The Tibetan Plateau (TP), known as the "Asian Water Tower," is currently undergoing a rapid wetting trend. While this moisture increase is often viewed as beneficial for water availability, it remains unclear whether the hydrological system itself is becoming more resilient or drifting toward instability. Here, we apply an entropy-based framework to quantify the changing structural organization of the TP's soil moisture system. We show that from 2000 to 2024, regional wetting has driven a long-term decline in entropy, reflecting an increase in system order and stability due to enhanced hydrological buffering capacity. This stability is modulated by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which regulates regional heterogeneity via a distinct spatial dipole. Crucially, however, CMIP6 climate projections reveal an alarming reversal: future warming triggers a rise in entropy. This transition signals a loss of systemic resilience, characterized by intensified spatial disorder and potential abrupt regime shifts by the mid-century. Our findings suggest that while current wetting provides a stabilizing buffer, continued warming is projected to amplify spatial heterogeneity, thereby destabilizing the Asian Water Tower, with significant risks for downstream water security.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the dynamics of social research and posed various challenges for researchers working in the field. Studies have highlighted different methodological challenges posed by the pandemic; in particular, issues of trust and rapport building with participants in online and in-person interviews require further exploration. Very few studies are available on these aspects from the socio-cultural context of low-income countries, where issues of trust, rapport building and internet connectivity further complicate matters. To address this gap, I reflect upon my experiences from my doctoral fieldwork on “Gender arrangements and subjective experiences of female breadwinning couples (FBCs) in Pakistan”. The pandemic hindered my access to research participants and the research locality, necessitating a switch to online interviewing. I conducted 15 interviews offline before the pandemic and 12 interviews online during the pandemic. My reflexive account demonstrates how trust and rapport building with participants in online (via Zoom and WhatsApp) and in-person interviews are linked with the issues of researcher positionality, internet connectivity, gathering of rich data, nature of the research topic, and larger cultural and structural barriers. My fieldwork experiences show that online tools do not necessarily flatten existing power hierarchies and patriarchal challenges; instead, they introduce new layers of complexities and can exacerbate existing social barriers. The experiences discussed in this paper produce multiple insights, including the challenges of conducting interviews in both private and public spaces, the complex role of researcher positionality, nuanced ways in which gender norms shape participants’ willingness to participate in a research study, and the limitations of online interviewing in cultural contexts like Pakistan.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
Monchai Kooakachai, Tiwakorn Chapalee, Chairat Thitiyan
et al.
DNA databases are widely used in forensic science to identify unknown offenders. When no exact match is found, familial DNA searches can help by identifying first-degree relatives using likelihood ratios. If multiple subpopulations are relevant, likelihood ratios can be computed separately based on allele frequency estimates. Various strategies exist to combine these ratios, such as averaging allele frequencies or taking the average, maximum, or minimum likelihood ratio. While some comparisons have been made in populations like those in the U.S., their effectiveness in other regions remains unclear. This study evaluates likelihood ratio-based strategies in Southeast Asian populations, specifically Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Our findings align with previous research, showing that statistical power varies across strategies. Among Thai subpopulations, the minimum likelihood ratio strategy is preferred, as it maintains high power while minimizing differences between subpopulations.
