On Collateral Damage, Selective Anti-Imperialism and the Path to Liberation

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More than a half of the northern Asian pool of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is fragmented into a number of subclades of haplogroups C and D, two of the most frequent haplogroups throughout northern, eastern, central Asia and America. While there has been considerable recent progress in studying mitochondrial variation in eastern Asia and America at the complete genome resolution, little comparable data is available for regions such as southern Siberia – the area where most of northern Asian haplogroups, including C and D, likely diversified. This gap in our knowledge causes a serious barrier for progress in understanding the demographic pre-history of northern Eurasia in general. Here we describe the phylogeography of haplogroups C and D in the populations of northern and eastern Asia. We have analyzed 770 samples from haplogroups C and D (174 and 596, respectively) at high resolution, including 182 novel complete mtDNA sequences representing haplogroups C and D (83 and 99, respectively). The present-day variation of haplogroups C and D suggests that these mtDNA clades expanded before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), with their oldest lineages being present in the eastern Asia. Unlike in eastern Asia, most of the northern Asian variants of haplogroups C and D began the expansion after the LGM, thus pointing to post-glacial re-colonization of northern Asia. Our results show that both haplogroups were involved in migrations, from eastern Asia and southern Siberia to eastern and northeastern Europe, likely during the middle Holocene.

Aridity index reflects the exchanges of energy and water between the land surface and the atmosphere, and its variation can be used to forecast drought and flood patterns, which makes it of great significance for agricultural production. The ratio of potential evapotranspiration and precipitation is applied to analyse the spatial and temporal distributions of the aridity index in the Belt and Road region under the 1.5°C and 2.0°C global warming scenarios on the basis of outputs from four downscaled global climate models. The results show that: (1) Under the 1.5°C warming scenario, the area-averaged aridity index will be similar to that in 1986–2005 (around 1.58), but the changes vary spatially. The aridity index will increase by more than 5% in Central-Eastern Europe, north of West Asia, the monsoon region of East Asia and northwest of Southeast Asia, while it is projected to decrease obviously in the southeast of West Asia. Regarding the seasonal scale, spring and winter will be more arid in South Asia, and the monsoon region of East Asia will be slightly drier in summer compared with the reference period. While, West Asia will be wetter in all seasons, except winter. (2) Relative to 1986–2005, both areal averaged annual potential evapotranspiration and precipitation are projected to increase, and the spatial variation of aridity index will become more obvious as well at the 2.0°C warming level. Although the aridity index over the entire region will be maintained at approximately 1.57 as that in 1.5°C, the index in Central- Eastern Europe, north of West Asia and Central Asia will grow rapidly at a rate of more than 20%, while that in West Siberia, northwest of China, the southern part of South Asia and West Asia will show a declining trend. At the seasonal scale, the increase of the aridity index in Central-Eastern Europe, Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia and the northern part of Siberia in winter will be obvious, and the monsoon region in East Asia will be drier in both summer and autumn. (3) Under the scenario of an additional 0.5°C increase in global temperature from 1.5°C to 2.0°C, the aridity index will increase significantly in Central Asia and north of West Asia but decrease in Southeast Asia and Central Siberia. Seasonally, the aridity index in the Belt and Road region will slightly increase in all other seasons except spring. Central Asia will become drier annually at a rate of more than 20%. The aridity index in South Asia will increase in spring and winter, and that in East Asia will increase in autumn and winter. (4) To changes of the aridity index, the attribution of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration will vary regionally. Precipitation will be the major influencing factor over southern West Asia, southern South Asia, Central-Eastern Siberia, the non-monsoon region of East Asia and the border between West Asia and Central Asia, while potential evapotranspiration will exert greater effects over Central-Eastern Europe, West Siberia, Central Asia and the monsoon region of East Asia.

Identifying the origin of moisture is a key process in revealing the formation mechanisms of precipitation, but the moisture sources for central Asia have not been well documented in previous studies. In this work, we employ the Lagrangian model FLEXPART over 2011–19 to address this question. Multiple observational products indicate that the times of dry and wet seasons are opposite for western and eastern central Asia bounded by 75°E. The wet season is November–April (NDJFMA) for western central Asia but May–October (MJJASO) for eastern central Asia, while the opposite is true for the dry season. The main moisture source regions for western central Asia are local regions (with a contribution of 49.11%), western Eurasia (21.47%), and western Asia (11.37%) during MJJASO and local regions (33.92%), western Asia (27.50%), and western Eurasia (17.60%) during NDJFMA. For eastern central Asia, moisture mainly originates from local regions (52.38%), western central Asia (25.22%), and northern Eurasia (9.26%) during MJJASO and western central Asia (30.86%), local regions (30.82%), western Asia (10.31%), and western Eurasia (10.26%) during NDJFMA. The differences in moisture sources between dry and wet seasons mainly occur in local regions and western Asia for western central Asia but in local regions for eastern central Asia. The moisture from northern Eurasia, western Eurasia, and western central Asia is transported into target regions by the westerly and southwesterly winds that are associated with a deep low trough over central Asia. Moisture is transported from western Asia by the anticyclone occurs over North Africa and western Asia in the lower and middle troposphere.

