Hasil untuk "Unlocalized maps (Asian studies only)"

C. Bae, K. Douka, M. Petraglia

Yabi Huang, Zijian Li

Pesticides are widely used in agriculture, but their impact on the environment and human health is a major concern. While much attention has been given to their presence in soil, water, and food, there have been few studies on airborne pesticide pollution on a global scale. This study aimed to assess the extent of atmospheric pesticide pollution in countries worldwide and identify regional differences using a scoring approach. In addition to analyzing the health risks associated with pesticide pollution, we also examined agricultural practices and current air quality standards for pesticides in these countries. The pollution scores varied significantly among the countries, particularly in Europe. Asian and Oceanic countries generally had higher scores compared to those in the Americas, suggesting a relatively higher level of air pollution caused by pesticides in these regions. It is worth noting that the current pollution levels, as assessed theoretically, pose minimal health risks to humans. However, studies in the literature have shown that excessive exposure to pesticides present in the atmosphere has been associated with various health problems, such as cancer, neuropsychiatric disorders, and other chronic diseases. Interestingly, European countries had the highest overall pesticide application intensities, but this did not necessarily correspond to higher atmospheric pesticide pollution scores. Only a few countries have established air quality standards specifically for pesticides. Furthermore, pollution scores across states in the USA were investigated and the global sampling sites were mapped. The findings revealed that the scores varied widely in the USA and the current sampling sites were limited or unevenly distributed in some countries, particularly the Nordic countries. These findings can help global relevant environmental agencies to set up comprehensive monitoring networks. Overall, the present research highlights the need to create a pesticide monitoring system and increase efforts to enhance pesticide regulation, ensure consistency in standards, and promote international cooperation.

Xiaoyi Yin, Hui Shen, Huan Wang et al.

Putting pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) screening into perspective for high-risk individuals could significantly reduce cancer morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have profiled somatic mutations in PAAD. In contrast, the prevalence of mutations in PAAD predisposition genes has not been defined, especially in the Asian population. Using a multi-tier cohort design and whole genome/exome sequencing, we create a comprehensive germline mutation map of PAAD in 1,123 Chinese cancer patients in comparison with 11 pan-ethnic studies. For well-known pathogenic/likely pathogenic germline variants, Chinese patients exhibit overlapping but distinct germline mutation patterns comparing with Western cohorts, highlighted by lower mutation rates in known PAAD genes including BRCA1, BRCA2, ATM, CDKN2A, and CHEK2, and distinct mutations in CFTR, RAD51D, FANCA, ERCC2, and GNAS exclusive to Chinese patients. CFTR emerges as a top candidate gene following loss of heterozygosity analysis. Using an integrative multi-omics and functional validation paradigm, we discover that deleterious variants of uncertain significance may compromise CFTR’s tumor suppressor function, and demonstrate the clinical relevance by using patient derived organoids for drug screen. Our multifaceted approach not only deepens the knowledge of population differences in PAAD germline mutations but also unveils potential avenues for targeted therapeutic interventions. The prevalence of mutations that can predispose to pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unclear, especially in underrepresented populations. Here, the authors create a germline mutation map of 1,123 Chinese PDAC patients and compare them to cohorts from other populations, finding CFTR as a potential driver.

Wikke Jansen

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought out a number of urgent issues for ethnographers and other scholars working across online and offline spaces. Whereas the massive recourse to social media platforms and other digital means of communication led to a surge in popularity and credibility afforded to online research methods, the ethical challenges that accompany such a move have only begun to be explored. This paper draws on my experiences of conducting research with queer Indonesians between 2017 and 2022 to suggest an approach to ethics and engagement that takes seriously the blurring of the divide between private and public online data, the sensitivity of social media data beyond “terms and conditions”, and the material dimensions and intersectional hierarchies that suffuse online spaces and access to them. I argue for integrating “do no harm” approaches, such as cultivating an attitude of “intentional paranoia” towards the risks and dangers of storing and using online data of vulnerable groups, with active ethical strategies such as pursuing unusual research methods, speculation and applied engagement.

