The creation of ‘Indonesian–Malaysian’ culture-inspired terracotta vases

This study investigated heavy metal contamination in drinking water in five Asian regions (East, Southeast, South, Central, and West Asia) with an interest in inorganic arsenic (iAs), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni). Human exposure, risks, and the disease burdens in terms of loss of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were analyzed. Concentrations of heavy metals and risks in different regions were variable. Hazard index (HI), cancer risk (CR) and DALYs were used as the health metrics. The total cancer risk was highest in Southeast Asia (2.18 × 10−4) followed by South Asia (1.61 × 10−4), West Asia (1.04 × 10−4), Central Asia (8.85 × 10−5) and East Asia (3.94 × 10−5). Cancer risks exceeding 1 × 10−4 (1 in 10,000) were considered higher risk while Southeast Asia had the highest risk. In terms of population-adjusted DALY, South Asia had the highest (1.95 × 105) followed by Southeast Asia (8.66 × 104), East Asia (2.34 × 104), West Asia (1.91 × 104) and Central Asia (4.60 × 103). Lung cancer emerged as the main outcome in all regions, accounting for 85% and 94% of cancer risks, and DALYs respectively. The findings highlight regional disparities, requiring intervention strategies in a few regions. The actions may include implementing regulations, treatment technologies and establishing monitoring systems to ensure water quality.

The dispersal of rice (Oryza sativa) following domestication influenced massive social and cultural changes across South, East, and Southeast (SE) Asia. The history of dispersal across islands of SE Asia, and the role of Taiwan and the Austronesian expansion in this process remain largely unresolved. Here, we reconstructed the routes of dispersal of O. sativa ssp. japonica rice to Taiwan and the northern Philippines using whole-genome resequencing of indigenous rice landraces coupled with archaeological and paleoclimate data. Our results indicate that japonica rice found in the northern Philippines diverged from Indonesian landraces as early as 3,500 years before present (BP). In contrast, rice cultivated by the indigenous peoples of the Taiwanese mountains has complex origins. It comprises two distinct populations, each best explained as a result of admixture between temperate japonica that presumably came from northeast Asia, and tropical japonica from the northern Philippines and mainland SE Asia, respectively. We find that the temperate japonica component of these indigenous Taiwan populations diverged from northeast Asia subpopulations at about 2,600 BP, whereas gene flow from the northern Philippines had begun before ∼1,300 BP. This coincides with a period of intensified trade established across the South China Sea. Finally, we find evidence for positive selection acting on distinct genomic regions in different rice subpopulations, indicating local adaptation associated with the spread of japonica rice.

