Introduction: Global Darwinism in Asian Cultural, Historical, and Religious Contexts

[Introduction]: During the past decade Asia has experienced intense economic growth leading to a significant increase in demand for managers and professionals. In Asia, and particularly in East and South East Asia, women's participation rates in the labour force are ranked among the highest in the world (see ILO, 2007). Higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to women's increasing participation in the labour force. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. However, although several research studies pertaining to women in management were conducted during the 1990s, given the rapid changes in Asian workplaces over the past decade it may well be that much of what we know is outdated, irrelevant and based mainly on studies conducted in developed countries (Omar and Davidson, 2001). This book examines the opportunities and challenges for women managers in the Asian cultural context and presents an update on their progress in management. The influence of Asian cultures and religious traditions has been used to explain women's under-utilisation and under-representation in management (see Adler, 1993-1994; Omar and Davidson, 2001). One aim of this book is to examine such influences on organisational and management practices, and how these affect women in management in Asian economies. Some elements of management practices are universal whereas others, such as human resource (HR) practices, are more unique to a given context. Women have increasing opportunities and an increasing number of women have attained managerial positions. However, a review of women in management (Omar and Davidson, 2001) also found differences in experiences based on locality, and suggested that women in Asia might encounter greater challenges because of the culture and traditions of Asian societies. The Asian economies examined in this book have undergone rapid economic transfonnation. Much of what we know about women managers today is drawn from studies in developed countries: less is known of women in Asia and the specific barriers faced by women in Asian economies. In addition, the 'voice' of women managers remains to be heard, especially of those in Confucian and patriarchal societies such as many of those in Asia. In sum, there is a tension between more universal, 'best practice' -based, often Western management approaches and the more contingent, culturally nuanced practices that apply to and impact on women managers. This will emerge from the comparison across economies offered here. This chapter discusses the gender-organisation-system perspective, which is the theoretical framework adopted to explain the underrepresentation and under-utilisation of women in management. This is followed by an overview of women in the labour market, their educational levels and the proportion of women in managerial and professional positions. The chapter examines the factors that contribute to occupational gender segregation, earnings gaps between men and women, issues related to the balancing offamily and work life and the barriers to women's career advancement. The final sections discuss the influence of national culture, focusing particularly on Asian societies, and present an overview of the economies featured in this book.

The link between several religious dimensions and many kinds of prejudice (ethnic, religious, anti-gays and anti-atheists) has been established for decades. However, researchers in that field conducted their investigations only in Western cultural and religious contexts. Do these findings also hold for Eastern religions and Asian cultures? As Eastern cultures are characterized by holistic thinking style and Buddhism is generally perceived as a tolerant religion/spirituality, the generalisability of such findings is doubtful. We will here review three recent studies conducted both in Asia and Europe among believers of Eastern religions. In Study 1 (N = 102), using implicit measures of prejudice (IAT), religiosity was found to be negatively related to religious (Muslims) and ethnic (Africans) prejudice among Taiwanese people from a Buddhist/Taoist tradition. In Study 2 (N = 116), Westerners converted to Buddhism primed supraliminally with Buddhist words (word search puzzle) showed decreased islamophobia and prejudice against ethnic (Africans and Americans) and religious (Hindus, Muslims, and atheists) outgroups. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 167), we found that priming subliminally Buddhists words versus Christian words (Lexical Decision Task) among Taiwanese students from a Buddhist/Taoist tradition decreased prejudice against Africans (IAT). Furthermore, Buddhist versus Christian priming indirectly predicted lower prejudice against Muslims (IAT). This effect was mediated by an increase in tolerance toward contradictions. These results suggest that Eastern religiosity does not seem to predict prejudice as it is the case with Western religiosity. Quite the opposite, Eastern religiosity, through an enhancement of tolerance toward contradictions (dialectical thinking), can even promote tolerance. These findings challenge the generalizability of earlier research and suggest that the religiosity–prejudice relation may depend on the specific religious and cultural context.

