European Asian Research Articles

Rapid host expansion of an introduced parasite, the spiny rat louse Polyplax spinulosa (Psocodea: Phthiraptera: Polyplacidae), among endemic rodents in Australia

BackgroundHistorical European exploration and colonization resulted in the introduction of four species of rodents to the Australian continent from Eurasia: the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, the black rat, R. rattus, the Pacific rat, R. exulans, and the house mouse, Mus musculus. The spread of these rodents created opportunities for their co-introduced sucking lice to parasitize and adapt to endemic rodents in Australia.MethodsWe collected sucking lice from rodent specimens in seven museums across Australia. We identified the spiny rat louse, Polyplax spinulosa, based on morphology. We sequenced the mitochondrial cox1 and rrnL genes of P. spinulosa specimens and constructed a phylogenetic tree with rrnL sequences.ResultsWe examined 989 rodent specimens of 54 species and collected 2111 adult sucking lice and 1064 nymphal sucking lice. We found that P. spinulosa had nearly doubled its host range by parasitizing at least six endemic rodent species in Australia. The other two introduced lice, P. serrata and Hoplopleura pacifica, however, have apparently failed to expand to any endemic rodents in Australia. Our analysis of mitochondrial rrnL gene sequences divided P. spinulosa into two genotypes (European vs Southeast Asian), which differ by 7.5%; both genotypes were introduced into Australia and then expanded their host ranges to include endemic rodents.ConclusionsThe earliest record of a European ship landing in Australia was in 1606, followed by British settlement in 1788. The expansion of P. spinulosa to at least six endemic rodent species in Australia has therefore occurred in the time frame of 200 to 400 years, which is extremely rapid relative to its host expansion to eight native rat species in Eurasia in ~ 16 million years since it diverged from P. serrata. The host expansion of P. spinulosa is remarkable for a blood-sucking louse and is in stark contrast to the absence of host expansion by P. serrata and H. pacifica. Comparison among these three introduced sucking lice indicated that both louse-specific factors and host-specific factors can contribute to the success or failure of host expansion.

Impact of host countries' environmental regulations along the Belt and Road Initiative on China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment

This paper makes use of the panel data of China's direct investment in 61 countries along the ‘Belt and Road' from 2006 to 2016. Using the investment gravity model, we first carry out the total data regression, then the sample data regression based on the national income, the environmental reg- ulation intensity and the district position. The study found that, as far as the overall sample is con- cerned, the national environmental regulation along the ‘Belt and Road' has a significant inhibitory effect on China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI), and the countries along the line are grouped according to income levels. Environmental regulations vary according to the differences in national income levels: environmental regulations in high income and intermediate-high income countries have a notable negative correlation with the OFDI of China, while environmental regula- tions in low-and middle-income countries have no significant impact on China's OFDI. According to the intensity of environmental regulation, the countries along the ‘Belt and Road' are grouped. The empirical results show that China's OFDI was significantly inhibited by countries whose national environmental regulations are higher than the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), while China's OFDI was not affected by the countries whose national environmental regulations are lower than the EPI. According to the different regional groupings of the host country, it was found that the environmental regulations of European countries and West Asian countries significantly inhibited China's OFDI, while the environmental regulations of the Middle East and North Africa and East Asian countries had no significant impact on China's OFDI.
 Some other important factors affecting China's OFDI should be taken into consideration, includ- ing the scale of the economy in the investment home country, the host country's economic level, strategic resources, infrastructure, government regulation, and bilateral trade tightness. Except for the government regulation level, which has an inhibitory effect on China's OFDI, the others have a strong promoting effect. This is consistent with the conclusions drawn by Qiu Qiang [2018]. The role of natural resources is not significant, indicating that China has insufficient incentives to natural resources along the ‘Belt and Road' countries.
 Finally, from the perspective of the government and enterprises, policy recommendations are pro- posed relevant to China's OFDI along the ‘Belt and Road'. The government should actively collect the measurement data of the host country's environmental regulations, carry out investment grading according to the strength of the environmental regulations and formulate different investment strat- egies accordingly. Chinese companies must pay attention to technology and innovation capabilities, which is conducive to reducing the extrusion of OFDI with similar technology levels.

Economic crisis and security concerns of wholesalers in Eastern European and Central Asian countries

We examine how the 2008-2009 global crisis affected wholesalers’ spending on security and their losses due to crime in Eastern European and Central Asian countries. The results indicate that a similar percentage of wholesalers paid for security pre- and post-crisis. The results also indicate that the wholesalers that paid for security spent less on security post-crisis. A higher percentage of the partnerships and the larger wholesalers spent money on security post-crisis when compared to the pre-crisis period. On the other hand, fewer shareholding firms with shares traded privately and fewer firms with one or more female owners spent money on security post-crisis when compared to pre-crisis. Especially smaller firms, firms that are not part of a larger firm and sole proprietorships spent less on security post-crisis. Also, fewer wholesalers experienced losses due to crime post-crisis when compared to the pre-crisis period. Finally, our results indicate that, after the crisis, crime was seen as less of an obstacle by these firms.