Priyanshu Tiwari, Sourav Majumdar

We develop a tractable framework for valuing Asian options when trading the underlying generates market impact and execution costs. Starting from a discrete-time, quote-level model, we construct a reference midpoint suitable for Asian payoffs and separate market impact into a transient component and a permanent drift distortion driven by signed trading. This specification admits continuous-time limits where the midpoint and impact state converge to a coupled system in which the midpoint drift depends on the transient impact state and in the endogenous regime on the hedger's trading rate, with correlated price and order-flow shocks. We study valuation in two complementary regimes. In an exogenous benchmark, the impact state evolves independently of the hedger. When the order-flow volatility is deterministic, we obtain a closed-form expression for the geometric Asian call. In an endogenous regime, trading volumes feed back into prices and costs, leading to a stochastic control problem and Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations. We define reservation bid and ask prices via cost-based indifference which produces an impact-driven bid-ask spread. For computations, we propose a CRR-style tree-based Bellman algorithm. Numerical experiments show that exogenous impact effects are modest relative to frictionless benchmarks, while endogenous indifference prices generate nontrivial bid-ask spreads that grow super-linearly in impact parameters, widen when execution costs are lower, and shrink with faster mean reversion, highlighting the interaction between averaging in Asian options, price impact effects, and strategic trading.

Tarek Naous, Anagha Savit, Carlos Rafael Catalan et al.

As Large Language Models (LLMs) gain stronger multilingual capabilities, their ability to handle culturally diverse entities becomes crucial. Prior work has shown that LLMs often favor Western-associated entities in Arabic, raising concerns about cultural fairness. Due to the lack of multilingual benchmarks, it remains unclear if such biases also manifest in different non-Western languages. In this paper, we introduce Camellia, a benchmark for measuring entity-centric cultural biases in nine Asian languages spanning six distinct Asian cultures. Camellia includes 19,530 entities manually annotated for association with the specific Asian or Western culture, as well as 2,173 naturally occurring masked contexts for entities derived from social media posts. Using Camellia, we evaluate cultural biases in four recent multilingual LLM families across various tasks such as cultural context adaptation, sentiment association, and entity extractive QA. Our analyses show a struggle by LLMs at cultural adaptation in all Asian languages, with performance differing across models developed in regions with varying access to culturally-relevant data. We further observe that different LLM families hold their distinct biases, differing in how they associate cultures with particular sentiments. Lastly, we find that LLMs struggle with context understanding in Asian languages, creating performance gaps between cultures in entity extraction.

Pia Leibold, Christelle Lteif, Julio D. Duarte

Introduction Hypertension (HTN) is a leading risk factor for several cardiovascular diseases. While some previous studies reported that CYP3A5 variants were associated with decreased blood pressure and risk of HTN, others reported no associations. Therefore, we aimed to analyze these associations in the UK Biobank, a population large enough to have sufficient power to detect meaningful associations. Methods The association of CYP3A5 variants (*3, *6, *7) and CYP3A5 activity with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and HTN diagnosis was analyzed in the UK Biobank (N = 487,171). Linear and logistic regression models were used, adjusting for age, sex, race, antihypertensives use, smoking status, and salt intake. Moreover, subgroup analyses were performed in Black participants, White participants, participants of East Asian and South Asian descent separately, using the same models. Results Neither the CYP3A5 variants, nor the CYP3A5 activity showed significant associations with SBP, DBP, MAP, or HTN. In a sensitivity analysis based on different racial subgroups, only White participants showed significant associations between the CYP3A5*3 variant and slightly higher DBP (β = 0.10 mmHg, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.18, P = 0.01), as well as between genotype-predicted CYP3A5 activity score and slightly lower DBP (β = −0.10 mmHg, 95% CI: −0.18 to −0.02, P = 0.01). Discussion: While some associations were statistically significant, the small effect sizes and lack of associations observed in the whole UK Biobank population suggest that CYP3A5 variation likely has no impact on blood pressure related phenotypes in a general population.

