Android banking applications have revolutionized financial management by allowing users to perform various financial activities through mobile devices. However, this convenience has attracted cybercriminals who exploit security vulnerabilities to access sensitive financial data. FjordPhantom, a malware identified by our industry collaborator, uses virtualization and hooking to bypass the detection of malicious accessibility services, allowing it to conduct keylogging, screen scraping, and unauthorized data access. This malware primarily affects banking and finance apps across East and Southeast Asia region where our industry partner's clients are primarily based in. It requires users to be deceived into installing a secondary malicious component and activating a malicious accessibility service. In our study, we conducted an empirical study on the susceptibility of banking apps in the region to FjordPhantom, analyzed the effectiveness of protective measures currently implemented in those apps, and discussed ways to detect and prevent such attacks by identifying and mitigating the vulnerabilities exploited by this malware.
Hate speech detection relies heavily on linguistic resources, which are primarily available in high-resource languages such as English and Chinese, creating barriers for researchers and platforms developing tools for low-resource languages in Southeast Asia, where diverse socio-linguistic contexts complicate online hate moderation. To address this, we introduce SEAHateCheck, a pioneering dataset tailored to Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, covering Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese. Building on HateCheck's functional testing framework and refining SGHateCheck's methods, SEAHateCheck provides culturally relevant test cases, augmented by large language models and validated by local experts for accuracy. Experiments with state-of-the-art and multilingual models revealed limitations in detecting hate speech in specific low-resource languages. In particular, Tagalog test cases showed the lowest model accuracy, likely due to linguistic complexity and limited training data. In contrast, slang-based functional tests proved the hardest, as models struggled with culturally nuanced expressions. The diagnostic insights of SEAHateCheck further exposed model weaknesses in implicit hate detection and models' struggles with counter-speech expression. As the first functional test suite for these Southeast Asian languages, this work equips researchers with a robust benchmark, advancing the development of practical, culturally attuned hate speech detection tools for inclusive online content moderation.
Kenza Tazi, Sun Woo P. Kim, Marc Girona-Mata
et al.
High Mountain Asia (HMA) holds the highest concentration of frozen water outside the polar regions, serving as a crucial water source for more than 1.9 billion people. Precipitation represents the largest source of uncertainty for future hydrological modelling in this area. In this study, we propose a probabilistic machine learning framework to combine monthly precipitation from 13 regional climate models developed under the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) over HMA via a mixture of experts (MoE). This approach accounts for seasonal and spatial biases within the models, enabling the prediction of more faithful precipitation distributions. The MoE is trained and validated against gridded historical precipitation data, yielding 32% improvement over an equally-weighted average and 254% improvement over choosing any single ensemble member. This approach is then used to generate precipitation projections for the near future (2036-2065) and far future (2066-2095) under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. Compared to previous estimates, the MoE projects wetter summers but drier winters over the western Himalayas and Karakoram and wetter winters over the Tibetan Plateau, Hengduan Shan, and South East Tibet.
Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare but severe neurological condition characterized by rapid deterioration of the patient's cognitive and motor functions, often accompanied by seizures, altered consciousness, and coma. This condition can be triggered by various pathogenic factors including viral infections such as influenza and the coronavirus. Initially reported in East Asia, particularly in Japan, ANE has since been documented in other regions globally, with a marked increase in cases associated with the coronavirus in recent years. This article presents the case of a six-year-old Iranian girl who developed acute necrotizing encephalopathy following an acute respiratory illness characterized by fever and convulsions. The patient had no previous medical history or known exposure to influenza, nor had she received influenza vaccination. She was brought to the emergency department by her parents after two days of fever, headache, muscle pain, and sore throat, presenting with seizures, a reduced level of consciousness, and hemodynamic instability. Upon admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), initial interventions included stabilizing vital signs, administering serum therapy, prescribing antibiotics, and conducting diagnostic tests such as COVID-19 and influenza screening. Further diagnostic and therapeutic measures included brain imaging, which confirmed the diagnosis of acute necrotizing encephalopathy. As part of the treatment protocol, the patient received intravenous immunoglobulin and corticosteroids. Despite aggressive management, including intubation and intensive care, the patient's condition deteriorated rapidly due to extensive involvement of the brainstem and the onset of multiple organ failure. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the medical team, the patient passed away. While several cases of acute necrotizing encephalopathy have been documented in East Asia and other parts of the world, reports from Iran remain scarce. This case highlights the importance of considering acute necrotizing encephalopathy in the differential diagnosis of children who experience progressive neurological decline following an acute febrile illness.
