Eastern Central Asia Research Articles

Global trends in the burden of ischemic heart disease attributable to smoking from 1990 to 2021: A systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. This study evaluates the trends in IHD burden attributable to smoking, utilizing Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (GBD 2021) data, across 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021. By examining age-standardized death rates (ASDR) and disability-adjusted life years (ASRDALYs), the study provides insights into the spatiotemporal variations associated with smokingattributable IHD in different sociodemographic regions. Data on smoking-attributable IHD mortality and DALYs were obtained from the GBD 2021 database. This secondary analysis examined ASDR and ASRDALYs for IHD as primary outcomes, with active smoking as the primary exposure. Temporal trends were analyzed using estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs). The burden was stratified by age, sex, and sociodemographic index (SDI) to identify disparities across regions. Over the last three decades, global ASDR and ASRDALYs for smokingrelated IHD have generally declined. High-SDI regions had the largest reductions, with EAPCs of -4.31 (95% CI: -5.73 - -2.87) and -4.02 (95% CI: -5.40 - -2.62), respectively. In contrast, low-SDI regions experienced slower declines, with EAPCs of -0.54 (95% CI: -1.41-0.33) and -0.80 (95% CI: -1.52 - -0.08), respectively. Older age groups and males consistently had a higher burden across all regions. Global death rates for populations aged 15-49, 50-74, and ≥75 years were 4.31, 46.57, and 142.52 per 100000, respectively. The global ASDR for males (30.24) was 8.54 times higher than that for females (3.54). Regional disparities were most pronounced in low- and middle-income areas, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where smoking related IHD burden remains high. While global reductions in smoking-related IHD burden are encouraging, sustained disparities remain, particularly in low-SDI regions. Males and older populations continue to have a disproportionately higher burden, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions and sustained efforts to address these inequities.

How (not) to Do Business and Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Case Studies

How (not) to Do Business and Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Case Studies

Lessons learned from the Eastern Europe and central Asia region on the elimination of HIV vertical transmission: insights from United Nations Children's fund.

Lessons learned from the Eastern Europe and central Asia region on the elimination of HIV vertical transmission: insights from United Nations Children's fund.

Tectonic evolution of the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt during the Carboniferous–Permian

Tectonic evolution of the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt during the Carboniferous–Permian

Global burden of stroke attributable to dietary risk factors in the GBD 2021 study.

We sought to assess the impact of dietary risk on the worldwide burden of stroke, focusing specifically on ischemic stroke. Utilizing information from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (GBD2021), we evaluated the age-standardized death rate (ASDR), the age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) rate, and the age, sex, and regional distribution of the estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) of the stroke burden linked to dietary risk from 1990 to 2021. The global overall ASDR and the age-standardized DALY rate per 100,000 population for stroke linked to dietary risk from 1990 to 2021 exhibited a declining trend [EAPC = -1.95; EAPC = -1.70, respectively]. The reduction in ASDR was statistically more pronounced in female (EAPC = -2.42) compared to males (EAPC = -1.60). The dietary factor exerting the most significant impact on stroke in 2021 was a high sodium diet, succeeded by a diet deficient in fruit. The regions and countries most affected by a high-sodium diet on the ASDR for ischemic stroke are Central Europe (9.86 per 100,000 population) and North Macedonia (33.13 per 100,000 population), respectively; the regions and countries with the most substantial influence on the age-standardized DALY rate are East Asia (187.15 per 100,000 population) and North Macedonia (477.26 per 100,000 population). The ASDR and age-standardized DALY rates across 5 Socio-Demographic Index (SDI) regions, 20 regions, and over 170 countries worldwide demonstrated a notable downward trend, with the regions experiencing the most significant decline being High SDI (EAPC: -3.64; EAPC: -2.74, respectively). The sole increase in ASDR was recorded in southern sub-Saharan Africa. The worldwide toll of stroke linked to dietary risks may have diminished from 1990 to 2021. Nevertheless, the most significant dietary contributors are diets rich in sodium and deficient in fruit, with the stroke burden associated with dietary risks remaining especially elevated in Central Europe, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Lowering sodium consumption and enhancing fruit intake can aid in alleviating the global disease burden.

