Asian Societies Research Articles

Standardized Medical Terminology for Cardiac Computed Tomography 2023 Update: An Expert Consensus Document of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT), American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), American College of Radiology (ACR), North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI), and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) with endorsement by the Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (ASCI), the European Association

Since the emergence of cardiac computed tomography (Cardiac CT) at the turn of the 21st century, there has been an exponential growth in research and clinical development of the technique, with contributions from investigators and clinicians from varied backgrounds: physics and engineering, informatics, cardiology, and radiology. However, terminology for the field is not unified. As a consequence, there are multiple abbreviations for some terms, multiple terms for some concepts, and some concepts that lack clear definitions and/or usage. In an effort to aid the work of all those who seek to contribute to the literature, clinical practice, and investigation of the field, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography updates a standard set of medical terms commonly used in clinical and research activities related to cardiac CT. Keywords: Cardiac, CT, Medical Terminology Supplemental material is available for this article. This article is published synchronously in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging and Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. ©2023 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by RSNA with permission.

Development of AIM (Asia–Pacific Integrated Model) and its contribution to policy-making for the realization of decarbonized societies in Asia

Development of AIM (Asia–Pacific Integrated Model) and its contribution to policy-making for the realization of decarbonized societies in Asia

An evaluation of basal metabolic rate among healthy individuals — a cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe main source of daily energy requirement in Asian societies is basal metabolic rate (BMR). Even though the reason for this fluctuation is debatable, prior research have shown that BMR is highly varied in individuals. All studies concur that variation in fat-free mass (FFM) is important, although the effects of fat mass (FM), age, sex, and the hormones leptin, triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4) are still unknown.ObjectiveThe main objectives of the study are as follows:• To evaluate the basal metabolic rate among healthy individuals• To identify the risk factors on basal metabolic rate among healthy individualsMethodologyIn total, 50 individuals were consecutively enrolled in the study during the entrepreneurship studio on 29th June 2022 held at Garden City University (GCU). The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 50 years, both males and females, students and professors of GCU, and healthy individuals. The exclusion criteria were subjects who had overt metabolic and/or endocrine diseases (e.g., diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypertension, amenorrhea) and those taking any drug known to influence energy metabolism. The convenient samples of 50 subjects were taken from this study.Outcome measuresBasal metabolic rate (BMR) and body mass index (BMI).ResultsThe demographic data, height, weight, BMI, and BMR were recorded. The mean and standard deviation of age are 25.81 ± 8.71 and 23.95 ± 6.67 of males and females, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of height are 1.68 ± 0.68 and 1.63 ± 0.07, respectively. The mean and standard deviation for weight are 63.8 ± 11.49 and 54.86 ± 10.43, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of BMI are males and females which are 22.3 ± 3.22 and 20.47 ± 3.62, respectively. The mean and standard deviation of BMR are males and females which are 1552.41 ± 127.3 and 1327.7 ± 147.9.ConclusionThe energy used up while lying still at rest and being awake during the nocturnal postabsorptive state is known as the basal metabolic rate (BMR). The values can be used as a reference for comparison with the normative values, and cardiorespiratory endurance training can be included in the rehabilitation program.

Shadow Education in Hong Kong: the Effects of Backwash on Hong Kong Secondary Students

Shadow education is a widely discussed topic in Asian countries since this is a popular way of learning for students. In Asian society, parents have invested a lot of money into shadow education, and they hope that their children can stay competitive or climb up the social ladder by getting good grades in public exams. Shadow education becomes a method that some people believe can help students to perform well in the exam, but is this true? In this paper, the focus is on the backwash effects of shadow education, and whether shadow education can help students to perform well in the exam. 12 secondary school students in this study expressed that shadow education can help them in their public exams and it has some positive effects on their overall exam grades. However, there are only a few studies focused on the effects of shadow education on students’ exam performance, and it seems that this area has not been completely discussed in the field of shadow education. As a result, this study hopes to contribute to backwash in shadow education, and whether it can help students to improve their grades in the public exam.