Loess deposits spread widely in central and East Asia, where the main area of loess deposition is on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Climatic conditions in central and east Asia allowed a substantial loess accumulation since 2, 400ka., while in South and Southeast Asia, the presence of loess is recognized locally in a periphery of Thar Desert and on the terraces of South India and Thailand. A weakened monsoon during glacial phases seems to diminish a loess accumulation in these regions. Most areas of East Asia such as the Japanese Islands, Korea and Taiwan were affected the depositionof eolian dust originated in the drier area of Asian continent, especially during the Last Glacial time. A depositional rate of loess and eolian dust in the glacial period was higher than in the interglacial. Fine silt production in deserts and glacierized areas seems to have increased in glacial period. On the Chinese Loess Plateau and western Japan, a depositional rate of loess and dust in MIS 2 was 1.3 times higher than in MIS 4. On the contrary, in northern Japan, a dust deposition rate of MIS 2 was 2.5 times higher than in MIS 4. The difference of rates between the western and the northern Japan seems to reflect a paleoenvironmental change of the source areas of eolian dust: a desert condition might have increased more in the northern Asia from which the eolian dust mainly came to the northern Japan, because of a drier condition in winter by a decrease of snowfall.ESR intensity signal of fine quartz (finer than 20μm) during MIS 2 in the Japanese Islands varies in different localities. Under the assumption that the values of ESR intensity signal of eolian fine quartz reflect those of the quartz at the source area of eolian dust, the source area and trajectory of eolian dust are tentatively reconstructed. The northern Japan where the ESR intensity signal is high (10-12), the eolian dust seems to be supplied from Siberia and Mongolia where the Precambrian rocks with a high ESR intensity signal are widely exposed. The central and southern Japan where the ESR intensity signal is medium (5.8-8.7), the eolian dust seems to be supplied from central Asia where the Paleozoic-Mesozoic rocks with a medium ESR intensity signal are widely exposed. The southernmost islands of Japan where the ESR intensity signal increases again, seem to have an eolian dust supply from South China and India where the Precambrian rocks are widely exposed. On the basis of ESR intensity signals, three major courses of eolian dust transport in MIS 2 are proposed: the winter monsoon in the northern Japan, the summer subtropical jet in the central and southern Japan, and the winter subtropical jet in the southernmost islands of Japan.The uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Range seems to enhance a production and supply of Asian loess, by the intensification of Siberian high and Asian monsoon system. Glacier extension on the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan Range, which is related to the uplift of these areas, also enhanced the production of loess material in the source area. The detail study which correlates the glaciation with the loess deposition in central Asia is much more required.

The chapter focuses on the Tectonic map of Northern, Central and Eastern Asia at 1: 2.5 M scale, which reflects the current state of knowledge on tectonics of this vast area and which was compiled in the framework of the International project “3D Geological Structures and Metallogeny of Northern, Central and Eastern Asia” initiated in 2002 by the geological surveys of five countries: Russia, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea. The charter outlines a brief history of the tectonic map compilation, principles of legend compilation and its description, describes the scheme of tectonic zoning of Northern, Central and Eastern Asia (Central Asian fold belt and adjacent tectonic structures).

Spatial contrasts of the Holocene hydroclimate trend between North and East Asia

This chapter discusses the rock art traditions of Northern, Central, and Western Asia, first providing an overview of the chronological-cultural context of much of the known rock art in Northern and Central Asia before describing the main geographical concentrations of rock paintings and petroglyphs in the area. In particular, it examines the dilemmas with regards to ascertaining the age of ‘Stone Age’ rock art, along with the presence of chariots in rock art as an iconographic determinant of the Bronze Age. It also considers the association of the Bronze Age with the expansion of Indo-Iranians, expansion of Buddhism through Central Asia as reflected in the rock art, relation of Siberian rock art to shamanism, and major rock art regions of Northern and Central Asia. It concludes by assessing the rock art of Western Asia and how the advent of Islam in mid–seventh century ad changed Arabian traditions of rock art.