Shimada Yuzuru

This paper provides an overview of the legislative landscape and its background under the Joko Widodo administration (2014–2024). The transition of presidential power from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Joko Widodo marked the consolidation of democracy in post-authoritarian Indonesia, continuing from the pivotal reforms of 1998. The period of Widodo’s administration from 2014 to 2024 illustrates how free elections and freedom of expression, combined with advancements in IT technology, have inadvertently highlighted societal divisions, including discrimination against minorities. Beyond political evolution, the period has also witnessed emerging economic disparities within Indonesian society, as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the latter half of the period. This paper focuses on major legislative initiatives during the Joko Widodo administration. It systematically examines the background, contents and pivotal discussions of these significant pieces of legislation, providing a comprehensive analysis of the legislative developments during this crucial decade in Indonesia. It goes on to argue that the legislative policies of the Widodo administration reflect a situation where the transition from authoritarianism to democratisation falls short of fully embodying constitutionalism, characterised by limits on executive power and respect for human rights.

Hilman Latief

Mahesti Hasanah, Longgina Novadona Bayo

The Komodo monitor lizard is an endangered species found only on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang. To protect them, a national park was established in the 1980s. In 2019, the Indonesian government designated Komodo National Park as a super­-premium tourist destination, sparking controversy over its impact on the indigenous Ata Modo people. This article examines the claim-making process of the Ata Modo community, supported by local NGOs. Claim-making – the assertion of rights over land and resources – plays a crucial role in tourism projects, often leading to uneven development that threatens community livelihoods, indigenous wildlife and the environment as a whole. The 2021 super-premium tourism development in West Manggarai involving Komodo National Park is used as a case study to explore how people secure their rights to land and animals. The Ata Modo’s claim-making has helped them to maintain their livelihoods despite ongoing political contestation. The article aims to elucidate the political processes of appropriation, access and contestation in claims to land, animals and the environment, providing insights into the interplay between society, local knowledge of human–non-human relationships and political dynamics.

Amina Kobenova, Adina Kaiymova

This paper introduces "Making Beshbarmak", an interactive cooking game that celebrates the nomadic ancestry and cultural heritage of Central Asian communities worldwide. Designed to promote cultural appreciation and identity formation, the game invites players to learn and recreate the traditional dish Beshbarmak through an engaging step-by-step process, incorporating storytelling elements that explain the cultural significance of the meal. Our project contributes to digital cultural heritage and games research by offering an accessible, open-source prototype on p5.js, enabling users to connect with and explore Central Asian traditions. "Making Beshbarmak" serves as both an educational tool and a platform for cultural preservation, fostering a sense of belonging among Central Asian immigrant populations.

Karishma Yasmin

Background: This study examines cardiometabolic (CM) risk factors in an urban South Asian population, integrating medical and Anthropological perspectives to explore the effects of socio-economic, lifestyle, gender-specific factors, and cultural norms on health outcomes. Results: Analysis indicates a high prevalence of MetS and Pre-MetS, particularly among females, with significant predictors including BMI, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and waist circumference, alongside socio-genetic and lifestyle factors. Employing Elastic Net logistic regression, the researcher rigorously validated models to evaluate their predictive performance while also describing the associations and prevalence of known risk factors. The use of this method underlines the importance of combining traditional risk factors with socio-genetic, biological, economic and lifestyle variables, while Anthropological insights reveal the impact of urbanization and socio-cultural norms on health behaviors. Conclusion: The study advocates for a multidisciplinary approach in public health strategies, emphasizing the complex interplay between genetic, environmental, biological and socio-cultural influences on cardiometabolic health. This dual approach aligns with descriptive and predictive model goals. The future research should further integrate biomedical sciences with socio-cultural studies to develop culturally sensitive interventions, aiming to address the growing challenge of CM diseases in urban South Asian contexts.