Impact Of Ethical Leadership on Work Engagement Via Perceived Organizational Politics; Moderating Role of Locus of Control

Around 88 percent of the managers across the globe reported that politics, an endemic phenomenon exists in their organizations and around 87 percent employees are not completely engaged at work. Considering these emergent issues, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ethical leadership on work engagement through perceived organizational politics, while considering locus of control as moderator in the association between perceived organizational politics and work engagement. This paper utilized a cross-sectional survey research design from 500 supervisor-supervisee dyads in both private and public service sectors of Lahore. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the dimensionality as well as reliability of the measurement model. Furthermore, the hypothesized associations were analyzed through two-staged structural equation modeling. Results revealed that perceived organizational politics mediates the association between ethical leadership and work engagement. In addition, locus of control was found to moderate the association between perceived organizational politics and work engagement. This paper did not establish any causal inferences between the constructs, therefore explanation pertinent to findings must be provided with great caution. This paper suggests practical inferences through mitigation of damaging effects of perceived organizational politics, a prevailing issue with deleterious outcomes and yet not addressed in Asian societies organizations. It emphasizes on organizations to recruit and train individuals with ethical behaviors that may help avoid employees’ negative perceptions, resulting in increased employees’ work engagement. This study extends the existent literature through examining perceived organizational politics (POP) as a mediating mechanism between ethical leadership and work engagement. It sheds light on the personality, politics as a psychological state with its outcomes, along with the cultural dimension for the first time in literature and explains the phenomena through which negative effects of (POP) are buffered by ethical leadership while in presence of individual differences that ameliorate or deteriorate the organizational outcomes. The theoretical framework is progressed through social learning theory and COR theory.

Major Factors of Female Dropouts at Different Educational Levels in Mardan

Education is the fundamental right of every human being. There is imposed no restriction on the basis of gender in any civilized society. Unfortunately, female gender is encountered with countless hurdles and shackles in making their ways to quality education. Female education is considered as a stigma in Asian societies. There are involved numberless factors which are blocking the ways to quality education of females. There has been reported immeasurable dropout of female in different stages of education. In this research study the centre of attention is the female gender and their dropout at different levels in Mardan. As there is a wide literature available with the concern of the student dropout, so by reviewing the literature the research has been done. While going forward in the research, after the literature review, the phenomenological research method, which is actually the one form of qualitative research was adopted in order to enrich the research and to make it more valid and reliable. The researcher has conducted interviews of different male and female educationalists available in Mardan. These interviews helped to get the information about both kinds of people of Mardan, i.e. the original habitants of Mardan and the immigrants who are living in city. The information has been collected on the bases of the experience of the educationalists and their wide observations. All the hypotheses have been tested and accepted. Moving forward the questionnaire has been designed from the qualitative data. With the help of that questionnaire the data have been collected from females of different regions in Mardan. This data has also again been collected from both original habitants of Mardan as well as the immigrants. By the help of collected data the quantitative research has been done. Frequency of every element has been detected separately by using descriptive analysis through SPSS. Finally, conclusions have been made on the basis of the data analysis, which are supporting the hypotheses made for the research study.

The Politics of Knowledge and Social Cash Transfers: The Constitutive Effects of an Anti-Poverty Regime in Indonesia

Recent decades have witnessed the globalisation of policies promoting social cash transfers as a critical instrument for poverty reduction. Among various approaches, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) model promoted by the World Bank has gained discursive dominance in countries where this strategy, and its technical model for implementation, appear more attractive than competing alternatives. While research has evaluated CCT programmes and considered the politics of development that they represent in Latin America, researchers are yet to explore the constitutive effects of CCT ways of knowing and measuring poverty in the societies of rural Asia. This paper explores the consequences of CCT knowledge politics in rural Indonesia. It argues that CCT practices of knowing and measuring have paradoxical effects. The programme makes direct payments to millions of impoverished households, producing well-documented patterns of inclusion and advancement. Yet, CCT knowledge practices involve simplifications and generate significant mis-targeting, eliciting a never-ending repair process among state actors, local leaders, and communities. This metricised knowledge system depoliticises political questions of distribution. It conceals alternative ways of knowing and addressing poverty, producing an order of entitlements somewhat at odds with established community logics of inclusion, while provoking a local politics of distribution.