Despite comparable levels of political participation between genders, a significant gender gap in political empowerment persists in Japan. Women demonstrate a tendency towards progressive perspectives, yet exhibit lower levels of political interest and knowledge. The advent of social media has given rise to a plethora of discourse surrounding its impact, particularly in relation to women’s political engagement. Drawing on a survey of 1,723 respondents, this study examines gendered patterns in social media use and political engagement in Japan. Findings reveal that while Japanese women are active on Instagram, they seldom engage in political activities on the platform – unlike men, who are more likely to use social media for political purposes. Nevertheless, social media discussions can occasionally shift toward political topics, potentially heightening gender consciousness among women. This unexpected form of political communication, occurring within intimate online spaces, raises questions about its potential to foster political empowerment for Japanese women in the future.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
In this paper, we introduce SailCompass, a reproducible and robust evaluation benchmark for assessing Large Language Models (LLMs) on Southeast Asian Languages (SEA). SailCompass encompasses three main SEA languages, eight primary tasks including 14 datasets covering three task types (generation, multiple-choice questions, and classification). To improve the robustness of the evaluation approach, we explore different prompt configurations for multiple-choice questions and leverage calibrations to improve the faithfulness of classification tasks. With SailCompass, we derive the following findings: (1) SEA-specialized LLMs still outperform general LLMs, although the gap has narrowed; (2) A balanced language distribution is important for developing better SEA-specialized LLMs; (3) Advanced prompting techniques (e.g., calibration, perplexity-based ranking) are necessary to better utilize LLMs. All datasets and evaluation scripts are public.
with leasehold land. The degree of control over land conferred by de facto property rights varied among users, depending on their positions. Ordinary urban residents were situated on the lowest tier of social structure and had least control over their occupied land. Chapter 6 concerns the rural spatial changes that came from the bottom, where the land right was collective. The rural nonfarm sector gave way to in-situ urbanisation. The rise of a rentier class and private governance is described here with case studies. The seventh chapter examines the issue of governance over spatial change. The high rate of urbanisation in China calls for the development of the compact city as population sizes are large and the density high. The absence of state gives rise to interrelated land rights, which generally leads to unsustainable landforms. The author takes the case study of The Renewal and Refurbishment of the Pearl River Delta to look at the process of rural fragmentation to urban integration. It is easy to comprehend that the author’s task was not a simple one. Zhu has tried to explore the situation where the socialist state was transforming itself by constructing the market for an imperfect commodity like land. History shows that landownership not only gives rise to inequalities in income and wealth, but also leads to a non-working rentier class with feudal values and bourgeois vices. Articles based on singular case studies are available in Urban Studies and other journals: the story of Shenzen (Lai et al., 2016) or the role of a particular policy, for example, Increasing versus Decreasing Balance (Chen et al., 2023) are detailed analyses of specific programmes. However, this book is gigantic in the sense that it covers the urban development of China, focusing on land, for a span of seven decades: the nuances of nationalised land for three decades (1949–1978); and then the gradual transformation towards market, separately for villages and cities, the transformation of villages through non-farm activities, migrants and residents and all the related issues were covered over four decades (1978–2018). Various methods, such as case studies, data analysis and legal discourse, are used to tell the complete story with all its virtues and vices. As the book is intended for both Chinese and non-Chinese academics, a map of China showing the location of the case studies would have been helpful. A chronological table detailing important policy changes and legal provisions would also have been useful for readers less familiar with Chinese political changes.