Fine mapping and identification of serum urate loci in American Indians: The Strong Heart Family Study

While studies have reported genetic loci affecting serum urate (SU) concentrations, few studies have been conducted in minority populations. Our objective for this study was to identify genetic loci regulating SU in a multigenerational family-based cohort of American Indians, the Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS). We genotyped 162,718 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2000 SHFS participants using an Illumina MetaboChip array. A genome-wide association analysis of SU was conducted using measured genotype analysis approach accounting for kinships in SOLAR, and meta-analysis in METAL. Our results showed strong association of SU with rs4481233, rs9998811, rs7696092 and rs13145758 (minor allele frequency (MAF) = 25–44%; P < 3 × 10−14) of solute carrier family 2, member 9 (SLC2A9) and rs41481455, rs2231142 and rs1481012 (MAF = 29%; p < 3 × 10−9) of ATP-binding cassette protein, subfamily G, member 2 (ABCG2). Carriers of G alleles of rs9998811, rs4148155 and rs1481012 and A alleles of rs4481233, rs7696092 and rs13145758 and rs2231142 had lower SU concentrations as compared to non-carriers. Genetic analysis of SU conditional on significant SLC2A9 and ABCG2 SNPs revealed new loci, nucleobindin 1 (NUCB1) and neuronal PAS domain protein 4 (NPAS4) (p <6× 10−6). To identify American Indian-specific SNPs, we conducted targeted sequencing of key regions of SLC2A9. A total of 233 SNPs were identified of which 89 were strongly associated with SU (p < 7.1 × 10−10) and 117 were American Indian specific. Analysis of key SNPs in cohorts of Mexican-mestizos, European, Indian and East Asian ancestries showed replication of common SNPs, including our lead SNPs. Our results demonstrate the association of SU with uric acid transporters in a minority population of American Indians and potential novel associations of SU with neuronal-related genes which warrant further investigation.

Neural cultural fit: non-social and social flanker task N2s and well-being in Canada

Research has noted well-being benefits to having a cultural fit between a person and the environment. The more a person fits the environment, the greater their reported well-being. We tested if cultural fit is also seen with neural patterns, which we term neural cultural fit. To address this question, we measured European Canadian (EC) and East Asian (EA) electroencephalography data during non-social (switches) and social (face emotions) flanker tasks. Participants were asked to categorize center switches (up–down) and faces (happy–sad) that were surrounded by other switches or faces. The flanker tasks involved congruent lineups, which showed the same directions or emotions between center and surrounding stimuli, and incongruent lineups, with different directions or emotions between center and surrounding stimuli. As the target neural measure, we calculated N2 event related potentials. Larger N2s to incongruent than congruent lineups suggest more conflict to incongruent lineups. We found larger N2s to incongruent than congruent lineups for EAs, as compared to ECs, replicating previous findings showing more context sensitivity for EAs. We also found evidence of neural cultural fit, with individuals with more difference from N2 neural pattern averages set by ECs in Canada in the social task, reporting less well-being. Cultural fit was also observed with social orientation beliefs, but did not explain neural cultural fit. These findings are important as they suggests that cultural fit depends not only on the subjective experience of what we believe (e.g., self-reports), but also on the objective experience of how we think (e.g., neural patterns).

General lattice methods for arithmetic Asian options

In this research, we develop a new discrete-time model approach with flexibly changeable driving dynamics for pricing Asian options, with possible early exercise, and a fixed or floating strike price. These options are ubiquitous in financial markets but can also be recast in the framework of real options. Moreover, we derive an accurate lower bound to the price of the European Asian options under stochastic volatility. We also survey theoretical aspects; more specifically, we prove that our tree method for the European Asian option in the binomial model is unconditionally convergent to the continuous-time equivalent. Numerical experiments confirm smooth, monotonic convergence, highly precise performance, and robustness with respect to changing driving dynamics and contract features.

The Effect of Culture on the Perception of Product Packaging: A Multimethod Cross-Cultural Study

This paper aims to find out the differences between Northern European and Northeast Asian consumers product packaging designs perception and choice (based on preference). Focusing on two important product packaging visual design elements – color and picture location – effect on attention, emotions and preference-based choice. Data were obtained in two different culture groups, via two different studies, with a methodological contribution by combining three different methods: eye tracking, facial expressions-based emotion measurement and conjoint analysis. Study 1 (n = 57) findings showed that some level of adaptation strategy is needed for the Northern European and Northeast Asian markets. Even if the differences did not reveal in customers’ explicit preferences (in study 2, n = 258), they can be revealed in implicit, subconscious processes (emotions, attention), which also indicates the need to use a multimethod approach to fully understand different processes of consumer behavior.