The subject is the peopling of the world. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, the founder of genetic studies of human prehistory, is seen as the Moses of the story: “his vision predated the technology needed to fulfill it.” Svante Pääbo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, invented much of that technology. And David Reich, at Harvard's Department of Genetics, raised the study of ancient human DNA to an industrial scale, basing it on reconstructions of the whole genome rather than on small fragments of (mostly mitochondrial) DNA. The “new science” of the title refers to this last-mentioned “genomic revolution”—occurring over the past ten years. Much of Reich's book takes the form of a complex detective story, tracing the discoveries of researchers, particularly in Pääbo's and Reich's laboratories, as DNA evidence from around the world has accumulated. It is an absorbing story, astonishing both in the technological capacities achieved and in the pace of discovery. But for demographers, this way of proceeding is also frustrating. The book is full of details of research methods, anecdotes about investigators, discussions of how new results support or (just as often) supplant the findings of traditional archaeology and historical linguistics, and digressions about national and ethnic sensitivities over ancient bones. Intermixed in all this are maps summarizing the state of knowledge of migratory flows: directions and dates; but the flows, of course, refer to genes, not numbers of people. These are the makings of a solidly-founded, if still in many respects sketchy and provisional, picture of the world's deep demographic history, one that fills out and greatly complicates the simple “out-of-Africa” and “land bridges” models of humanity's origins and spread. Some elements of the fuller picture: Anatomically-modern humans emerged in Africa roughly 300,000 years before present (BP). Their main dispersal out of Africa came around 60,000–50,000 BP. (There were earlier dispersals as well.) Modern humans reached Europe, East Asia, and Australia and New Guinea by 50,000–40,000 BP. In the period 54,000–44,000 BP there was some interbreeding of modern humans with archaic strains—Neanderthals (throughout Eurasia) and Denisovians (in eastern and southeastern Asia)—before those strains became extinct. Hunter-gatherers spread through Europe, experiencing “multiple population replacements,” but squeezed southward by glacial ice around 25,000–19,000 BP. Further migration from the Anatolian region circa 14,000 BP “homogenized the population of Europe and the Near East.” Farming (and farmers) spread across Europe from the Near East over 9,000 to 6,000 BP, coexisting with hunter-gatherers. South Asian demographic prehistory was somewhat comparable in nature and timing to Europe's, with farming spreading eastward from Iran. Modern East Asia's population appears to derive from the mixing of two ancient lineages (termed “ghost populations” by Reich) populating the Yellow River and Yangtze valleys, both of which had developed farming by 9,000 BP. Residues of the lineages are found in modern Tibetan- and Tai-speaking groups, respectively. There were likely four prehistoric migrations from Eurasia to the Americas, the earliest from northeast Asia along a late-ice age shoreline route from Alaska that opened 16,000 BP, reaching South America by 14,000 BP. (One of the more remarkable DNA findings is of some common ancestry between populations in the Amazon and aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, and Andamanese.) The southwest Pacific islands were settled over 5,000 to 3,000 BP by migrants from East Asia, bypassing New Guinea; a later migrant stream brought New Guinean ancestry to some of these islands. Reich notes that the ancient DNA revolution has been highly Eurocentric. The African demographic story thus far is particularly sketchy. But he predicts production within the next decade of “an ancient DNA atlas of humanity, sampled densely through time and space”—a resource that “will rival the first maps of the globe made between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries in terms of its contribution to human knowledge.” References in endnotes; index.

In this study, a comparison in the precipitation extremes as exhibited by the seven reference datasets is made to ascertain whether the inferences based on these datasets agree or they differ. These seven datasets, roughly grouped in three categories i.e. rain-gauge based (APHRODITE, CPC-UNI), satellite-based (TRMM, GPCP1DD) and reanalysis based (ERA-Interim, MERRA, and JRA55), having a common data period 1998–2007 are considered. Focus is to examine precipitation extremes in the summer monsoon rainfall over South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia. Measures of extreme precipitation include the percentile thresholds, frequency of extreme precipitation events and other quantities. Results reveal that the differences in displaying extremes among the datasets are small over South Asia and East Asia but large differences among the datasets are displayed over the Southeast Asian region including the maritime continent. Furthermore, precipitation data appear to be more consistent over East Asia among the seven datasets. Decadal trends in extreme precipitation are consistent with known results over South and East Asia. No trends in extreme precipitation events are exhibited over Southeast Asia. Outputs of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) simulation data are categorized as high, medium and low-resolution models. The regions displaying maximum intensity of extreme precipitation appear to be dependent on model resolution. High-resolution models simulate maximum intensity of extreme precipitation over the Indian sub-continent, medium-resolution models over northeast India and South China and the low-resolution models over Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. In summary, there are differences in displaying extreme precipitation statistics among the seven datasets considered here and among the 29 CMIP5 model data outputs.

South East Asia (SEA) is made up of 11 countries (Viet-nam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia and Timor Leste) from Myanmar in the northwest to Timor Leste in the far south east. It is one of the most far flung region in Asia, with a land mass of 4.5 million km 2 and theitspopulation of 641 million makes it the third most populous geographical region in the world after South Asia and East Asia. Asia is the world’s largest most populous continent stretching from the Middle East in the west to Japan in the east with a population of 4.567 billion.

South East Asia (SEA) is made up of 11 countries (Viet-nam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia and Timor Leste) from Myanmar in the northwest to Timor Leste in the far south east. It is one of the most far flung region in Asia, with a land mass of 4.5 million km2 and theitspopulation of 641 million makes it the third most populous geographical region in the world after South Asia and East Asia. Asia is the world’s largest most populous continent stretching from the Middle East in the west to Japan in the east with a population of 4.567 billion.