What drives firms’ intention to prioritise public spending in the energy sector?: evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia

ABSTRACT Firms’ reliance on energy is a critical issue that affects all economies, regardless of ideology, yet their preferences for public spending in the energy sector remain underexplored. This study examines the factors influencing firms’ prioritisation of public spending on energy over other sectors, using data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys covering 30 Eastern European and Central Asian countries. Probit regression analysis reveals that businesses experiencing frequent power outages and perceiving electricity as a significant operational obstacle are more likely to prioritise energy-related spending. This preference is stronger in emerging market economies and low-income developing countries than in advanced nations. Additionally, while firm characteristics such as size, age, ownership, political connections, and government contracts show limited influence on firms’ prioritisation of public spending in the energy sector, industry type plays an important role. These findings highlight the critical role of energy infrastructure in shaping firms’ policy preferences, particularly in economically vulnerable contexts.

Spatial variation in housing construction material in low- and middle-income countries: A Bayesian spatial prediction model of a key infectious diseases risk factor and social determinant of health.

Housing infrastructure and quality is a major determinant of infectious disease risk and other health outcomes in regions where vector borne, waterborne and neglected tropical diseases are endemic. It is important to quantify the geographical distribution of improvements to dwelling components to identify and target resources towards populations at risk. This study aimed to model the sub-national spatial variation in housing materials using covariates with quasi-global coverage and use the resulting estimates to map predicted coverage across the world's low- and middle-income countries. Data on materials used in dwelling construction were sourced from nationally representative household surveys conducted since 2005. Materials used for construction of flooring, walls, and roofs were reclassified as improved or unimproved. Households lacking location information were georeferenced using a novel methodology. Environmental and demographic spatial covariates were extracted at those locations for use as model predictors. Integrated nested Laplace approximation models were fitted to obtain, and map predicted probabilities for each dwelling component. The dataset compiled included information from households in 283,000 clusters from 350 surveys. Low coverage of improved housing was predicted across the Sahel and southern Sahara regions of Africa, much of inland Amazonia, and areas of the Tibetan plateau. Coverage of improved roofs and walls was high in the Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Improvements in all three components, but most notably floors, was low in Sub-Saharan Africa. The strongest determinants of dwelling component quality related to urbanization and economic development, suggesting that programs should focus on supply-side interventions, providing resources for housing improvements directly to the populations that need them. These findings are made available to researchers as files that can be imported into a GIS for integration into relevant analyses to derive improved estimates of preventable health burdens attributed to housing.

Women-Led Firms and Access to Finance: New Evidence from Transition Economies

Access to finance for women-led firms remains a significant challenge due to cultural and socio-economic barriers. This article assesses the impact of a top manager’s gender on a firm’s probability of seeking and obtaining external finance, using survey data from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Employing diverse methodologies, the study finds that having a woman top manager decreases the likelihood of obtaining a loan. Additionally, firms managed by women are less likely to apply for external finance, partly due to discouragement. These disparities persist even when women-led firms have similar business characteristics to those led by men.

Mobility patterns along the Eastern Silk Roads (tenth to fourteenth centuries): a global-microhistorical perspective

Abstract This study investigates the importance of interregional mobility along the Eastern Silk Roads during the Mongol period, highlighting the interconnectedness of postal and pilgrim networks in eastern Central Asia, with a particular focus on mid-fourteenth-century changes in the multifaceted dynamics of overland mobility under Mongol rule. By referencing an extensive corpus of Old Uyghur and Middle Mongolian administrative texts, as well as pilgrim inscriptions, the research provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between the Mongol administration and the postal system within it, and how they were connected with pilgrim activities. The article uncovers valuable insights into how mobility patterns changed over time. Furthermore, a comprehensive analysis of the geographical aspects of these networks reveals enduring links between the Eastern Tianshan Region and the Gansu Corridor, whilst also underlining the expansion of pilgrim networks during the Mongol period. The research also explores the societal implications of these mobility networks, highlighting the importance of religious affiliation and social status in overland mobility. This comprehensive analysis illuminates the Eastern Silk Roads and presents a unique perspective on the interplay of political, religious, and socio-economic factors that shaped the history of the region during Mongol rule.