Abstract 578: Investigation of the effect of hypoxia on presentation of HPV16-derived antigens - implications for therapeutic vaccine design

Abstract Human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) is a causal factor of ~50% of cervical cancers, and of ~95% of extra-cervical (other anogenital and oropharyngeal) HPV-mediated cancers. The aim of our group is to develop a therapeutic vaccine against HPV16-induced malignancies. To find optimal vaccine antigens, it is important to assess the effect of the tumor microenvironment on viral antigen presentation. Hypoxia has been reported to regulate HLA class-I expression levels in the context of various tumors. Thus, the aim of the present study was to explore the effect of hypoxia on various components of the antigen processing machinery (APM) in HPV16-positive tumor cells and on the HPV16 E6- and E7-derived HLA class-I epitope repertoire. We are investigating the effect of hypoxia on cervical cancer cells transformed with HPV16 variant lineages (European, Asian-American and African) correlated with differences in oncogenic potential. This is achieved by comparing cells cultured under hypoxia (1.2% O2) or normoxia (21% O2). We investigate E6 protein levels by immunoblotting and HLA-A2 surface expression by flow cytometry. Subsequently, quantitative PCR and immunoblotting are used to assess whether components of the APM are affected by hypoxia. Cervical cancer cell lines transformed by sublineages of the HPV16 European variant (CaSki and SNU17) showed a decrease in E6 protein levels upon hypoxic treatment. HLA-A2 levels were increased in SNU17 cells (HPV16 European Asian prototype), but no change was observed in CaSki cells (European Prototype 2). First qPCR experiments of SNU17 cells showed changes in additional components of the APM at the mRNA level, which still have to be assessed at the protein level. Cell lines transformed by HPV16 variants other than European will be subjected to the same analysis. Potential changes in the HPV16 epitope repertoire will be investigated using a targeted mass spectrometry-based epitope detection strategy established in the lab. These investigations may yield novel insights into HPV16 immune evasion pathways. Furthermore, the identification of epitopes that are presented under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions will provide optimal candidates for therapeutic vaccine design against HPV-induced malignancies. Citation Format: Nitya Mohan, Maria Bonsack, Jonas Förster, Alina Steinbach, Renata Blatnik, Mogjiborahman Salek, Angelika B. Riemer. Investigation of the effect of hypoxia on presentation of HPV16-derived antigens - implications for therapeutic vaccine design [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 578.

The frequency of fingerprint patterns separated by ethnicity and sex in a general population from Sydney, Australia

ABSTRACTA total of 514 individuals from the Sydney area volunteered their fingerprint scans for analysis. The prints were classified using the eight main patterns of the National Crime Information Centre system. Additional information from the volunteers, including sex and ancestry, was documented. Using this information, the frequencies of each pattern for each biogeographical ancestry (BGA) group and sex were calculated. Trends showed that males and females have a difference in the frequency of plain arches; none of the other patterns showed clear differentiation. BGA trends showed that European and Middle Eastern groups had more similar frequencies for the less common patterns (plain arch, tented arch, radial loop, central pocket loop whorl and double loop whorl). Whereas for the common patterns of ulnar loop and plain whorl, European and South Asian groups were more similar in frequency.

A Study on the Spatial Distribution of China's Potential Foreign Cooperation on Grain from Geographical View

Further utilization of global agricultural resources and the expansion of potential international cooperation space are necessary measures to promote a new level of China's national food security and optimize the structure of domestic food consumption. This study measured the global potential cultivated land area and national grain self-sufficiency. Based on the two-above measures, the authors made a classification of China's foreign agricultural cooperation countries and depicted the spatial pattern of cooperation based on the grain trades of those countries with China. The grain exporters include Australia, North America, South America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia; and the target countries for “going abroad” of Chinese grain enterprises are mainly located in Sub-Saharan Africa and northern Latin America. This study proposes that China's policy of cooperation on grain should be shifted to non-traditional partners alongside the “Belt and Road Initiative” region. Specifically, China could expand grain imports from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other East European and Central Asian countries, and the direction for China's agricultural enterprises “going abroad” should shift to Sub-Sahara Africa.