Income, deprivation, and social exclusion: toward a comprehensive poverty measurement in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Multidimensional measurements have become the preferred means to determine levels of poverty in research and policy practice because unidimensional measurements cannot capture the full picture of poverty. This study combines income, deprivation, and social exclusion measures and proposes a comprehensive poverty measurement within the multidimensional framework. Using data from a representative survey in Hong Kong, we applied the comprehensive poverty measurement to an affluent Asian society. We used the Poisson-based framework to analyse the poverty threshold and the Alkire and Foster multidimensional poverty index (MPI). According to the comprehensive poverty measurement, Hong Kong’s poverty rate was 6.1%, and MPI was 0.047. Social exclusion contributed the most to poverty, and individuals who differed from the typical profile had distinct disadvantages in all three dimensions of comprehensive poverty. Multivariate regression analysis further revealed that individuals who were immigrants, aged 65 or over, had low levels of education and poor health, and received social assistance were more likely to be comprehensively poor. Through revealing the nuanced needs of the poor population, the comprehensive measurement sheds new light on multidimensional poverty and provides novel policy implications for poverty alleviation.

The State, Local Sociocultural Landscape, and Global Neoliberal Ideology in Vietnam

In the context of accelerating globalization as well as a shifting theoretical landscape in the social sciences and the humanities, this article examines the recent greater attention to the state and global forces, including the global neoliberal ideology, in Asian studies. Empirically, the article examines the resilient roles of family members and relatives in childcare and elderly care in Vietnam and many other parts of East and Southeast Asia, as well as the related trend of relatively low public social expenditures in most East and Southeast Asian societies. The long-standing ideology of familialism, which underlies the pattern of care for the young and elderly in Vietnam and many Asian societies, shapes state policies and exerts an impact on global capitalist operations in Vietnam, notwithstanding the acceleration of globalization, the global neoliberal ideology, and the strong power of the Vietnamese communist party-state. This article suggests that the relation between the local sociocultural landscape, state policies, and global forces involves a dialogic process.

Reality Decoupling: Rumours, Disinformation, and Studying the Politics of Truth in Digital Asia

Abstract This article explores what conflicts over information and meaning-making in digital Asia can tell us about politics in advanced networked societies, using examples from East Asia. It interprets the construction and spread of unverified information as part of near-ubiquitous political practices that threaten to lead to a decoupling of realities. The article makes the case that digital Asia is a crucial site for researching such practices: Asian societies are characterized by a long-standing engagement with rumours, and they also maintain highly developed digital infrastructures across diverse socio-political and economic environments. To explore the relevance of rumours and conspiracy theories in such contexts, the article suggests a three-step research agenda that analyzes the anatomy of rumours, traces their genealogy across complex socio-technical systems, and assesses their pathology – that is, the way in which they are products of, and in turn produce, power in translocal networks.

A theory of legal apparitions: regulation and escape in Indian divorces

AbstractWhen people do not approach a formal court of law to settle their disputes, and cannot enter into out-of-court settlements either, what do they do? I find that people install court-like processes which mimetically follow the court procedures, executing the settlement as if the decision were rendered officially. By examining such practices in the case of divorce-related disputes in India, I advance a theory of legal apparitions, a phenomenon in which cosmetic mimicry of legal processes creates a new form of extra-legal resolution. This is likely to prevail in societies where access to justice is hindered due to socio-institutional factors and customary forms of adjudication are not possible (sometimes because of state law’s design). This idea can be used to explain a range of practices observed in South Asian societies, where people’s imagination of, and interaction with, legal apparatuses creates new forms of institutions.