Entre la multiplicidad de castigos en la Duat, la situación de los que aparecen en posición invertida tanto en los textos como en las representaciones es una de las más llamativas por cuanto no tiene un correlato con la realidad, como sí lo tienen la decapitación, la incineración de cuerpos o la inmovilización por sujeción. La variedad de castigos es amplia, pero por su característica, por las reiteradas menciones en los textos y por la diversidad de explicaciones que se han ensayado al respecto, la situación de estos sxd.w es particularmente interesante. Lo que este estudio se propone, además de un recorrido por los diferentes contextos funerarios en que se los cita, es explicar su significación para entender por qué era uno de los castigos más temidos por los condenados.
Continuous aerosol monitoring in East Asia is essential due to the massive aerosol emissions from natural and anthropogenic sources. Geostationary satellites enable continuous aerosol monitoring; however, the observation is limited to the daytime. This study proposed machine learning-based models to estimate daytime and nighttime aerosol optical depth (AOD) in East Asia using a geostationary satellite, Geo-KOMPSAT-2A (GK-2A). The input variables for the machine learning models include the brightness temperature (BT) and top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance from GK-2A, meteorological and geographical data, and auxiliary variables. The two models that used different combinations of GK-2A variables were proposed and compared: the all-day BT model, which estimates AOD during both day and night using BT variables, and the daytime TOA model, which estimates AOD during the day using TOA reflectance variables as well. The estimated AODs by the models were validated with ground-based AOD data from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) by 10-fold cross-validation and hold-out validation methods. The performance of the daytime TOA model was slightly higher than the all-day BT model during the day (R2 = 0.80-0.82, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.107-0.116 for the all-day BT model, R2 = 0.83, RMSE = 0.098 for the daytime TOA model). The SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis showed that total precipitable water content and seasonality contributed the most for both proposed models. BT differences and TOA reflectance variables were identified as the next most contributing variables for the all-day BT and daytime TOA models. The spatiotemporal distributions of estimated AODs from the proposed models show similar patterns compared with other AOD products. A time series comparison at a test station demonstrated that the estimated AOD of the proposed models was consistent with the AERONET AOD.
In the theoretical study of distributed communication networks, "history trees" are a discrete structure that naturally models the concept that anonymous agents become distinguishable upon receiving different sets of messages from neighboring agents. By conveniently organizing temporal information in a systematic manner, history trees have been instrumental in the development of optimal deterministic algorithms for networks that are both anonymous and dynamically evolving. This note provides an accessible introduction to history trees, drawing comparisons with more traditional structures found in existing literature and reviewing the latest advancements in the applications of history trees, especially within dynamic networks. Furthermore, it expands the theoretical framework of history trees in new directions, also highlighting several open problems for further investigation.
This paper argues that the unusual determinative MANUS+MANUS of the goddess Pahalati in Hama that resisted explanation until now can be understood due to its new attestation in the logographic spelling of a Cilician toponym. It will be shown that an earlier attempt that identified MANUS+MANUS as a variant of MAGNUS, the city as Urušša, and the name of the goddess as a Phoenician-Luwian mixed phrase meaning ‘Great Lady’, is palaeographically, linguistically, and geographically impossible. A clue to the decipherment of MANUS+MANUS is provided by the homo(io)phonous settlement in Cilicia, Pahra-, which explains how the same sign could have been used both as a determinative and as a logogram in accordance with the regular rules of the usage of the determinatives.