ABSTRACTTwo thousand years ago, maritime trade flourished in Southeast Asia and archaeological excavations have revealed that Island Southeast Asia played an important role within developing trading networks. The sites of Sembiran and Pacung on the north coast of Bali, Indonesia, have produced a wide range of artifacts that demonstrate links to mainland and island Asia. Here, we examine faunal remains from these sites to assess the role that livestock played in north Bali diet and trade at that time. In addition to abundant pig (Sus cf. scrofa) remains, the sites yielded the earliest securely dated goat (Capra hircus) remains known from Southeast Asia. Moreover carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and strontium stable isotope analyses of bone collagen and tooth apatite indicate that some of these goats were from a markedly different environment than the pig, human, and dog remains from the sites. It is likely that these goats were imported from a different region—possibly South Asia—where they fed on C4 plants such as millet. This provides evidence that livestock were included in regional exchange networks, and prompts the question as to why goat remains are absent from Mainland Southeast Asia archaeological sites despite their presence in South Asia, East Asia, and Island Southeast Asia.

Although the fastest growing minority group, Asian Americans receive little attention in mental health research. Moreover, aggregated data mask further diversity within Asian Americans. This study aimed to examine depression risk by detailed Asian American subgroup, and further assess determinants within and between three Asian ethnic subgroups. Needs assessment surveys were collected in 16 Asian American subgroups (six Southeast Asian, six South Asian, and four East Asian) in New York City from 2013-2016 using community-based sampling strategies. A final sample of N=1,532 completed the PHQ-2. Bivariate comparisons and multivariable logistic models explored differences in depression risk by subgroup. Southeast Asians had the greatest depression risk (19%), followed by South Asians (11%) and East Asians (9%). Among Southeast Asians, depression risk was associated with lacking health insurance (OR=.2, 95% CI: 0-.6), not having a provider who speaks the same language (OR=3.2, 95% CI: 1.3-8.0), and lower neighborhood social cohesion (OR= .94, 95% CI: .71-.99). Among South Asians, depression risk was associated with greater English proficiency (OR=3.9, 95% CI: 1.6-9.2); and among East Asians, depression risk was associated with ≤ high school education (OR=4.2, 95% CI: 1.2-14.3). Additionally, among Southeast Asians and South Asians, the highest depression risk was associated with high levels of discrimination (Southeast Asian: OR=9.9, 95% CI: 1.8-56.2; South Asian: OR=7.3, 95% CI: 3.3-16.2). Depression risk and determinants differed by Asian American ethnic subgroup. Identifying factors associated with depression risk among these groups is key to targeting limited public health resources for these underserved communities.

e16615 Background: Bladder cancer remains a significant global health burden, particularly in older adults, with its incidence and mortality varying widely across regions. The median age at diagnosis of bladder is 73 years with 80% over the age of 65 in United States. Age of patients can impact management often requiring a multidisciplinary approach. Methods: Incidence rates for individuals aged 70+ across seven superregions (Central, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, High-income countries, North Africa and Middle East, Latin America and Carribean, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast, East Asia and Oceania) were extracted from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database and analyzed using ARIMA in Stata 18.0 to forecast rates from 2022–2050. Mortality rates were forecasted using the GBD foresight visualization tool. Percentage changes in incidence and mortality compared to 2021 were calculated and analyzed. Results: Bladder cancer incidence rates are projected to increase in North Africa and the Middle East (+6.8% by 2030, +23.0% by 2050), Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (+5.2% by 2030, +17.0% by 2050), South Asia (+2.0% by 2030, +7.3% by 2050), Latin America and the Caribbean (+1.6% by 2030, +5.2% by 2050), and Sub-Saharan Africa (+1.8% by 2030, +6.5% by 2050). In contrast, High-Income Regions and Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia are expected to decline, with High-Income Regions showing the steepest decrease (-10.6% by 2030, -52.0% by 2050). Mortality rates are projected to rise in High-Income Regions (+3.6% by 2030, +18.8% by 2050) andCentral Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (+3.6% by 2050, despite a -0.9% drop by 2030). Declines by 2030 are anticipated in Latin America and the Caribbean (-2.9%), North Africa and the Middle East (-4.5%), Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (-3.0%), and Sub-Saharan Africa (-2.9%), though many regions show stabilization or modest increases by 2050, such as South Asia (+7.0%) and Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (+12.4%). Conclusions: The study underscores the need for greater emphasis on regions in Asia and Africa expected to see an increase in incidence rates. The increase in mortality in many regions call for greater research in geriatric oncology and targeted interventions in older adults. Incidence rate (per 100,000 population) Mortality rates (per 100,000 population) Region 2021 2030 2050 2021 2030 2050 Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia 64.99 61.28 57.28 39.78 39.41 41.22 High-income countries 110.38 98.67 53.03 48.40 50.13 57.49 Latin America and Caribbean 29.84 30.31 31.38 22.34 21.69 22.31 North Africa and Middle East 68.04 72.69 83.69 34.90 33.33 35.24 South Asia 18.75 19.14 20.13 15.39 15.26 16.47 Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania 40.60 42.71 47.49 24.02 23.30 27.01 Sub-Saharan Africa 26.57 27.06 28.31 23.64 22.96 22.90