The perspective of time towards migration and displacement has emerged as a key research interest. However, less attention has been granted to the role that time plays in shaping methodological and ethical considerations in research settings. This paper develops this point by reflecting on the authors’ research process with older East Timorese adults living amid ongoing displacement conditions for over two decades in West Timor, Indonesia. Examining their ageing experiences provides insight into what it means to live through displacement over time and space. However, older people are among the groups of displaced populations considered most vulnerable, requiring the researcher to consider particular methodological sensitivity. This paper argues that understandings of time, reflexivity and the ways lives are linked in relation to people’s later-life experiences in exile can provide useful tools for dealing with ethical and pragmatic dilemmas.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
This IQAS special issue on “Knowledge on the Move” critically examines the circulation of knowledge in Asia, seeking to understand what kind of knowledge moves, where and when, and why and how it does or did so. It addresses the dynamics of global epistemic frameworks, intellectual problematisation, and everyday knowing, emphasizing that knowledge systems connect people across nations and regions. The issue discusses diverse knowledges that foster connectivity and explores the boundaries and limitations that arise. Translation becomes essential in making knowledge "move" and convey meanings effectively. While some concepts from the West have been introduced in Asia, criticisms of unidirectional flows persist in global academia. The articles present rich research results, providing insights into the circulation and construction of connections across Asia, encouraging further discussions on knowledge movement and the concept of Asia itself.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
Let $X$ be a closed smooth manifold, $G$ be a simple connected compact real Lie group, $M (G)$ be the group of all smooth maps from $X$ to $G$, and $M_0 (G)$ be its connected component for the $\mathcal C^\infty$-compact open topology. It is shown that maximal normal subgroups of $M_0 (G)$ are precisely the inverse images of the centre $Z(G)$ of $G$ by the evaluation homomorphisms $M_0 (G) \to G, \hskip.1cm γ\mapsto γ(a)$, for $a \in X$. This in turn is a consequence of a result on the group $\mathcal C^\infty_{n, G}$ of germs at the origin $O$ of $\mathbf R^n$ of smooth maps $\mathbf R^n \to G$: this group has a unique maximal normal subgroup, which is the inverse image of $Z(G)$ by the evaluation homomorphism $\mathcal C^\infty_{n, G} \to G, \hskip.1cm \underline γ\mapsto \underline γ(O)$. This article provides corrections for part of an earlier article [Harp--88].
In this paper, we explore the economic, institutional, and political/governmental factors in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the emerging twenty-four Asian economies. To examine the significant determinants of FDI, the study uses panel data for a period of seventeen years (2002-2018). The panel methodology enables us to deal with endogeneity and other issues. Multiple regression models are done for empirical evidence. The study focuses on a holistic approach and considers different variables under three broad areas: economic, institutional, and political aspects. The variables include Market Size, Trade Openness, Inflation, Natural Resource, Lending Rate, Capital Formation as economic factors and Business Regulatory Environment and Business Disclosure Index as institutional factors and Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, and Rule of Law as political factors. The empirical findings show most of the economic factors significantly affect FDI inflows whereas Business Disclosure is the only important institutional variable. Moreover, political stability has a significant positive impact in attracting foreign capital flow though the impact of government effectiveness is found insignificant. Overall, the economic factors prevail strongly compared to institutional and political factors.
Previously, we have systematically constructed explicit real algebraic functions which are represented as the compositions of smooth real algebraic maps whose images are domains surrounded by hypersurfaces of degree 1 or 2 with canonical projections. Here we give new examples with the hypersurfaces each of which is the product of a connected component of a hyperbola and a copy of the $1$-dimensional affine space explicitly. As a related future work we also discuss problems to obtain the zero sets of some real polynomials explicitly from increasing sequences of real numbers. This is motivated by a problem in theory of smooth functions proposed first by Sharko: can we construct nice smooth functions whose Reeb graphs are as prescribed? The Reeb space of a smooth function is the naturally obtained graph whose underlying space is the quotient space of the manifold consisting of connected components of preimages. The author first considered variants respecting the topologies of the preimages and obtained several results before. Our work is also motivated by real algebraic geometry, pioneered by Nash. We can know existence of real algebraic structures of smooth manifolds and some general sets and we already know several approximations of smooth maps by real algebraic maps. Our interest lies in explicit construction, which is difficult.
Abstract Background Allele-specific expression (ASE) refers to the preferential expression of one allele over the other and contributes to adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Here, we used a reciprocal cross-model between phenotypically divergent European Berkshire and Asian Tibetan pigs to characterize 2 ASE classes: imprinting (i.e., the unequal expression between parental alleles) and sequence dependent (i.e., unequal expression between breed-specific alleles). We examined 3 transcript types, including protein-coding genes (PCGs), long noncoding RNAs, and transcripts of unknown coding potential, across 7 representative somatic tissues from hybrid pigs generated by reciprocal crosses. Results We identified a total of 92 putative imprinted transcripts, 69 (75.00%) of which are described here for the first time. By combining the transcriptome from purebred Berkshire and Tibetan pigs, we found ∼6.59% of PCGs are differentially expressed between breeds that are regulated by trans-elements (e.g., transcriptional factors), while only ∼1.35% are attributable to cis (e.g., promoters). The higher prevalence of trans-PCGs indicates the dominated effects of trans-regulation in driving expression differences and shaping adaptive phenotypic plasticity between breeds, which were supported by functional enrichment analysis. We also found strong evidence that expression changes mediated by cis-effects were associated with accumulated variants in promoters. Conclusions Our study provides a comprehensive map of expression regulation that constitutes a valuable resource for the agricultural improvement of pig breeds.