History of Asia, Oriental languages and literatures
I apply Dawid's Meta-Empirical Assessment (MEA) methodology to the theory of cosmological inflation. I argue that applying this methodology does not currently offer a compelling case for ascribing non-empirical confirmation to cosmological inflation. In particular, I argue that despite displaying strong instances of Unexpected Explanatory Coherence (UEA), it is premature to evaluate the theory on the basis of the No Alternatives Argument (NAA). More significantly though, I argue that the theory of cosmological inflation fails to sustain a convincing Meta-Inductive Argument (MIA) because the empirical evidence and theoretical successes that it seeks to draw meta-empirical support from do not warrant a meta-inductive inference to inflation. I conclude by assessing how future developments could pave the way towards crafting a more compelling case for the non-empirical confirmation of cosmological inflation.
Niels C. M. Martens, Miguel Ángel Carretero Sahuquillo, Erhard Scholz
et al.
Editorial of a special issue on dark matter & modified gravity, distributed across the journals Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics and Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Published version of the open access editorial (in SHPS) available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.08.015. The six papers are collected here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/studies-in-history-and-philosophy-of-science-part-b-studies-in-history-and-philosophy-of-modern-physics/special-issue/10CR71RJLWM.
Chromatic dispersion is a common problem to degrade the system resolution in optical coherence tomography (OCT). This study is to develop a deep learning network for automated dispersion compensation (ADC-Net) in OCT. The ADC-Net is based on a redesigned UNet architecture which employs an encoder-decoder pipeline. The input section encompasses partially compensated OCT B-scans with individual retinal layers optimized. Corresponding output is a fully compensated OCT B-scans with all retinal layers optimized. Two numeric parameters, i.e., peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index metric computed at multiple scales (MS-SSIM), were used for objective assessment of the ADC-Net performance. Comparative analysis of training models, including single, three, five, seven and nine input channels were implemented. The five-input channels implementation was observed as the optimal mode for ADC-Net training to achieve robust dispersion compensation in OCT
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Drew C. Pendergrass
et al.
Coarse particulate matter (PM) is a serious air pollution problem in East Asia. Analysis of air quality network observations in the North China Plain and the Seoul Metropolitan Area shows that it is mainly anthropogenic and has decreased by 21% over 2015-2019. This anthropogenic coarse PM is generally not included in air quality models but scavenges nitric acid to suppress the formation of fine particulate (PM2.5) nitrate, a major contributor to PM2.5 pollution. Including it in the GEOS-Chem model decreases simulated PM2.5 nitrate to improve agreement with observations. Decreasing anthropogenic coarse PM over 2015-2019 directly increases PM2.5 nitrate in summer, offsetting the effect of other emission controls, while in winter it increases the sensitivity of PM2.5 nitrate to ammonia and sulfur dioxide emissions. Our work implies the need for stronger ammonia and nitrogen oxides emission controls to improve PM2.5 air quality as coarse PM continues to decrease.
According to the first project of welcome ceremony for the Japanese mission it was supposed to take place at the Warsawskiy railway station. There were also a few projects of audience with the Russian Emperor. According to the first project it was proposed to give an audience at Tzarskoe Selo’s Palace, according to the second project - at Peterhof’s Palace, according to the third project - at the Winter Palace’s Throne Hall. Alexander II ordered to give audience at the Winter Palace. On the 15th June 1862 it was finally decided that the mission would come by sea on board of the Russian naval ship. Therefore the place of welcome ceremony was changed from Warswskiy railway station to a pier at the England's embankment. The farewell audience was given at Tzarskoe Selo’s Palace on Sunday, the 2nd September 1862.
