participants who were diagnosed with migraine were recruited for this study. The mean age of the participants was 46.19 years (SD: ± 14.75). Additionally, 77.6% of the participants were female. Moreover, 27.7% of the participants had anxiety alone, 15.9% had depression alone, and 11.8% had both anxiety and depression. A younger age (p = 0.03), earlier age of migraine onset (r(246) -0.178, p < 0.01), background history of asthma (r(246) 0.161, p < 0.05), lower household income range (r(246) -0.179, p < 0.01), increased pain severity (r(246) 0.211, p < 0.01), frequency of attack (r(246) 0.139, p < 0.05), use of NSAIDs (r(246) 0.134, p < 0.05), use of pizotifen (r(246) 0.169, p < 0.01), use of propranolol (r(246) 0.286, p < 0.01), use of sodium valproate (r(246) 0.146, p < 0.05), use of topiramate (r(246) 0.178, p < 0.01), use of more than one medication (r(246) 0.240, p < 0.01), use of cold therapy (r(246) 0.223, p < 0.01) and use of acupuncture (r(246) 0.260, p < 0.01) were associated with anxiety and depression in migraine patients.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Anxiety and depression are commonly observed in patients with migraine in Asia. Routine assessments for anxiety and depression should be performed to ensure holistic management of migraine.
Development and validation of a predictive model for assessing the risk of recurrence in patients with Klebsiella pneumoniae-induced pyogenic liver abscess
Liyong Zhang, Jiaqi Chen, Yihao Qu
et al.
Abstract Background Pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection of the liver that can cause suppurative lesions. Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is the primary pathogen responsible for causing PLA in China and across the Asia-Pacific region. Although various treatment modalities, including antimicrobial therapy combined with percutaneous drainage, have significantly reduced mortality in patients with KP-induced liver abscess (KPLA), recurrence remains a persistent clinical challenge. This study identified the risk factors, developed a predictive model for assessing the risk of recurrence in patients with KPLA, and constructed a nomogram for model visualization. Methods This retrospective study analyzed clinical data from 486 patients with KPLA admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical University between June 1, 2015, and June 1, 2024. The patient population was randomly stratified in a 7:3 ratio into training (n = 340) and validation (n = 146) cohorts. The risk factors for recurrence in patients with KPLA were identified through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. A predictive model was constructed, and its predictive accuracy was evaluated based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and analyses of calibration, decision, and clinical impact curves. A nomogram was additionally developed for model visualization. Results Among the 486 enrolled patients, 64 (13.2%) experienced recurrence (recurrence group), while the remaining 422 patients were included in the non-recurrence group. The predictive model integrated five independent risk factors, including a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), malignant neoplasm, cerebral infarction, septic shock, and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. The model demonstrated excellent calibration (Hosmer-Lemesow χ² = 5.301, P = 0.623), achieving AUC values of 0.824 and 0.819 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The clinical utility of the model was further confirmed through analysis of the decision and clinical impact curves. Conclusion A history of T2DM, malignant neoplasm, cerebral infarction, septic shock, and the SOFA score serve as independent predictive factors for assessing the risk of recurrence in patients with KPLA. The predictive model, constructed based on these factors, can effectively estimate the risk of recurrence in patients with KPLA, thereby facilitating the identification of high-risk populations.
Infectious and parasitic diseases
Elevating Pakistan’s flood preparedness: a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach
Zeshan Alam, Yousaf Ali, Dragan Pamucar
Abstract In South Asia, Pakistan has a long and deadly history of floods that cause losses to various infrastructures, lives, and industries. This study aims to identify the most appropriate flood risk mitigation strategies that the government of Pakistan should adopt. The assessment of flood risk mitigation strategies in this study is based on certain criteria, which are analyzed using the fuzzy full consistency method. Moreover, flood risk mitigation strategies are evaluated by using the fuzzy weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method, considering previously prioritized criteria. According to the results, lack of governance, lack of funding and resources, and lack of flood control infrastructure are the most significant flood intensifying factors and act as major criteria for assessing flood risk mitigation strategies in Pakistan. Adopting hard engineering strategies (e.g., dams, reservoirs, river straightening and dredging, embankments, and flood relief channels), maintaining existing infrastructure, and adopting soft engineering strategies (flood plain zoning, comprehensive flood risk assessment, and sophisticated flood modeling) are identified as the top three flood risk mitigation strategies by the fuzzy WASPAS method. The highest weight (0.98) was assigned to the adoption of hard engineering strategies to mitigate flood risks. The study introduces a novel dimension by analyzing the real-time impact of the unprecedented 2022 floods, during which approximately one-third of the nation was submerged. This focus on a recent and highly significant event enhances the study’s relevance and contributes a unique perspective to the existing literature on flood risk management. The study recommends that the government of Pakistan should prioritize hard engineering strategies for effective flood risk mitigation. It also recommends that the government should incorporate these strategies in the national policy framework to reduce flood losses in the future.
