Asia-Pacific Network Research Articles

InCoB celebrates its tenth anniversary as first joint conference with ISCB-Asia

In 2009 the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) started to roll out regional bioinformatics conferences in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The open and competitive bid for the first meeting in Asia (ISCB-Asia) was awarded to Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet) which has been running the International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) in the Asia-Pacific region since 2002. InCoB/ISCB-Asia 2011 is held from November 30 to December 2, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Of 104 manuscripts submitted to BMC Genomics and BMC Bioinformatics conference supplements, 49 (47.1%) were accepted. The strong showing of Asia among submissions (82.7%) and acceptances (81.6%) signals the success of this tenth InCoB anniversary meeting, and bodes well for the future of ISCB-Asia.

Structure and Hub Index of the Asia-Pacific Airport Network

Structure and Hub Index of the Asia-Pacific Airport Network

Improving TWSTFT short-term stability by network time transfer

Two-way satellite time and frequency transfer (TWSTFT) is one of the major techniques to compare the atomic time scales between timing laboratories. As more and more TWSTFT measurements have been performed, the large number of point-to-point 2-way time transfer links has grown to be a complex network. For future improvement of the TWSTFT performance, it is important to reduce measurement noise of the TWSTFT results. One method is using TWSTFT network time transfer. The Asia-Pacific network is an exceptional case of simultaneous TWSTFT measurements. Some indirect links through relay stations show better shortterm stabilities than the direct link because the measurement noise may be neutralized in a simultaneous measurement network. In this paper, the authors propose a feasible method to improve the short-term stability by combining the direct and indirect links in the network. Through the comparisons of time deviation (TDEV), the results of network time transfer exhibit clear improved short-term stabilities. For the links used to compare 2 hydrogen masers, the average gain of TDEV at averaging times of 1 h is 22%. As TWSTFT short-term stability can be improved by network time transfer, the network may allow a larger number of simultaneously transmitting stations.

Changes in means and extreme events of temperature and precipitation in the Asia‐Pacific Network region, 1955–2007

AbstractIn this study, spatial and temporal patterns of changes in extreme events of temperature and precipitation at 143 weather stations in ten Asia‐Pacific Network (APN) countries and their associations with changes in climate means are examined for the 1955–2007 period. Averaged over the APN region, annual frequency of cool nights (days) has decreased by 6.4 days/decade (3.3 days/decade), whereas the frequency of warm nights (days) has increased by 5.4 days/decade (3.9 days/decade). The change rates in the annual frequency of warm nights (days) over the last 20 years (1988–2007) have exceeded those over the full 1955–2007 period by a factor of 1.8 (3.4). Seasonally, the frequencies of summer warm nights and days are changing more rapidly per unit change in mean temperatures than the corresponding frequencies for cool nights and days. However, normalization of the extreme and mean series shows that the rate of changes in extreme temperature events are generally less than that of mean temperatures, except for winter cold nights which are changing as rapidly as the winter mean minimum temperature. These results indicate that there have been seasonally and diurnally asymmetric changes in extreme temperature events relative to recent increases in temperature means in the APN region.There are no systematic, regional trends over the study period in total precipitation, or in the frequency and duration of extreme precipitation events. Statistically significant trends in extreme precipitation events are observed at fewer than 30% of all weather stations, with no spatially coherent pattern of change, whereas statistically significant changes in extreme temperature events have occurred at more than 70% of all weather stations, forming strongly coherent spatial patterns. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

Asia Pacific Network for Moral Education

Asia Pacific Network for Moral Education

Experience with Restoration of Asia Pacific Network Failures from Taiwan Earthquake

We explain how network failures were caused by a natural disaster, describe the restoration steps that were taken, and present lessons learned from the recovery. At 21:26 on December 26th (UTC+9), 2006, there was a serious undersea earthquake off the coast of Taiwan, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale. This earthquake caused significant damage to submarine cable systems. The resulting fiber cable failures shut down communications in several countries in the Asia Pacific networks. In the first post-earthquake recovery step, BGP routers detoured traffic along redundant backup paths, which provided poor quality connection. Subsequently, operators engineered traffic to improve the quality of recovered communication. To avoid filling narrow-bandwidth links with detoured traffic, the operators had to change the BGP routing policy. Despite the routing-level first aid, a few institutions could not be directly connected to the R&E network community because they had only a single link to the network. For these single-link networks, the commodity link was temporarily used for connectivity. Then, cable connection configurations at the switches were changed to provide high bandwidth and next-generation Internet service. From the whole restoration procedure, we learned that redundant BGP routing information is useful for recovering connectivity but not for providing available bandwidth for the re-routed traffic load and that collaboration between operators is valuable in solving traffic engineering issues such as poor-quality re-routing and lost connections of single-link networks.