Southern China is the birthplace of rice-cultivating agriculture and different language families and has also witnessed various human migrations that facilitated cultural diffusions. The fine-scale demographic history in situ that forms present-day local populations, however, remains unclear. To comprehensively cover the genetic diversity in East and Southeast Asia, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 211 present-day Southern Chinese and co-analyzed them with ∼1,200 ancient and modern genomes. In Southern China, language classification is significantly associated with genetic variation but with a different extent of predictability, and there is strong evidence for recent shared genetic history particularly in Hmong–Mien and Austronesian speakers. A geography-related genetic sub-structure that represents the major genetic variation in Southern East Asians is established pre-Holocene and its extremes are represented by Neolithic Fujianese and First Farmers in Mainland Southeast Asia. This sub-structure is largely reduced by admixture in ancient Southern Chinese since > ∼2,000 BP, which forms a “Southern Chinese Cluster” with a high level of genetic homogeneity. Further admixture characterizes the demographic history of the majority of Hmong–Mien speakers and some Kra-Dai speakers in Southwest China happened ∼1,500–1,000 BP, coeval to the reigns of local chiefdoms. In Yellow River Basin, we identify a connection of local populations to genetic sub-structure in Southern China with geographical correspondence appearing > ∼9,000 BP, while the gene flow likely closely related to “Southern Chinese Cluster” since the Longshan period (∼5,000–4,000 BP) forms ancestry profile of Han Chinese Cline.
Asia J. Biega, Fernando Diaz, Michael D. Ekstrand
et al.
This paper provides an overview of the NIST TREC 2020 Fair Ranking track. For 2020, we again adopted an academic search task, where we have a corpus of academic article abstracts and queries submitted to a production academic search engine. The central goal of the Fair Ranking track is to provide fair exposure to different groups of authors (a group fairness framing). We recognize that there may be multiple group definitions (e.g. based on demographics, stature, topic) and hoped for the systems to be robust to these. We expected participants to develop systems that optimize for fairness and relevance for arbitrary group definitions, and did not reveal the exact group definitions until after the evaluation runs were submitted.The track contains two tasks,reranking and retrieval, with a shared evaluation.
The paper presents a preliminary report on the systematic surface exploration conducted in the Middle Ong basin with particular focus on the northern tributaries, viz. the Uttali, Ghensali and Mongragod stream in the southern Bargarh Upland of Western Odisha. The investigations have resulted in the discovery of 43 new prehistoric sites in the area with predominance of microlithic components. These sites are observed in different geomorphological contexts, such as, in the cliff surface of riverbanks, hillslope, foothills and rocky outcrops. Abundant availability of raw materials, mainly chert of different colors and vein quartz in the area seem to have attracted the prehistoric communities for intensive settlements in the area. while sporadic acheulian artifacts have been found scattered here and there, most of the documented sites are dominated by microlithic components, some of which have also been associated with used/unused red ochre minerals, suggesting advanced cognitive abilities and symbolic behavior of the microlith using communities in the area of investigation.
Significant interregional disparities in socio-economic development are one of the most
prominent features of modern China. By initiating market reforms and integration into the global economy in the late 1970s, the Chinese leadership gave a way to the inevitable rise of the gap between best-positioned coastal areas and the rest of the country. In line with the economic theories of growth-poles and the Kuznets Williamson regional development curve, successful development of those regions market would naturally lift the rest of the country as well. As famous Deng Xiaoping quote goes, “let some areas become reach first, then lead and help other regions”. However, 3 passed decades showed that market forces took it too long for spillover effect to develop, if any. Chinese researches provided couple of explanations to that. After coming
to power, Xi Jinping set an ideological goal to eliminate poverty by the 100th anniversary of the CPC's
founding (2021). Without abandoning of market mechanisms, state strengthened its role in the resources
redistribution and spatial development management. Existing 4 national programs for the development of the Western, Central, Eastern and Northeastern macro-regions continued, and a number of new ones were adopted for the Capital region (including Xiong’an New Area), the Yangtze Delta, the Zhujiang Delta
(Greater Bay Area), the Yangtze economic belt and the Hainan province. The global-reaching Belt and Road Initiative has its regional inter-China dimension as well.
South Asia. Southeast Asia. East Asia, Bibliography. Library science. Information resources