A critical review on fast-food consumption pattern among South Asian and Southeast Asian young adults

Fast food consumption trend has become very popular worldwide. Globalization has led to rapid rise in the number of fast-food outlets in Asian countries. The present study focuses on reviewing the consumption pattern of fast food among young adults of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Here a shift has been witnessed from consumption of traditional homemade food which included healthy nutritious locally available foods toward fast foods and processed foods. An extensive review of existing scientific studies in several South Asian and Southeast Asian countries was carried out to analyse fast food consumption patterns of young adults. Globalization, affluence, busy schedules, increase in number of working female population, mass media, increase in fast food production and delivery outlets are some of the main reasons contributing to increasing fast food consumption trends. Several western fast-food franchises are now well established in developing Asian countries. Dining out culture has increased in the Asian society and is socially acceptable. A rapid nutritional shift in Southeast Asia may be due to increase in food availability and food purchasing power. Consumption of fast-food items is associated with increasing obesity rates among young adults. Such trends are also associated with the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as indigestion, hypertension, asthma, and other several diseases among South Asian and Southeast Asian adults.

The determinants of longevity: The perspectives from East Asian economies.

The determinants of longevity: The perspectives from East Asian economies.

Self-regulation and academic achievement among Singaporean young children: A cross-cultural comparison in a multicultural Asian society

Cultural contexts influence the development of self-regulation. However, cross-cultural variations and consistencies in different aspects of self-regulation and their academic outcomes within the Asian context are less clear. This study investigated (1) the extent to which the development of hot and cool Executive Function (EF) might differ among children from different cultural backgrounds in a multicultural Asian society, and (2) whether and how the predictive power of hot and cool EF on academic skills might vary across subcultures within the nation. Longitudinal data were collected over two waves from a national probability sample of 2,527 young children in Singapore, consisting of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Working memory (WM), Delay of Gratification (DoG), and parent-reported self-control were measured during their preschool years (3–6 years of age) in Wave 1. Reading and mathematical skills were assessed approximately 2 years later in Wave 2. Results demonstrated that ethnic Chinese children typically delayed gratification at age 4, whereas Malay and Indian children only started to delay gratification at age 6. Chinese children also outperformed their Malay and Indian counterparts in WM tasks and standardized achievement tests in reading and mathematics. Parent-reported child self-control did not differ by ethnicity. Across subcultures in Singapore, WM was a robust predictor of reading and mathematical skills and explained the longitudinal relations of DoG to academic skills. Our findings suggest that the developmental gaps in EF during early childhood can contribute to later gaps in academic achievement among ethnic groups. Nurturing self-regulation during the preschool years is essential for promoting children’s school readiness.

Asian vs. liberal democracy: identifying the locus of conflict in the Asian values debate

ABSTRACT The Asian values thesis argues that a coherent value system endemic to Asian societies is incompatible with the Western notion of individual human rights and liberal democracy. Past survey studies have treated Asian values as a one-dimensional variable and left the meaning of democracy open to various interpretations. As a result, the precise loci of conflict between the two value systems were never fully fleshed out. This study addresses those shortfalls by breaking the concept of Asian values down into ‘Asian’ personal and political values and liberal democracy down to its defining characteristics: electoralism, political rights, and civil rights. Using country-level data from the Pew Research Centre and the World Values Survey, I examined how ‘Asian’ personal and political values are associated with these liberal democratic principles. Regression results reveal a wide intraregional disparity in ‘Asian’ values orientation within East and Southeast Asia and interregional effects suggest that the existence of a pan-Asian identity is greatly overstated. Whereas ‘Asian’ personal values are not inimical to liberal democratic principles, ‘Asian’ political values are negatively associated with the support for electoralism and political rights. This leaves countries in Asia open to the possibility of alternative political models to gain mass support.