Management of Convergence Networks and Services: A Report on APNOMS 2006

The 9th Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium (APNOMS 2006, http://www.apnoms.org/2006) was held on September 27–29, 2006 in Busan, Korea. APNOMS 2006 was organized by KICS KNOM (Korean Institute of Communication Sciences, Korean Network Operations and Management Committee) and IEICE TM (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Telecommunication Management) Committee with support from IEEE CNOM (Committee on Network Operations and Management), IEEE APB (Asia Pacific Board), IEEE ComSoc Japan Chapter and TMF (TeleManagement Forum). APNOMS 2006 has continued to play an important role for exchanging and discussing all aspects of telecommunications management among academic and telecommunication industry at large in the Asia-Pacific region. As in the previous APNOMS symposia [1–8], APNOMS 2006 was a great success, attracting over 300 researchers, practitioners, service providers, vendors from 14 countries. The theme of this symposium was “Management of Convergence Networks and Services.” Recently, various convergences in wired and wireless networks, and convergence of telecommunications and broadcastings are taking place for ubiquitous multimedia service provisioning. For example, broadband IP/MPLS wired networks are converged with IEEE 802.11e wireless LAN, IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN, 3G/4G wireless cellular networks, and direct multimedia broadcast

Establishing bioinformatics research in the Asia Pacific

In 1998, the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation was set up to champion the advancement of bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific. By 2002, APBioNet was able to gain sufficient critical mass to initiate the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) bringing together scientists working in the field of bioinformatics in the region. This year, the InCoB2006 Conference was organized as the 5th annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network, on Dec. 18–20, 2006 in New Delhi, India, following a series of successful events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand) and Busan (South Korea). This Introduction provides a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication in this Supplement. It exemplifies a typical snapshot of the growing research excellence in bioinformatics of the region as we embark on a trajectory of establishing a solid bioinformatics research culture in the Asia Pacific that is able to contribute fully to the global bioinformatics community.

Free mice herald launch of Asia–Pacific network

Biologists make efforts to improve regional ties.

AIDS-related discrimination in Asia

The Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+) conducted the first regional documentation of AIDS-related discrimination in Asia. This project was an action-based, peer-implemented study that aimed to develop an understanding of the nature, pattern and extent of AIDS-related discrimination in several Asian countries. Trained HIV-positive people interviewed 764 positive people in four countries (India 302; Indonesia 42; Thailand 338; the Philippines 82) using a structured questionnaire. Findings indicate that the major area of discrimination in each country is within the health sector, where over half of those surveyed experienced some form of discrimination. In all countries, the majority of people did not receive pre-test counselling before being tested for HIV. People who reported coerced testing were significantly more likely than other respondents to face subsequent AIDS-related discrimination. A considerable number of respondents were refused treatment after being diagnosed with HIV and many experienced delayed provision of treatment or health services. Breaches of confidentiality by health workers were common. Within the family and the community, women were significantly more likely to experience discrimination than men, including ridicule and harassment, physical assault and being forced to change their place of residence because of their HIV status. These findings have serious implications, particularly in light of the increasing trend in many countries to test all pregnant women in order to prevent transmission of HIV to their unborn children.

Regional Climate Model Intercomparison Project for Asia

Improving the simulation of regional climate change is one of the high-priority areas of climate study because regional information is needed for climate change impact assessments. Such information is especially important for the region covered by the East Asian monsoon where there is high variability in both space and time. To this end, the Regional Climate Model Intercomparison Project (RMIP) for Asia has been established to evaluate and improve regional climate model (RCM) simulations of the monsoon climate. RMIP operates under joint support of the Asia–Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), the Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and several projects of participating nations. The project currently involves 10 research groups from Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, as well as scientists from India, Italy, Mongolia, North Korea, and Russia. RMIP has three simulation phases: March 1997–August 1998, which c...