The effects of the 1990s reforms to the electoral system of Japan's House of Representatives have been among the most frequently discussed topics in political science research on the country. These reforms saw the replacement of a hitherto single nontransferable vote (SNTV) system by a mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) system with a strong Single Member District (SMD) and a weaker Proportional Representation (PR) component. Many studies have suggested that the reforms may have had significant impact on the strategies of political parties. Generally, SMD systems have been widely thought to favor larger parties, while PR systems are more beneficial to small and medium-sized parties. On the content side, larger parties seeking control of the government would try to win the support of large numbers of floating voters by campaigning on universal/programmatic policy appeals, as opposed to particularistic interests. In contrast, smaller parties would cater towards their core supporters’ preferences. Previous studies have noted that the old SNTV system in Japan had produced results similar to PR systems (Reed 2003). Japan's electoral reform may have thus changed the strategy of large parties, which would need to win more seats in the SMDs to gain (or hold onto) power, while smaller parties have continued to try and win seats via the PR tier. Therefore, the reform provides valuable research material in so far as we can simultaneously observe different effects by the SMD and the PR systems on parties of different sizes.
Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, where she has organized more than 25 exhibitions since 1997, including “A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk”, “Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color”, and “Paris, Capital of Fashion”. She is also the author or editor of more than 30 books, including Women of Fashion, Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power, and The Berg Companion to Fashion. In addition, she is founder and editor-in-chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, the first scholarly journal in Fashion Studies.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
Research ethics is integral to the entire process of knowledge production: from conceptualising and designing a research project and gathering, analysing and managing data, to writing and other forms of representation and engagement. Yet, there is often a lack of attention given to research ethics pedagogy and praxis in various academic institutions. With a focus on research ethics in volatile contexts, this special issue aims to provide various perspectives on research ethics from scholars positioned within a particular discipline, such as anthropology, political science, history, sociology and area studies, among others, as well as those with an inter- or transdisciplinary perspective. Drawing from concrete research experiences and how they have dealt with ethical dilemmas as well as critical reflection and framing of research ethics, the contributors offer ways to think through the relationships between research ethics, power, violence, inequalities, institutions and pedagogy in various volatile research contexts and institutional frameworks.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)
North Korean women’s fashion has changed in the context of women’s relatively recently assumed role as critical actors in North Korea’s market-dependent economy. Through examination of changes in women’s fashion we learn more about how the way women choose to dress can become an agentic and empowering process. The article argues that the case of North Korean women and their dress practice can inform our understanding of how women, even in the most oppressive of circumstances, develop tactics to manipulate the systems and social order that seek to control them. North Korean women have enacted upon their agency deliberately, getting away with what they can while simultaneously skilfully avoiding the dire consequences of being identified as actors who dare to disrupt the status quo. This type of agency is not always understood or appreciated by Western liberal frames and sensibilities of agency that centralise notions of individualism and freedom. This nuanced appreciation of women’s agency has the potential to expand the “rights, choices and autonomy” Western discourse of women’s agency in ways that are inclusive of women who live, and sometimes manage to thrive, in the face of extreme oppression. This paper is informed by the authors’ field notes from trips to North Korea and by 45 in-depth interviews with North Korean refugees, regular visitors to North Korea and NGO workers.
History of Asia, Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)