This study employs super-efficiency DEA model with desirable inputs and an undesirable output in calculating environmental efficiency values in different regions in Asia-Pacific from 1990 to 2018. The study compares environmental efficiency index in South East Asia, South Asia and East Asia. The study also evaluates the determinants of environmental efficiency using truncated regression. The mean environmental efficiency score demonstrates that East Asia region is highly efficient whereas South East Asia is the least efficient. Results from the truncated regression established an inverted U-shape relationship between environmental efficiency and Technological Innovation (TI) in the main panel, and the three regions. Also, economic growth shows an inverted “U” shape link with environmental efficiency in the panels except in South East Asia. Human capital promotes environmental efficiency in the main panel and the rest of the regions. Moreover, while FDI promotes environmental efficiency in the main panel and East Asia, it reduces environmental efficiency in both South East and South Asia regions within the Asia-Pacific. In addition, an interaction effect between technological innovation and renewable energy use, advances environmental efficiency within the entire study countries. Based on the findings the study proposes several policy recommendations.

According to the basic principles of flood risk, risk of storm hazard, stability of disaster environment and vulnerabilities of hazard-affected bodies, we used South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia as the study area and comprehensively considered major indicators, including the rainfall, topography, land use, vegetation, river network density, population and economic strength, to perform a disaster impact evaluation. The above-mentioned factors were normalized to obtain standardized multi-source raster data using the geographic information system (GIS) software package. The weights of relevant indicators were determined according to analytic hierarchy processes, and a model to perform comprehensive risk assessment of flood was constructed. We used GIS to obtain an assessment map of the flood comprehensive risk levels of typical Asian areas. With the help of the comprehensive analysis, genesis and mitigation service principles and assessment map of the flood comprehensive risk levels, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed on the study region. Finally, the study area was divided into six sub-regions, the northwestern, southwestern, southern, and central districts, eastern plains, and southeastern coastal areas. Among these districts, the eastern plains and southeastern coastal areas had the highest risk, followed by the southern district. Meanwhile, the southwestern district had lower values, and the northwestern and central districts exhibited the lowest risk. The results from this research have significant reference values regarding macro-policy decisions on the prevention of flood disasters in the South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Foodborne Diseases: Prevalence of Foodborne Diseases in South East and Central Asia