Carbonaceous aerosol characteristics of PM2.5 particles in Northeastern Asia in summer 2002

PM 2.5 fine particles were collected at four sites in Northeast Asia, Beijing, Gwangju, Kyoto, and Ulaan-Battor, during an intensive sampling period of 23 July–2 August 2002, within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) project. The carbonaceous species, organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC), in the PM 2.5 samples were analyzed by the selective thermal manganese dioxide oxidation method. The average PM 2.5 mass concentrations were measured to be 144.9, 17.1, 37.9 and 17.4 μgm −3 at Beijing, Gwangju, Kyoto and Ulaan-Battor, respectively. The average OC and EC concentrations were 12.4 and 5.4 μgm −3 for Beijing, 1.4 and 0.3 μgm −3 for Gwangju, 5.0 and 1.3 μgm −3 for Kyoto and 2.3 and 0.4 μgm −3 for Ulaan-Battor. Average OC/EC ratio was computed to be 2.4, 4.2, 5.0 and 6.6 for Beijing, Gwangju, Kyoto and Ulaan-Battor, respectively. Source–receptor relationships of fine carbonaceous particles were investigated by air mass back-trajectories. The results indicated that organic carbons at Beijing are mainly from primary organic local sources.

Managing Pervasive Computing and Ubiquitous Communications: A Report on APNOMS 2003

The 7th Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium (APNOMS 2003) was held during October 1–3, 2003 in Fukuoka, Japan. APNOMS 2003, which was organized by IEICE TM (The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers, Telecommunication Management Committee) and KICS KNOM (The Korean Institute of Communication Science, Korean Network Operations and Management Committee) with support from IEEE CNOM (Committee on Network Operations and Management), IEEE APB (Asia Pacific Board), IEEE ComSoc Japan Chapter and TMF (TeleManagement Forum), has continued to play an important role in exchanging and discussing all aspects of telecommunications management among academics and telecommunication industry at large in the Asia-Pacific region. As in the previous symposia [1–5], APNOMS 2003 was a great success, attracting about 250 researchers, practitioners, operators, and vendors from 10 countries. Its program included keynote speeches, tutorials, special sessions, technical sessions, poster sessions, a distinguished experts panel, and exhibitions. The theme of this symposium was “Managing Pervasive Computing and Ubiquitous Communications.” The concept of “ubiquitous society” frequently appears in mass media, and it spreads a roseate dream and image to the future human life. Application examples include, inventory management, product tracking and tracing, home automation, home and community security management, and environment protection. Governments are trying to push research and development in ubiquitous-related areas. Industries are seeking business opportunities in the near future. In the coming ubiquitous society, it will be hard, or in some cases

Your Asia-Pacific Network: The use of Radio Australia by the Australian Government

This article examines the use of Radio Australia by the Australian Government. It examines the extent that the Australian Government's foreign policy goals are reflected in the charter and programming of Radio Australia. The paper begins with a brief historical look at Radio Australia followed by description and analysis of the role of an intermediary between the government and the station, which, in this case, is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the parent company of Radio Australia; the programme philosophy of, and programming offered by Radio Australia, and criticisms of Radio Australia from within the Pacific.

Teachers in Digital Knowledge-Based Society: New Roles and Vision

The advent of a digital knowledge-based society has brought about significant changes in many ways. Specifically, educational problems are becoming more diverse, and tasks more complex, which necessitate the ability of teachers to apply feasible solutions to individual situations, as well as the flexibility to adapt to changing environments. These changes call for a paradigm shift in education to one that is search- and discovery-centered, emphasizing creativity and initiative, and valuing interaction and collaboration. This digital era requires the modern teacher to have the ability to play various roles including that of change enablers, digital networkers, and learning consultants, and to possess a high degree of humanity and morality, practicality and liberal sensitivity, and logical reasoning and general sensibility, in order to effectively work and cope within this dynamic educational environment. Asia is in a unique position to witness the materialization of a new generation of teachers who embody these ideals, due mainly to cultural and traditional factors. This paper proposes a vision of future education influenced by the uniqueness of Asian culture, the building of an Asia-Pacific network of teachers, and ways to effectively utilize the potential of digital society, all from the basis of Asian culture and tradition.