Silkworm Girl, Sericultural EcoGothic, and the Anthropocene

The article looks at the connection between Chinese folklores and the Anthropocene, examining the tale of the silkworm girl in ancient Chinese mythologies and folklores from an EcoGothic perspective of human-nonhuman alliance (as well as its betrayal). The process of sericultural development in Asia works in tandem with the formation of the renowned “silk road,” an international commercial (as well as military) route for the exchange of goods and materials from East Asia and Central Asia to Europe and the Mediterranean region. The myth of the silkworm girl encapsulates an eco-economic co-existence among human beings, animals, plants, and matter in its most rudimentary form. My discussion focuses on the two versions of the story of the silkworm girl, one from an earlier collection of folklore—Sou shen ji (In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record) by Jin Dynasty historian, Bao Gan, in China—and the other one by Guan Ting Du—Yong Cheng Ji Sian Lu (Records of the Assembled Transcendents of the Fortified Walled City), a later collection of stories compiled in the Tang dynasty. While silkworms in ancient Chinese literature and the sericulture they embody have been associated with agricultural advancement through the human domestication and extraction of natural resources, the anthropocentric interpretations of the moral lessons conveyed in those tales about the economic value their industry and productivity symbolize is problematized by the girl-horse metamorphosis and their symbiotic relationship with mulberry trees. Their representations are further complicated by the military involvement in sericulture. This article compares diverging representations of the silkworm girl within the context of the sericultural practice, particularly the man-horse-silkworm-mulberry entanglement, to reconsider the ecological significance of Asian mythologies in the age of our Anthropocene crisis.

House Sparrow Passer domesticus as an Invasive Bird in Thailand, Natural Dispersion or Introduced Species?

Passer domesticus holds the title of being the most widely distributed bird species globally, originating from Central-East Asia and spreading extensively due to human-mediated activities. While initially established as a native species about 10,000 years ago, their association with human-modified habitats has accelerated their expansion, particularly in urban areas. In Thailand, sightings were initially rare but gradually increased, with the species establishing breeding populations, predominantly in urban and suburban areas. This expansion poses challenges as they compete with native species for resources and nesting sites. This study utilized citizen science data from the eBird platform to investigate the factors influencing the expansion of P. domesticus breeding areas in Thailand. Through occupancy modeling, spatiotemporal patterns of colonization were analyzed, revealing the influence of urbanization, vegetation indices, elevation, and proximity to infrastructure. Results showed a steady increase in territorial occupancy, particularly in urbanized regions, with roads and petrol stations acting as facilitators for dispersal. The study underscores the role of urban expansion in facilitating the spread of P. domesticus, raising concerns about its impact on native bird species and biodiversity in Thailand. Further research is warranted to assess the full extent of its ecological implications and to devise strategies for mitigating its potential adverse effects.

The Proscription of The East Turkestan Islamic Movement and Its Impact on The Golden Age Between China and Great Britain

تُحلل هذه الدراسة العوامل الكامنة وراء إدراج حركة تركستان الشرقية الإسلامية على قائمة الإرهاب البريطانية، وتتنبأ إزالتها من القائمة، وذلك ضمن نطاق العلاقات الصينية البريطانية. تُجيب الدراسة على الأسئلة التالية: ما هي الظروف التي أدت إلى إدراج حركة تركستان الشرقية الإسلامية على قائمة الإرهاب البريطانية؟ وما هي العوامل المحتملة التي قد تؤدي إلى إزالتها من ذات القائمة؟ وكيف تطورت العلاقات بين البلدين منذ إدراج الحركة في عام 2016؟ وما هي تداعيات إدراج جماعات إرهابية صينية علىى قائمة الإرهاب البريطانية على العلاقات الصينية البريطانية؟ وللإجابة على التساؤلات أعلاه، تُحلل الدراسة تطور العلاقات الصينية البريطانية و"العصر الذهبي" المزعوم، اعتمادًا على منهج التحليل الوصفي والتحليل المقارن. تخلص الدراسة أن عملية تصنيف وإدراج الحركات على قائمة الإرهاب البريطانية تُستخدم كأداة دبلوماسية من قبل بريطانيا لإدارة العلاقات الخارجية، حيث لا تُشكل غالبية الحركات المحظورة تهديدًا داخليًا مباشرًا للأمن الداخلي لبريطانيا. ويأتي ذلك مقارنةً بموقف الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية في إدراج حركة تركستان الشرقية الإسلامية بعد عام 2001 وإزالتها بعد قرابة عقدين من الزمن وذلك بغرض إدارة علاقاتها الاستراتيجية في المجتمع الدولي. ومع تغير وضع الصين ومكانتها في المجتمع الدولي قد تشهد حالة حظر الحركات الإرهابية تغيرًا بين الدول المصنفة لهذه الحركات وفقًا لمصالحها الوطنية.