Aerosol emissions from human activities are extensive and changing rapidly over Asia. Model simulations and satellite observations indicate a dipole pattern in aerosol emissions and loading between South Asia and East Asia, two of the most heavily polluted regions of the world. We examine the previously unexplored diverging trends in the existing dipole pattern of aerosols between East and South Asia using the high quality, two-decade long ground-based time series of observations of aerosol properties from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), from satellites (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)), and from model simulations (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2). The data cover the period since 2001 for Kanpur (South Asia) and Beijing (East Asia), two locations taken as being broadly representative of the respective regions. Since 2010 a dipole in aerosol optical depth (AOD) is maintained, but the trend is reversed—the decrease in AOD over Beijing (East Asia) is rapid since 2010, being 17% less in current decade compared to first decade of twenty-first century, while the AOD over South Asia increased by 12% during the same period. Furthermore, we find that the aerosol composition is also changing over time. The single scattering albedo (SSA), a measure of aerosol’s absorption capacity and related to aerosol composition, is slightly higher over Beijing than Kanpur, and has increased from 0.91 in 2002 to 0.93 in 2017 over Beijing and from 0.89 to 0.92 during the same period over Kanpur, confirming that aerosols in this region have on an average become more scattering in nature. These changes have led to a notable decrease in aerosol-induced atmospheric heating rate (HR) over both regions between the two decades, decreasing considerably more over East Asia (− 31%) than over South Asia (− 9%). The annual mean HR is lower now, it is still large (≥ 0.6 K per day), which has significant climate implications. The seasonal trends in AOD, SSA and HR are more pronounced than their respective annual trends over both regions. The seasonal trends are caused mainly by the increase/decrease in anthropogenic aerosol emissions (sulfate, black carbon and organic carbon) while the natural aerosols (dust and sea salt) did not change significantly over South and East Asia during the last two decades. The MERRA-2 model is able to simulate the observed trends in AODs well but not the magnitude, while it also did not simulate the SSA values or trends well. These robust findings based on observations of key aerosol parameters and previously unrecognized diverging trends over South and East Asia need to be accounted for in current state-of-the-art climate models to ensure accurate quantification of the complex and evolving impact of aerosols on the regional climate over Asia.

Homo Ritualis: Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Lip and oral cavity cancer (LOC) is a major public health challenge in Asia. Nevertheless, a critical gap remains in understanding the epidemiological burden of LOC among young people (15-44 years) in the region. This study aims to analyze the burden and risk factors of LOC in this age group across the four Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Asian regions from 1990 to 2021 and projects trends to 2030. Data on the incidence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and risk factors of LOC from 1990 to 2021 were obtained from the GBD 2021 study for East, South, Southeast Asia, and High-income Asia Pacific. This study assessed the LOC burden among young people (15-44 years) through age- and sex-stratified analyses, evaluated temporal trends via joinpoint regression, examined risk factor contributions, and projected trends to 2030 using the Nordpred age-period-cohort model. From 1990 to 2021, the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) increased across all subregions, with the largest rise in East Asia. In contrast, age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and age-standardized DALYs rate declined everywhere except South Asia. In 2021, South Asia bore the heaviest LOC burden among young people in the four Asian subregions. India reported the highest incident cases, deaths, and DALYs in 2021, and Pakistan had the highest ASR for all three metrics. Taiwan (Province of China) showed the largest increase in ASRs over the period. In 2021, smoking had the highest contribution in East Asia, alcohol use in High-income Asia Pacific, and chewing tobacco in South Asia. Projections to 2030 indicate rising ASIR in East, South, and Southeast Asia but declines in High-income Asia Pacific; decreasing ASMR everywhere except South Asia; and increasing age-standardized DALYs rate in East and South Asia but decreases elsewhere. LOC imposes a substantial and growing burden on young people in South, East, and Southeast Asia, marked by rising ASIR since 1990 and projected increases through 2030. South Asia faces the most urgent challenge with concurrent rises in incidence, mortality, and DALYs-most notably in the 20-24 age group. Region-specific interventions targeting predominant risk factors are critically needed.