Reviewed by: A New History of Southeast Asia Patrick Jory A New History of Southeast Asia. M. C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Albert Lau, Portia Reyes, Maitri Aung Thwin Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 568 pp., index. ISBN 978-0230-21-214-5 Does the study of Southeast Asian history need a new textbook history of Southeast Asia? If so, what should it look like? How should it differ from its predecessors? An attempt to answer these questions may be found in the recent publication of A New History of Southeast Asia, a joint effort by Singapore-based historians of Southeast Asia, M. C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Albert Lau, Portia Reyes, and Maitri Aung Thwin. A New History of Southeast Asia was conceived as a ‘new edition’ of D. G. E. Hall’s monumental, 1000-page tome, A History of South-East Asia, first published in 1955 and reprinted in several revised editions until as late as 1985. This imposing volume has long been a required work on the reading lists of all students of Southeast Asian history—even if few students could honestly admit to having read it from cover to cover. Since the original publication of A History of SouthEast Asia there have, of course, been great changes both to scholarship on the region and to the Southeast Asian region itself. Hall wrote his great work just as the field of Southeast Asian history (not to mention the name ‘Southeast Asia’/‘South East Asia’/‘South-East Asia’) was establishing itself and the region was in the throes of decolonization. Hall himself held the first chair of South East Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, a sign that Southeast Asian history was beginning to come into its own as a discrete field of study. The onset of the Cold War largely determined the development of scholarship on Southeast Asia for at least the next two decades. North American universities, in particular Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program, set the pace for what in retrospect can be seen as the golden age of Southeast Asian studies in the West. Following the end of the Cold War and the decline in funding support to Area Studies programs generally, Southeast Asian history has often struggled in the former Western centres. But the expansion of the tertiary education system within Southeast Asia has given impetus to the study of Southeast Asian history by Southeast Asians in the region. With a population of upwards of 600 million people it is likely that the future development of scholarship on Southeast Asian history will be determined more and more by Southeast Asian scholars. A New History of Southeast Asia to a certain extent represents this trend, a ‘book, written in Southeast Asia by historians who live there’ (p. 471)—even if Singapore is a part of Southeast Asia with rather unique characteristics—especially its organic connection to the Western, English-speaking academic world. Southeast Asia, and Asia more generally, has undergone massive transformation since the publication of Hall’s History. Today Southeast Asia is a far more [End Page 122] politically stable and economically prosperous place. Economists predict that Asia as a whole will soon constitute the greater part of the world economy, as once was the case before the era of European imperialism. In historical terms this turnaround, from the humiliation of colonial rule and the widespread poverty which characterized the region just a few decades ago, has taken place in a remarkably short period of time. With the rise of China and latterly India, Southeast Asia is also becoming more integrated. Despite its many failings the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the ASEAN Regional Forum, not to mention low-cost air travel, are all bringing the region together in ways that could hardly have been imagined six decades ago. The very concept of ‘Southeast Asia’, a staple topic for discussion in early lectures on Southeast Asia in most history programmes, today has become so reified that it can be difficult to explain to students why the concept was once so problematic. If it was once possible to keep...

The importance of Gupta-period sculpture to the art of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia has been stressed by many scholars for over a century. The Gupta Period is roughly the fourth-sixth centuries during which the Gupta dynasty controlled much of north India. The Gupta-period artistic style was fairly consistent and emphasised an idealised naturalism that has been praised for its artistic excellence. It is also seen to have relationships with some of the earliest art that developed in Southeast Asia. My paper outlines how these relationships can be defined. It places the Gupta-related art into the context of other Indian art, of Sri Lankan art, of Chinese art, and then each of these with Southeast Asian art. It aims to question several of the standard scholarly assumptions made in regard to the relationship of Gupta-period and Southeast Asian art. WHAT IS GUPTA-PERIOD ART? The Gupta dynasty began rule in 320, reached its political zenith around 400, and was losing its strength a century later, by around 500. There is very little art that can be attributed to the fourth century, during the initial decades of Gupta political growth. Indeed there is little art in north India that can be placed in this century, following the end of the Kushan dynastic control and the rise of the Guptas. The Guptas themselves appear not to have been patrons of sculpture or temples, as we have no sculpture and only a few temple remains that were patronized by them. Their interest in visual arts seems limited to coins, with their gold coins reaching a high level of artistic excellence. Members of the Vakataka dynasty, linked through marriage with the Guptas, were, on the other hand, major patrons of both Hindu and Buddhist sculpture and temples. The Buddhist cave temples at Ajanta were done under the Vakatakas in the second half of the fifth century. By the middle of the sixth century we can say the Gupta-period style of art is ending, and during the seventh-century, sculpture in north India will become transformed into a much more formalised, flattened, and conceptual style.

An inflection in the rate of early mid-Holocene eustatic sea-level rise: A new sea-level curve from Singapore