Türkistan’da Kâdiriyye izleri: Muhammed Sıddık Rüşdî’nin Menâkıb-ı Hazret-i Gavsü’l-A’zam adlı risalesi

The article is about manaqibnama (hagiographic book) of Abdulqadir al-Jilani written in Chagatai language by Muhammad Siddiq Rushdie, who lived in Eastern Turkestan in the 18th century. Muhammad Siddiq Rushdie, about whom there is very limited information, was born in Yarkand in Eastern Turkestan, approximately in 1706, and his life passed in a period of intense political and military difficulties. Siddiq Rushdie has two known works. One of them is Tadhkira-i Awliya-i Turki, and the other is Manaqib-i Hazrat-i Ghawth al-A’zam. Siddiq Rushdie, who knew Arabic and Persian at a level to understand and benefit from the basic texts, wrote both of his works in Chagatai Turkish. Moreover, his purpose in using this language is to introduce people who speak the Chagatai language the sufis, especially Abdulqadir al-Jilani. Siddiq Rushdie’s risala Manaqib-i Hazrat-i Ghawth al-A’zam is not only a hagiographic book but also a document that makes it possible to follow the traces of Qadiriyya in the Fergana Valley. In the article, the existence of Qadiriyya in Fergana Valley was evaluated in the context of the manaqibnama, and general information was given about the hagiographic books about Abdulqadir al-Jilani, thus determinations were made about the place of Siddiq Rushdie’s treatise in this literature. The aim of the article is to make Manaqib-i Hazrat-i Ghawth al-A’zam known, especially in Anatolia, by analyzing the copies, content, sources, style and method of it and to contribute to the the information about the history of the formation of Qadiriyya in Eastern Turkestan.

Petrogenesis of Permian Granodiorite and Diorite in Eastern Jilin Province and Its Constraints on the Late-Stage Evolution of the Paleo-Asian Ocean

The Solonker-Xar Moron-Changchun-Yanji Suture Zone is the result of the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean (PAO). However, the closure time of the PAO in Northeast China remains controversial. The Hunchun area is located in the easternmost part of the Solonker-Xar Moron-Changchun-Yanji Suture Zone. Tectonism and magmatism in the Hunchun area can provide important information for understanding the late-stage evolution of the PAO. In this study, our zircon U-Pb ages show that the granodiorites and diorites in the Hunchun were formed at 282.3–251.4 Ma. This geochronological evidence suggests prolonged Permian magmatism in the Hunchun area. Whole-rock geochemistry, zircon trace, and Lu-Hf isotope data show that all the intrusive rocks are mainly calc-alkaline series to arc tholeiite series. Granodiorites are I-type granites formed by the partial melting of juvenile lower crust derived from the mantle. Diorites show similar characteristics to the sanukitic high-Mg diorite and are formed by the partial melting of the depleted mantle metasomatized by subduction sediments and/or slab-derived fluids. These results indicate that the Permian diorites and granodiorites in the Hunchun area formed in an active continental margin setting related to the subduction of the PAO plate. Significantly, sudden changes in the whole-rock Sr/Y and (La/Yb)N ratios and zircon εHf(t) values are observed in the Late Permian-Early Triassic igneous rocks in the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). This indicates that the final closure of the PAO in Northeast China likely occurred in the Late Permian-Early Triassic.

Theorizing the spatiality of ICT-mediated transnational repression: Evidence from China’s repression of Uyghurs in Turkiye

Recent years have witnessed burgeoning scholarly interest in how authoritarian states use transnational repression to intimidate and punish their citizens abroad. Our freshly collected surveys and in-depth interviews with members of the Uyghur diaspora in Turkiye reveal that China’s transnational repression of the Uyghur diaspora goes beyond preventing political mobilization. With the use of Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs), China employs widespread repression against ordinary Uyghurs by cutting off their communication lines with their homeland and through the Chinese police constantly harassing and threatening them, mostly through social media applications. Despite the growing body of literature on transnational repression, the spatial dimension of ICT-mediated transnational repression remains relatively undertheorized. Building on the literature of critical geopolitics, digital geographies, and Foucault’s concept of panopticon this study theorizes that China’s ICT-based practices beyond its borders have led to the configuration of “a transnational social space of insecurity,” which constitutes an idiosyncratic form of repression and spatiality by affecting diaspora Uyghurs’ everyday practices through the pervasive use of tech-based apparatuses and mechanisms. This idiosyncratic space constitutes and is constituted by “disciplinary” and “automated” subjects pushed toward constant self-surveillance and self-discipline. While China has physically turned East Turkestan into an open prison through political education camps, forced labor in production chains, ubiquitous installation of CCTV cameras, and frequent police control on phones and computers, ICTs enable China to transfuse its repressive system to the transnational domain by creating a parallel social space, which functions as its quasi-spatial extension.