The climatic cyclicity in semiarid‐arid central Asia over the past 500,000 years
Hai Cheng, Pingzhong Zhang, C. Spötl
et al.
390 sitasi
en
Environmental Science, Geology
Inflammatory bowel disease in Asia: A systematic review
L. Prideaux, M. Kamm, P. De Cruz
et al.
Historical Biogeography of Earwigs
Simone Fattorini
The Dermaptera are an insect order exhibiting their highest diversity in the tropical areas of the southern hemisphere. This pattern has been considered a reflection of a Gondwanan origin. However, this hypothesis has not been tested through analytical methods. In this paper, the world distribution of earwigs was analysed by using the ‘Cladistic Analysis of Distributions and Endemism’ (CADE), a method which groups areas of endemism on the basis of shared distributions and phylogenetic relationships among taxa. In addition, clustering techniques were applied to depict biotic relationships based on similarity indices. Results of CADE support the idea that Gondwanan fragmentation exerted a crucial role in shaping the current distribution of the main clades of earwigs. However, the relationships between India with South East Asia suggested a biotic interchange occurred after the Indian collision with the Eurasian plate. The overall scenario emerging from cluster analyses revealed a strong influence of dispersal events. Overall, the distribution of earwig major clades indicates that their biogeographical history was mainly characterized by vicariance events (led by the break-up of Gondwana) followed by large scale dispersal processes constrained by the Himalayan orogenesis and the presence of colder temperatures, which have largely hampered the colonization of the northern hemisphere.
Origin and diffusion of human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267
Hovhannes Sahakyan, Ashot Margaryan, Lauri Saag
et al.
Abstract Human Y chromosome haplogroup J1-M267 is a common male lineage in West Asia. One high-frequency region—encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, southern Mesopotamia, and the southern Levant—resides ~ 2000 km away from the other one found in the Caucasus. The region between them, although has a lower frequency, nevertheless demonstrates high genetic diversity. Studies associate this haplogroup with the spread of farming from the Fertile Crescent to Europe, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula, the history of the Jews, and the spread of Islam. Here, we study past human male demography in West Asia with 172 high-coverage whole Y chromosome sequences and 889 genotyped samples of haplogroup J1-M267. We show that this haplogroup evolved ~ 20,000 years ago somewhere in northwestern Iran, the Caucasus, the Armenian Highland, and northern Mesopotamia. The major branch—J1a1a1-P58—evolved during the early Holocene ~ 9500 years ago somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and southern Mesopotamia. Haplogroup J1-M267 expanded during the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Most probably, the spread of Afro-Asiatic languages, the spread of mobile pastoralism in the arid zones, or both of these events together explain the distribution of haplogroup J1-M267 we see today in the southern regions of West Asia.
A case of long-term herbivory: specialized feeding trace on Parrotia (Hamamelidaceae) plant species
Benjamin Adroit, Xin Zhuang, Torsten Wappler
et al.
Interactions between plants and insects evolved during millions of years of coevolution and maintain the trophic balance of terrestrial ecosystems. Documenting insect damage types (DT) on fossil leaves is essential for understanding the evolution of plant–insect interactions and for understanding the effects of major environmental changes on ecosystem structure. However, research focusing on palaeoherbivory is still sparse and only a tiny fraction of fossil leaf collections have been analysed. This study documents a type of insect damage found exclusively on the leaves of Parrotia species (Hamamelidaceae). This DT was identified on Parrotia leaves from Willershausen (Germany, Pliocene) and from Shanwang (China, Miocene) and on their respective endemic modern relatives: Parrotia perisca in the Hyrcanian forests (Iran) and Parrotia subaequalis in the Yixing forest (China). Our study demonstrates that this insect DT persisted over at least 15 Myr spanning eastern Asia to western Europe. Against expectations, more examples of this type of herbivory were identified on the fossil leaves than on the modern examples. This mismatch may suggest a decline of this specialized plant–insect interaction owing to the contraction of Parrotia populations in Eurasia during the late Cenozoic. However, the continuous presence of this DT demonstrates a robust and long-term plant–herbivore association, and provides new evidence for a shared biogeographic history of the two host plants.