Report: Management for eBusiness in the New Millennium: A Report on APNOMS 2001

The fifth Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium, APNOMS 2001, was held during September 26–28, 2001 in Sydney, Australia. Started in 1997, the APNOMS has provided an important platform for academics, researchers and telecommunication industry at large in the Asia Pacific region to exchange their research results and to discuss and to advance all aspects of telecommunications management. In the past few years, these annual symposiums have become truly international events attracting audiences and presenters from over 10 countries. APNOMS 2001 was the first symposium to be held outside Korea (1997 [1], 1999 [2]) and Japan (1998 [3], 2000 [4]). The Symposium was held only two weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. Although some countries and institutions implemented certain travel restrictions which resulted in cancellations, APNOMS 2001 still attracted 141 registered (112 attending) delegates representing academic, R&D, service providers and vendors communities from 14 countries. Its program covered keynote speeches, tutorials, special sessions, technical sessions, poster sessions, a distinguished expert panel, and vendor exhibitions. The theme of this three-day symposium was “Management for eBusiness in the New Millennium.” Powered by the Internet, broadband and wireless communications, eBusiness is rapidly transforming our society, our culture and our everyday life. It is also rapidly changing the strategy, mission and business priorities in the IT and telecommunications industry. Customer information and relationship management are becoming crucial elements for successful eBusiness. Alternative business models have to be sought to satisfy new service delivery needs and paradigms. We are beginning to see the fusion of Internet, information and

Report: Integrated Management for Telecommunication Solutions—Process, OSS, and Technology: A Report on APNOMS 2002

The 6th Asia-Pacific Network Operations and Management Symposium (APNOMS 2002) was held during September 25–27, 2002 in Jeju Island, Korea. APNOMS 2002, which was organized by IEICE (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) TM (Telecommunication Management) Committee and KICS (Korea Institute of Communication Society) KNOM (Korean Network Operations and Management Committee) with support from IEEE CNOM (Committee on Network Operations and Management), IEEE APB (Asia Pacific Board), and TMF (TeleManagement Forum), continued to play an important role for exchanging and discussing all aspects of telecommunications management among academic and telecommunication industry at large in the AsiaPacific region. As the previous APNOMSs (1997[1], 1998[2], 1999[3], 2000[4], 2001[5]), APNOMS 2002 was a great success, attracting 268 researchers, practitioners, operators, and vendors from 11 countries. Its program included keynote speeches, tutorials, special sessions, technical sessions, poster sessions, a distinguished experts panel, and vendor exhibitions. The theme of this symposium was “Integrated Management for Telecommunication Solutions—Process, OSS and Technology.” With the rapid progress in the information networking technologies, solutions for network operations and management have surely become very important for our e-world environments. E-business is rapidly transforming our society, our culture and our everyday life in the broadband and mobile Internet era. To provide sophisticated e-Business solutions, new management technologies which integrate business and management processes, and integrate systems and network operations, are required. Taking into

Challenging APEC: the Asia Pacific labour network and APEC's human resource development working group

This contribution examines the interaction between the Asia Pacific Labour Network and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). In particular it explores the reasons behind the APEC decision to undertake a project to examine successful practices in training, skills development and other human resource activities that have involved labour, management and government. This marks a departure in APEC activiry which to date has neglected labour issues and excluded labour organizations from any substantive role within APEC. The study examines the relationship of APEC to civil sociery, how human resource development issues fit within APEC, the role of the international labour movement in lobbying APEC and the challenges the labour movement might face in participating in APEC including its Human Resources Development Working Group.

The development and use of food reference materials at the Philippine Food and Nutrition Research Institute

As the Philippine government's main investigator and compiler of local food composition data, the FNRI has been conducting activities on food reference materials since 1987, in accordance with guidelines of the 1983 UNUINFOODS and 1986 ASEANFOODS initiatives. Results of these activities as well as problems encountered therein are summarized. Similar activities of the Asia-Pacific Food Analysis Network (APFAN) are also reported. These activities demonstrate the attempts to harmonize analytical methods in laboratories of the Asia-Pacific region.