ABSTRACTPrimitive ceratopian dinosaurs of the family Psittacosauridae were hitherto known only from central and northern Asia, from northern China to Mongolia and Siberia. This paper reports the discovery of psittacosaurid jaws in Early Cretaceous rocks of the Khorat Plateau in north‐eastern Thailand. These fossils are clearly referrable to the genus Psittacosaurus Osborn and may represent a new species. They constitute a significant new element of the hitherto poorly known Cretaceous continental vertebrate fauna of South‐East Asia, suggesting that it was basically similar to that of northern and central Asia. This in turn confirms that, contrary to some recent palaeogeographical reconstructions, by Early Cretaceous times the Indochina block, on which the Thai psittacosaurids have been found, had become part of mainland Asia.

With the aim of uncovering all of the most basal variation in the northern Asian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups, we have analyzed mtDNA control region and coding region sequence variation in 98 Altaian Kazakhs from southern Siberia and 149 Barghuts from Inner Mongolia, China. Both populations exhibit the prevalence of eastern Eurasian lineages accounting for 91.9% in Barghuts and 60.2% in Altaian Kazakhs. The strong affinity of Altaian Kazakhs and populations of northern and central Asia has been revealed, reflecting both influences of central Asian inhabitants and essential genetic interaction with the Altai region indigenous populations. Statistical analyses data demonstrate a close positioning of all Mongolic-speaking populations (Mongolians, Buryats, Khamnigans, Kalmyks as well as Barghuts studied here) and Turkic-speaking Sojots, thus suggesting their origin from a common maternal ancestral gene pool. In order to achieve a thorough coverage of DNA lineages revealed in the northern Asian matrilineal gene pool, we have completely sequenced the mtDNA of 55 samples representing haplogroups R11b, B4, B5, F2, M9, M10, M11, M13, N9a and R9c1, which were pinpointed from a massive collection (over 5000 individuals) of northern and eastern Asian, as well as European control region mtDNA sequences. Applying the newly updated mtDNA tree to the previously reported northern Asian and eastern Asian mtDNA data sets has resolved the status of the poorly classified mtDNA types and allowed us to obtain the coalescence age estimates of the nodes of interest using different calibrated rates. Our findings confirm our previous conclusion that northern Asian maternal gene pool consists of predominantly post-LGM components of eastern Asian ancestry, though some genetic lineages may have a pre-LGM/LGM origin.

Asia is the world’s largest continent hosting approximately 60% of the world population. Asia is located in the eastern and northern hemispheres and is divided into five main regions – Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Northern Asia, South-eastern Asia, Southern Asia and West Asia. Due to its vast geographical size and population count, Asia is a pluralistic continent instead of a homogenous entity. The populations within the Asia continent are heterogeneous by their country of origin, history, culture, and languages.KeywordsEpidermal Growth Factor ReceptorInternational Normalise RatioEpidermal Growth Factor Receptor MutationWarfarin DoseEpidermal Growth Factor Receptor GeneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. It will potentially lead to such eventualities as drought and famine, which some of the CWANA countries have already experienced. The capacity of national governments and communities to mitigate disasters will be limited in the short to medium term, rendering them still vulnerable to the adversities of climate change. Climate change is a global issue with regional implications. Many multilateral environmental agreements address these issues, and some countries of the region have ratified some such agreements (CWANA, 2009). Effects of climate change on land use refers to both how land use might be altered by climate change and what land management strategies would mitigate the negative effects of climate change (Dale, 1997). Asia is the most populous continent, population in 2002 was reported to be about 3,902 million, of which almost 61% is rural and 38.5% lives within 100 km of the coast (Duedall & Maul, 2005). Asia is divided into seven subregions, namely North Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Tibetan Plateau, East Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia. All of Asia is very likely to warm during this century; the warming is likely to be well above the global mean in central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and northern Asia, above the global mean in East and South Asia, and similar to the global mean in Southeast Asia. Extreme weather events in Asia were reported to provide evidence of increases in the intensity or frequency on regional scales throughout the 20th century. More investigations predicted that the area-averaged annual mean warming would be about 3°C in the decade of the 2050s and about 5°C in the decade of the 2080s over the land regions of Asia as a result of future increases in atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (Lal et al., 2001). In addition rainfall will be altered too. Rainfall in the Philippines would continue to be highly variable, as influenced by seasonal changes and climate extremes and be of higher intensity (Perez, 2008). Also, Changes in annual precipitation for Singapore would range from –2 to +15% with a median of +7%. Extreme rainfall and winds associated with tropical cyclones are likely to increase (Ho, 2008). Other investigations for west Asia has reported that long-term climatic changes of annual surface air temperature, surface wind and rainfall of the State of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates revealed that significant climate warming is taking place in entire three countries. However, there is no notable trend observed in the rainfall series at any of these places. There is a significant decrease in the mean wind speed at many locations in the region of investigation. The 18