The chapters of this book expand upon and develop presentations from a symposium held in Osaka in 2009 on the “Management and Marketing of Globalizing Asian Religions.” The editors’ objective is to emphasize the transnational administrative structures and proselytizing strategies deployed by Asian religious traditions, with particular emphasis on the ways these structures and strategies reflect transnational systems of management and marketing in businesses. For the most part, the contributors explore this premise through case studies of contemporary new religious movements with strong ties to South, Southeast, and East Asia. The editors note that these groups tend to have an innate transnational orientation and must operate in a spiritual marketplace. Consequently, the challenges facing contemporary new religions are similar to the challenges multinational companies must confront. Most chapters in this volume analyze a case study within the framework provided by this comparison in an effort to demonstrate the impact of globalization on Asian religion.The book consists of an introductory chapter followed by sixteen chapters organized into five sections. The first section, “Theoretical Approaches” has two chapters that establish a paradigm for discussing religion through the lens of management and marketing. The next three sections comprise the body of the work, and comprise case studies covering East Asia, Southeast and South Asia, and finally Japanese religions in Europe and the Americas. The fifth section includes a single chapter on the concept of internet-based religions that reject local identities and traditions. In terms of the cases these chapters explore, it is worth noting that Japan is a significant focus of the book, with twelve out of seventeen chapters dealing with the spread of traditions to or from Japan. Nova Religio readers may also find it pertinent that while many articles deal with new religions like the Church of World Messianity and Sōka Gakkai, several deal with traditions like Jōdo Shinshū that are well established at least at one location in their transnational network—but importantly, not in the places to which they are spreading.The volume’s theoretical project of applying insights from management and marketing studies to Asian religious institutions yields uneven results. Between the two, management provides a stronger lens. It is particularly effective for analyzing institutions that have adopted corporate organizational structures or mutated into business ventures, as in Shamsul A. B.’s chapter on Arqam in Malaysia or Yoshihide Sakurai’s discussion of the Unification Church in Japan. But even in other instances, being attentive to management prompts the authors to provide richly detailed descriptions of the administrative structures and processes of the institutions they are studying. Rather than exclusively emphasizing charismatic leadership or the lived religion of ordinary lay followers, the book exposes the elaborate machinery that mediates between them.When the authors turn their attention to marketing, as the volume’s other theme, their analyses highlight the challenges of transcultural proselytization for religious institutions. There is a large body of literature examining how missionaries and the institutions they represent adapt their traditions to new cultural contexts, and it is not always clear how marketing provides a framework that sheds new light on this process more than any other type of heuristic device. In their introduction to the volume, the editors suggest that the emergence of a global “spiritual marketplace” has added new complexity to transcultural proselytization, and some analyses are attentive to this situation (21). For example, Wendy Smith and Tamasin Ramsay’s chapter discusses the Brahma Kumaris’ need to accommodate their traditions to the spiritual marketplace by making them available piecemeal rather than demanding total commitment immediately. In such cases, it is unclear how the marketing framework differs from the extant consumer culture framework, as both approaches seem to proceed from similar premises and lead to similar conclusions.Nevertheless, Globalizing Asian Religions offers readers a wealth of information, especially if they are interested in its soft focus on new religious movements and Japanese traditions. Most of the chapters provide meticulous descriptions of the movements they are analyzing and offer substantial background information for readers who might be less familiar with each movement. This makes the book quite accessible and very teachable. It also raises questions about religious middle management that could make it a good starting point for additional research.

The World Today Series: The Middle East and South Asia. More than a quarter of the world’s population live in the Middle East and South Asia, yet our knowledge and understanding of the region is often limited to news updates about the latest conflicts and crises. This edition of the annually updated volume of the World Today Series provides important insights that take the reader beyond the headlines. It offers detailed and up-to-date information about the politics, economies and societies of the twenty-four states that make up the region. Contemporary events are placed in their historical context, through an examination of major civilizations and key historical events. This volume introduces major themes that have shaped the region, including the struggles of ordinary people to achieve democratic rights; the role of oil in shaping society; burgeoning environmental threats; and the rise and fall of the Islamic State caliphate. While there is reason for optimism in regards to the Middle East and South Asia, this is tempered by the very real challenges that confront the region. The general reader will gain an understanding of these challenges and opportunities through an exploration of current and past developments.

The World Today Series: The Middle East and South Asia. More than a quarter of the world’s population live in the Middle East and South Asia, yet our knowledge and understanding of the region is often limited to news updates about the latest conflicts and crises. This edition of the annually updated volume of the World Today Series provides important insights that take the reader beyond the headlines. It offers detailed and up-to-date information about the politics, economies and societies of the twenty-four states that make up the region. Contemporary events are placed in their historical context, through an examination of major civilizations and key historical events. This volume introduces major themes that have shaped the region, including the struggles of ordinary people to achieve democratic rights; the role of oil in shaping society; burgeoning environmental threats; and the rise and fall of the Islamic State caliphate. While there is reason for optimism in regards to the Middle East and South Asia, this is tempered by the very real challenges that confront the region. The general reader will gain an understanding of these challenges and opportunities through an exploration of current and past developments.

The World Today Series: The Middle East and South Asia. More than a quarter of the world’s population live in the Middle East and South Asia, yet our knowledge and understanding of the region is often limited to news updates about the latest conflicts and crises. This edition of the annually updated volume of the World Today Series provides important insights that take the reader beyond the headlines. It offers detailed and up-to-date information about the politics, economies and societies of the twenty-four states that make up the region. Contemporary events are placed in their historical context, through an examination of major civilizations and key historical events. This volume introduces major themes that have shaped the region, including the struggles of ordinary people to achieve democratic rights; the role of oil in shaping society; burgeoning environmental threats; and the rise and fall of the Islamic State caliphate. While there is reason for optimism in regards to the Middle East and South Asia, this is tempered by the very real challenges that confront the region. The general reader will gain an understanding of these challenges and opportunities through an exploration of current and past developments.