Niel de Beaudrap, Christopher Ramsey

This paper studies the diameter of the numerical range of bounded operators on Hilbert space and the induced seminorm, called the numerical diameter, on bounded linear maps between operator systems which is sensible in the case of unital maps and their scalar multiples. It is shown that the completely bounded numerical diameter is a norm that is comparable but not equal to the completely bounded norm. This norm is particularly interesting in the case of unital completely positive maps and their sections.

Sabina Satriyani Puspita

Chiara Olivieri

Defny Holidin

Wayne Palmer

Jaeyoun You, Sojeong Park, Seok-Kyeong Hong et al.

Selfies represent people's desires, and social media platforms like Instagram have been flooded with them. This study uses selfie data to examine how peoples' desires for ideal facial representations vary by region, particularly in East Asia. Through the analysis, we aim to refute the "all Asians prefer identical visuals," which is a subset of the prevalent Western belief that "all Asians look the same." Our findings, reinforced by postcolonial interpretations, dispute those assumptions. We propose a strategy for resolving the mismatch between real-world desires and the Western beauty market's views. We expect the disparity between hegemonic color schemes and the augmented skin colors shown by our results may facilitate the study of color and Asian identity.

Libo Liu, Yuyan Yang, H. Le et al.

This study reports unexpected strong longitudinal structures from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) derived total electron content (TEC) observations in the low-latitude ionosphere over Asia. The observations during 2019–2020 show diverse patterns in the zonal difference of regional TEC, even under geomagnetically quiet conditions. The TEC in the northern hemisphere occasionally exhibits drastic zonal gradients. The intense regional gradients in TEC span a longitudinal extent of about 20°. The higher values may appear on the east or the west side. Strong zonal gradients may appear in all seasons, regardless of geomagnetically quiet or active conditions. The 15 December 2019 and 16 March 2020 cases depict an intense zonal differences cluster in the narrow latitudinal band of 16°N to 28°N, spanning a regional scale smaller than the normal longitudinal structures. In contrast, the Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs) with a longitudinal resolution of 5° show a much flatter zonal picture. Such intense and regional-scale zonal structures in the low-latitude ionosphere call for a high zonal resolution of GIMs in terms of better geographically distributed observations. Notably, no counterpart regional structures are found at the conjugated points in the southern hemisphere during the two cases. Although the physical drivers are not certain, the appearance only in the northern hemisphere possibly excludes the dominant contribution to forming the regional structures from the equatorial electric field.

J. Bradfield, S. Vogelezang, J. Felix et al.

Although hundreds of GWAS-implicated loci have been reported for adult obesity-related traits, less is known about the genetics specific for early-onset obesity, and with only a few studies conducted in non-European populations to date. Searching for additional genetic variants associated with childhood obesity, we performed a trans-ancestral meta-analysis of thirty studies consisting of up to 13,005 cases (≥95th percentile of BMI achieved 2-18 years old) and 15,599 controls (consistently <50th percentile of BMI) of European, African, North/South American and East Asian ancestry. Suggestive loci were taken forward for replication in a sample of 1,888 cases and 4,689 controls from seven cohorts of European and North/South American ancestry. In addition to observing eighteen previously implicated BMI or obesity loci, for both early and late onset, we uncovered one completely novel locus in this trans-ancestral analysis (nearest gene: METTL15). The variant was nominally associated in only the European subgroup analysis but had a consistent direction of effect in other ethnicities. We then utilized trans-ancestral Bayesian analysis to narrow down the location of the probable causal variant at each genome-wide significant signal. Of all the fine-mapped loci, we were able to narrow down the causative variant at four known loci to fewer than ten SNPs (FAIM2, GNPDA2, MC4R and SEC16B loci). In conclusion, an ethnically diverse setting has enabled us to both identify an additional pediatric obesity locus and further fine-map existing loci.