The study focusses at describing and determining the prospects for the implementation and operational routes of the meridional transformation of the transport and transit system (TTS) of Asian Russia (AR) in the context of external sanctions pressure and the development of trade and economic cooperation with friendly and neutral states. Goal. Development and implementation of a promising model for connecting the TTS of Russia and the countries of the Global South, primarily in the direction of North Asia – Central Asia – South/West Asia. Tasks. To analyze and determine the prospects for the implementation and current routes of the meridional transformation of the TTS of the Republic of Armenia in the context of external sanctions pressure and the development of trade and economic cooperation with friendly and neutral states. Methodology. The research uses the methods of evolutionary and institutional theory, the theory of industrial and technological balance of the economy and technical and economic structures, expert and analytical assessments, content analysis of materials from periodicals. Results. Based on the theory of transit economy developed by the author's team, modeling the creation and functioning of trade routes and their innovation and industrial belts (IIB), a promising model of the interaction of the TTS of Russia and the countries of the Global South, primarily in the direction of North Asia – Central Asia – South/West Asia, has been developed. Theoretical, methodological, scientific and practical support for the change in the configuration of global, macroregional and regional trade routes of the AR is given, the necessity is justified and proposals for the directions of meridional transformation of the transport and communication infrastructure of the AR are developed. The necessity of intensification of the meridional transformation of the TTS AR is substantiated. The analysis of current infrastructure projects of meridional transformation is given, the groundwork, significance and complexity of the implementation of global projects of latitudinal and meridional transformation of the TTS AR are considered. Conclusions. The most effective direction of the meridional transformation of the TTS AR is the construction of a new Arctic Ocean – Indian Ocean (AO – IO) transport corridor based on the Sixth Technological Order.

The combined effect of the Madden−Julian oscillation (MJO) and Arctic oscillation (AO) on the temperature variation over Asia is investigated using the thermodynamic budget equation. Because of the distinct geographical origin of the two atmospheric modes, the influence of AO is more dominant in the higher latitude, whereas the MJO impact is more predominant in the lower latitude. Hence, the physical process responsible for the surface cold anomaly is different for northern and southern Asia. Cold anomaly appears in most of Asia 20–25 days after the MJO phase 6 (corresponding to the phase 2–3). However, more strengthened cold anomaly occurs over northern Asia under the negative AO state and it is caused by advection of temperature anomaly by climatological northerly wind associated with the East Asia winter monsoon flow. On the other hand, much stronger cold anomaly is seen over southern Asia under the positive AO state for the same lag day of the initial MJO phase 6. Aside from the upward overturning circulation forced by the tropical MJO over the subtropics and lower midlatitudes, the weakening of the East Asia subtropical jet by the positive AO induces additional upward motion over southern Asia to adjust the thermal wind balance. The combined effect of the MJO and AO also influences on the occurrence of extreme cold event. Under the negative (positive) AO phase, the extreme cold event occurrence probability over northern (southern) Asia increases by 90% (60%) compared to that for all winter days. The relative increase rate for the MJO phases 2–3 is ~30% over southern Asia. The cold event occurrence probability for the combined modes is about the twice that for only MJO impact, suggesting that an incorporation of both modes enhance the predictability of extreme cold event.

Recent global warming is pronounced in high-latitude regions (e.g. northern Asia), and will cause the vegetation to change. Future vegetation trends (e.g. the “arctic greening”) will feed back into atmospheric circulation and the global climate system. Understanding the nature and causes of past vegetation changes is important for predicting the composition and distribution of future vegetation communities. Fossil pollen records from 468 sites in northern and eastern Asia were biomised at selected times between 40 cal ka bp and today. Biomes were also simulated using a climate-driven biome model and results from the two approaches compared in order to help understand the mechanisms behind the observed vegetation changes. The consistent biome results inferred by both approaches reveal that long-term and broad-scale vegetation patterns reflect global- to hemispheric-scale climate changes. Forest biomes increase around the beginning of the late deglaciation, become more widespread during the early and middle Holocene, and decrease in the late Holocene in fringe areas of the Asian Summer Monsoon. At the southern and southwestern margins of the taiga, forest increases in the early Holocene and shows notable species succession, which may have been caused by winter warming at ca. 7 cal ka bp. At the northeastern taiga margin (central Yakutia and northeastern Siberia), shrub expansion during the last deglaciation appears to prevent the permafrost from thawing and hinders the northward expansion of evergreen needle-leaved species until ca. 7 cal ka bp. The vegetation-climate disequilibrium during the early Holocene in the taiga-tundra transition zone suggests that projected climate warming will not cause a northward expansion of evergreen needle-leaved species.