The analyses of dense marker sets covering the whole genome has revolutionised the field of (human) population genetics. Driven largely by the needs of biomedical research, these new data are helping to unveil our demographic past, exemplified by the study of mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation during the past ~20 years. We have analysed (Illumina 650K SNPs) over 320 new samples from South and Central Asia and the Caucasus, together with the publicly available databases (HGDP panel and our published data set of ~600 Eurasian samples) and illustrated the power of full genome analyses by addressing two specific questions. (i) What is the nature of genetic continuity and discontinuity between South Asia, Middle East and Central Asia? (ii) What are the genetic origins of the Munda speakers of India? We use principal component and structure-like analyses to reveal the structure in the genome wide SNP data. The most striking feature of the genetic structure of South Asian populations is the clear separation of the Indus valley and southern India populations. The genetic component prevalent in the latter region is marginal in the former and absent outside South Asia. By contrast, the component ubiquitous to Indus valley is also present (~30 - 40%) among Indo-European speakers from Ganges valley and Dravidic speakers in southern India. Furthermore, this component can also be found in Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as in Middle East. We explored possibilities to identify the source region for this genetic component. Alternative models put the origins of Munda languages speakers either in South Asia (the Munda speakers sport exclusively autochthonous South Asian mtDNA variants) or in Southeast Asia, where the other Austro Asiatic languages have spread. Y-chromosome variation supports the latter model through sharing of hg O2a in both regions. We show that in addition to the dominant ancestry component being shared between the Indian Dravidic and Munda speakers, up to 30% of Munda speakers retain an ancestry component otherwise prevalent in East Asia. There is no widespread sign of South Asian ancestry component in Southeast Asia. This provides genomic support to the model by which Indian Austro-Asiatic populations derive from dispersal from Southeast/East Asia, followed by an extensive admixture with local Indian populations.

This chapter focused on implicit theories regarding political apologies. Political apologies differ from individual apologies in that they generally are concerned not only with wrongful acts but also with a distinct political quality of wrongful acts committed under the mantel of the nation. Participants from Western Europe, Russia and the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the UK/Anglo regions gave qualitative responses regarding the effectiveness of one nation’s apology for reconciliation between two countries, as well as what actions would need to be taken to achieve true reconciliation. Overwhelmingly, participants across all regions – developed versus developing country, Eastern versus Western, or colonized versus colonizer – stated that an apology could help the reconciliation process in one way or another. Participants in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East offered frequent responses indicating an apology could lead to reconciliation, while Africa and the UK/Anglo regions indicated an apology could lead to healing. The most frequent responses from Russia and the Balkans, East Asia, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa said an apology was a necessary component of reconciliation. In regard to the steps that were needed to make an apology effective, a high proportion of response (84–97 %) indicated that reconciliation is achievable following an apology if certain steps are taken. For instance, participants from East Asia and Western Europe noted that the sincerity of the apology was most important. Africa and Russia and the Balkans had more responses indicating that recognition of wrongdoing was important, while the Middle East and Russia and the Balkans had frequent responses favoring a state sanctioned diplomatic response or treaty. Interestingly, Africa and South and Southeast Asia were most in favor of monetary aid as a step toward reconciliation, perhaps reflecting the more recent experiences of those countries with colonization, war/conflict, and widespread poverty.

Purpose: The purpose of this research article is to compare, characterize, investigate, and examine how mindfulness is viewed and practised in various religious contexts (such as in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity) as well as in secular contexts (such as in the clinical psychological fields and in the psycho-therapeutic interventions). This is to find key concepts, practices, and various interpretations of mindfulness in both religious and secular settings. Design/Methodology/Approach: In this Comparative study, though we can use mixed methods to have a more holistic understanding of various conceptions of mindfulness used in religious as well as secular contexts, however, here the researcher focuses only on qualitative data by analyzing religious texts on mindfulness and the literature related to it from the scholarly sources. Hence, the data collection methods used here are data collected from secondary sample sources like academic journals, books, and other reliable sources, to explore the meaning and cultural contexts associated with mindfulness practices within the religious traditions and secular fields. Finding/Result: After analysing the concept of mindfulness in this comparative study, it is found that there exists a difference between the religious and secular understanding of mindfulness. Though the differences are not major ones, we can find some changes in the definition, goals, practices cultural context, faith etc. Originality/Value: This comparative study offers a nuanced understanding of how mindfulness practices can be interpreted, applied, and appreciated across different disciplines. Thus, it explores the significance of mindfulness both in religious and secular contexts. This will enable us to check the practicality of mindfulness and to show how effective a tool it is to reduce stress and other related problems. Paper Type: Comparative Study Article.