A State-Society Approach to Climate Policy Diffusion for Sustainable Development in East Asia

Abstract Increasingly, global efforts to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have invoked national climate policies in the past decades. The Paris Agreement provides general guidelines for climate policy with which signatory countries are expected to comply. East Asia’s economic and political significance is rising in achieving these goals globally, but countries in the region are somewhat behind international climate norms and face criticism from global society. Moreover, despite government initiatives to achieve a sustainability transition domestically, East Asian societies are less aligned with international climate norms, prioritizing economic development over issues like climate change. As a result, governments in the region face different incentives for their policy options. This paper discusses three East Asian examples from the global norm-diffusion perspective by taking a state-society approach. It argues that the top-down efforts initiated by global society will fail without domestic societies embracing international efforts.

Beyond Filial Piety: Rethinking Aging and Caregiving in Contemporary East Asian Societies by Jeanne Shea, Katrina Moore and Hong Zhang (eds) (2020)

Beyond Filial Piety: Rethinking Aging and Caregiving in Contemporary East Asian Societies by Jeanne Shea, Katrina Moore and Hong Zhang (eds) (2020)

Happiness in Old Age: The Daughter Connection

Family and intergenerational relationships are becoming increasingly important as sources of support and care for the elderly population in rapidly ageing Asian societies. However, this has also raised concerns over reinforcement of cultural preference for sons as a source of old-age security. This paper therefore revisits the question—what determines happiness in old age—by investigating the role of adult children’s gender in the context of Thailand, an ageing Asian country with no legacy of sex-preference in fertility. We employ nationally representative data to examine the association between old-age happiness and presence of a co-residing child. Compared to living alone, living with at least one child is found to positively associate with older persons’ happiness. However, this result is specific to daughters. Moreover, compared to older men, women systematically benefit from a “daughter effect”. Co-residing daughters with university education and those who maintain a good relationship with their parents help explain the positive happiness effect on older persons. Co-residing daughters are also positively linked to reduced loneliness; improved self-rated health; and improved economic conditions of older parents. Our findings suggest that policies that increase human capital of the girl child and enhance family solidarity are likely to have long term intergenerational wellbeing benefits.

Love in Shadow: The Narrative of East Asian Mother-Daughter Relationship in Contemporary Films

The value and morality that dominated East Asian societies for centuries have forged a unique and oriental-featured mother-and-daughter relationship. This relationship explains how the parent and domestic relations within the basic structure of an Asian family have finally become an unbearable burden for the daughter. The case study on the two films' figure settings and their narratives further demonstrates how the virtue of filial piety alongside other traditional values is working on the reproduction of the mother-and-daughter relationship for modern families. The most typical example is the unconditional sacrifice of parents for their children and the unconditional obedience of children to their parents after receiving these profits. To regulate this long-term relationship between parents and children, Confucianism uses "filial piety" to restrain and regulate. It is argued that in East Asian societies, thousands of years of cultural underpinnings have caused women to grow up with much confinement and pain. The stubbornly patriarchal social system behind human beings is the root of the problem.

The 5th Symposium of the Benthological Society of Asia: future perspectives and new official name of the Society

A brief history of the Benthological Society of Asia, beginning in 1998 with the Aquatic Entomological Societies in East Asia, is presented. The work of the 5th BSA Symposium and the results of the two latest meetings of the Executive Board of the society are covered. From January 1, 2023 the official name of the BSA became the Asian Society for Hydrobiology. Prof. Y. J. Bae was elected as the 6th President of the society until December 31, 2024. The expected date for the 6th Symposium of Asian Society for Hydrobiology is July 2–5, 2024. Changes in the structure and nominations, the publication of an international journal, the preparation of a new homepage and other measures to renew the society were proposed.