East Turkistan’s Right to Sovereignty: Decolonization and Beyond, written by Rukiye Turdush

East Turkistan’s Right to Sovereignty: Decolonization and Beyond, written by Rukiye Turdush

Contemporary post-Soviet popular music: Politics and aesthetics

Popular music is produced, listened to and distributed all over the world. While there is no doubt that popular music studies, as well as popular music histories and the commercial popular music industry is predominantly Anglophone, popular music is not. This might seem like an obvious statement but looking at current discussions in the field of popular music studies it is a statement that needs to be made again. While there are exceptions, popular music studies in general have a problem with pseudo-universalism. As if the Western English-speaking mainstream reflected ‘popular music’ as a whole. This special issue of IASPM Journal focuses on popular music in the post-Soviet space, imagined as located between Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but also all over the world in reproduction of sounds and the diaspora. The contributions challenge the Anglophone centre of popular music studies.

Ships, Spatial Interconnections, and the Problematization of Peripheral East Asia in the 1860s

Abstract The 1850s and 1860s were a crucial era in the history of East Asia. The opening of treaty ports and advances in information and navigational technologies both generated new commercial opportunities and brought more people and commodities from Europe and America to East Asia. What were the consequences of these political and socioeconomic changes and the resultant spatial interconnections? I argue that spatial interconnections rendered centuries-old nonstate spaces in East Asia increasingly problematic, to the extent of creating international conflicts. To illustrate this, I reconstruct the mutual influence among places constructed by and shown in the lives of the shipwrecked American vessel Rover and its crew in East Asian waters. Their activities embodied how transpacific and East Asian communication and commerce, and the growing treaty port community in China, became entangled with how Taiwanese aborigines managed their interaction with the outside world. In this and similar borderland incidents, spatial interconnections between central and peripheral East Asia constructed by ordinary people crossing borders, and the problems arising from such interactions, led to the problematization of peripheries in the 1860s.

Awareness of Women with Different HIV Status about Papillomavirus Infection in Some Countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Awareness of Women with Different HIV Status about Papillomavirus Infection in Some Countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

How does a soft collision orogen uplift and collapse? Insight from the eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt

The mechanism of uplift and collapse is critical for understanding orogenic evolution within the Wilson cycle. The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) represents one of the largest Phanerozoic accretionary orogens on Earth, experiencing terminal soft collision following the closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. However, the timing and mechanism of crustal thickening and thinning in the eastern CAOB remain unclear. Here, we present geochronological, mineralogical, geochemical, and Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic data of the newly identified Late Triassic bimodal dike associations in the easternmost CAOB. The ca. 236−230 Ma mafic dikes can be divided into two groups based on petrographic and geochemical characteristics. Major element modeling using the MELTS software indicates that they evolved via independent differentiation paths. Trace element and isotope simulations reveal that the ca. 236−230 Ma mafic dikes originated from the 4%−10% partial melting of spinel- to garnet-lherzolite lithospheric mantle sources over a range of depths, with varying inputs of asthenospheric mantle materials. Coeval ca. 233 Ma felsic dikes exhibit adakitic geochemical characteristics and strong imprints of crust-mantle interaction, suggesting derivation from melting of a heated juvenile mafic lower crust as a result of the upwelling of asthenospheric mantle. The formation of bimodal dike associations records the transition from lithospheric mantle thinning to delamination. Integrating a large dataset and employing multiple geochemical proxies, our results reveal that the crust of the easternmost CAOB reached a thickness of 54 ± 3 km at ca. 280−255 Ma, likely resulting from magmatic underplating due to rollback of the subducting Paleo-Asian Oceanic slab. This region underwent a further slight increase in crustal thickness to 61 ± 2 km at ca. 254−237 Ma in response to limited tectonic shortening associated with soft collision orogeny before it thinned to 45 ± 13 km at ca. 236−210 Ma due to lithospheric delamination during post-collisional extension. Our findings reveal that the uplift of the eastern CAOB was primarily driven by magmatic underplating, with minimal contribution from tectonic shortening. Lithospheric delamination emerged as an important factor leading to the eventual collapse of the eastern CAOB. Compared to typical hard collisional orogens (e.g., the Himalaya-Tibet orogen), the CAOB experienced significantly weaker tectonic shortening followed by similar lithospheric delamination during post-collisional extension. This study highlights the importance of integrating geochemical and isotopic data in quantifying the complex evolutionary histories of ancient collisional orogenic belts.