Abstract. Limited availability of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) observations limits our understanding of controls on its spatial and temporal variability and its interactions with the ecosystem. Here we used the Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers version 4 (MOZART-4) global chemistry transport model and the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution version 2 (HTAP-v2) emission inventory to simulate global NH3 distribution for the year 2010. We presented a first comparison of the model with monthly averaged satellite distributions and limited ground-based observations available across South Asia. The MOZART-4 simulations over South Asia and East Asia were evaluated with the NH3 retrievals obtained from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite and 69 ground-based monitoring stations for air quality across South Asia and 32 ground-based monitoring stations from the Nationwide Nitrogen Deposition Monitoring Network (NNDMN) of China. We identified the northern region of India (Indo-Gangetic Plain, IGP) as a hotspot for NH3 in Asia, both using the model and satellite observations. In general, a close agreement was found between yearly averaged NH3 total columns simulated by the model and IASI satellite measurements over the IGP, South Asia (r=0.81), and the North China Plain (NCP), East Asia (r=0.90). However, the MOZART-4-simulated NH3 column was substantially higher over South Asia than East Asia, as compared with the IASI retrievals, which show smaller differences. Model-simulated surface NH3 concentrations indicated smaller concentrations in all seasons than surface NH3 measured by the ground-based observations over South and East Asia, although uncertainties remain in the available surface NH3 measurements. Overall, the comparison of East Asia and South Asia using both MOZART-4 model and satellite observations showed smaller NH3 columns in East Asia compared with South Asia for comparable emissions, indicating rapid dissipation of NH3 due to secondary aerosol formation, which can be explained by larger emissions of acidic precursor gases in East Asia.

Introduction: the view from Silicon Valley -- Religion and politics in the new global paradigm -- A new paradigm for world politics? -- A political perspective on religion and politics -- A religious perspective on religion and politics -- The religions of the book, meditative experience, and public life -- Religion in contemporary world politics -- The west : Christianity, secularization, and immigration -- East Asia : modernization and ideology -- South and central Asia : the legacies of Gandhi and Khomeini and the bomb -- The Middle East and North Africa : Jewish and Islamic politics -- Latin America : indigenous religions, Christianity, and globalization -- Religion and politics for the next millennium -- Appendix I: Thirty years of Nobel Peace prize winners, 1975-2004 -- Appendix II: Paradigm chart and category questions.

Aim. To consider the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and special military ope­ration on the structure of the international derivatives market. Tasks. To characterize the regional structure of the international derivatives market; to analyze the specifics of trade by region, country, exchange and underlying assets; to identify key trends in the international derivatives market and the factors forming them during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and special military operation. Methods. General scientific methods of research (analysis and synthesis, induction, classifica­tion, etc.), as well as computational and analytical methods were used. Results. Two key trends were identified in the study of changes in international derivatives trading activity. First, the Asia-Pacific region, led by India and China, has taken the lead in the international derivatives trade structure in terms of trade volume. The U.S. region, led by the United States and Brazil, has lagged far behind the Asia-Pacific region in terms of trade activ­ity since the launch of the special military operation, which may entail capital outflows from America to East and South Asia. Second, the West Asian region, which includes a number of countries in the Near and Middle East, led by Turkey and Iran, is a new player in the deriva­tives market, which has entered into competition with the European region. During the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the West Asian region actively increased derivatives trading volumes. The most popular underlying assets of derivatives were stocks, whose trading volume during the pandemic approached the trading volume of the European region as a whole, which includes the European Union countries, Great Britain and Russia. After the start of the special military operation, the drop in volumes in the European region put the West Asian region in third place in the international structure of derivatives trading activity, indicating the growing competi­tion between West Asia and Europe. Conclusions. The transformation of the international market based on the outflow of trade activity to South, East and West Asia during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and special military operation forms a qualitatively new interaction of participants in the international derivatives market. India, China, Turkey and Iran are new key players in the Asian region. Their interaction creates prerequisites for the creation of a contour of new economic mutually advan­tageous interaction in the world economic system, in which the competition is between the regions of South Asia, East Asia and America, as well as between West Asia and the European region. To form a clearer contour of the participants of the new economic interaction, further research on the centers of capitalization in the international derivatives market and the basis for their formation, as well as infrastructure research aimed at studying the transatlantic and continental system of interconnection of exchanges is needed.