Genome-wide association study identifies loci and candidate genes for non-idiopathic pulmonary hypertension\xa0in Eastern Chinese Han population

BackgroundPulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare disease characterized by proliferation and occlusion of small pulmonary arterioles, which has been associated with a high mortality rate. The pathogenesis of PH is complex and incompletely understood, which includes both genetic and environmental factors that alter vascular structure and function.MethodsThus we aimed to reveal the potential genetic etiology of PH by targeting 143 tag SNPs of 14 candidate genes. Totally 208 individuals from Chinese Han population were enrolled in the present study, including 109 non-idiopathic PH patients and 99 healthy controls.ResultsThe data revealed that 2 SNPs were associated with PH overall susceptibility at p < 3×10− 4 after Bonferroni correction. The top hit was rs6557421 (p = 4.5×10− 9), located within Nox3 gene on chromosome 6. Another SNP rs3744439 located in Tbx4 gene, also showed evidence of association with PH susceptibility (p = 1.2×10− 6). The distribution of genotype frequencies of rs6557421 and rs3744439 have dramatic differences between PH patients and controls. Individuals with rs6557421 TT genotype had a 10.72-fold/14.20-fold increased risk to develop PH when compared with GG or GG/GT carriers in codominant or recessive model, respectively (TT versus GG: 95%CI = 4.79–24.00; TT versus GG/GT: 95%CI = 6.65–30.33). As for rs3744439, AG genotype only occurred in healthy controls but has not been observed in PH patients. We further validated the result by using 26 different populations from five regions around the globe, including African (AFR), American (AMR), East Asian (EAS), European (EUR), and South Asian (SAS). In consistent with the present case-control study’s results, significantly different genotype frequencies of the observed SNPs existed between PH patients and healthy individuals from all over the world.ConclusionsThe results suggested that rs6557421 variant in Nox3 and rs3744439 variant in Tbx4 might have potential effect on individual susceptibility to pulmonary hypertension, which could lead to therapeutic or diagnosis approaches in PH.

The Study of the Unusual Development of the Super Tropical Storms Surrounding Indonesia Maritime Continent Area In March 2018

The winter season 2017/2018 could be one of the unusual conditions with increasing the winter storm activities over Northern Hemisphere to affect aerodrome closed for certain airports in big cities of the United States of America and Canada in Northern America Continent, it could be over European Countries and North Asian Continent. The freezing water Niagara for the first time during last 50 years could be the additional condition from coolest than normal and it might longer than usual based upon public information and collecting the global climatic chart from National Climate Centers under coordination from the World Meteorological Organization.

Unusual Weather & Climatic System In Indonesia Maritime Continent Area In the Beginning 2018

The winter season 2017/2018 could be one of the unusual conditions with increasing the winter storm activities over Northern Hemisphere to affect aerodrome closed for certain airports in big cities of the United States of America and Canada in Northern America Continent, it could be over European Countries and North Asian Continent. The freezing water Niagara for the first time during last 50 years could be the additional condition from coolest than normal and it might longer than usual based upon public information and collecting the global climatic chart from National Climate Centers under coordination from the World Meteorological Organization.

Southeast Asian Butterfly Project

Butterflies are important ecosystem components. They play a major role in pollination, are preyed upon and parasitized by other species, and because of their specific habitat requirements, populations can change quickly and are widely regarded as sensitive environmental indicators, being used to assess factors ranging from climate change to land management. So in addition to their enormous aesthetic appeal and educational value to the layperson, they are important to the scientific community in investigating pressing climate change and biodiversity issues. While attention to and knowledge of butterflies in western countries is significant, this is not necessarily the case for species-rich tropical areas. Naturalis Biodiversity Center possesses a world-class collection of Southeast Asian butterflies, Indonesian specimens in particular, and would like to bridge this geographic gap in knowledge by embarking on a five-year project to establish an online presence of Southeast Asian butterflies. We hope to establish a consortium of interested international museums and institutes to join us in documenting species-level natural histories, distribution and occurrence data, and photos. The data we will be using will come from literature, digitized collections and observations. Ultimately, we hope to also develop a species identification app, provide links to Red List species protection data, serve as an online field guide for butterfly enthusiasts, and promote and stimulate European Union (EU) and Southeast Asian collection digitization. We will begin this year with a pilot project limited to swallowtails (Papilionidae) in our initial effort to provide an online resource of Southeast Asian butterflies for scientists, educators and laypersons alike.

Emotions in the face: biology or culture? – Using idiomatic constructions as indirect evidence to inform a psychological research controversy

Research on the facial expression of emotions has become a bone of contention in psychological research. On the one hand, Ekman and his colleagues have argued for a universal set of six basic emotions that are recognized with a considerable degree of accuracy across cultures and automatically displayed in highly similar ways by people. On the other hand, more recent research in cognitive science has provided results that are supportive of a cultural-relativist position. In this paper this controversy is approached from a contrastive perspective on phraseological constructions. It focuses on how emotional displays are codified in somatic idioms in some European (English, German, French, Spanish) and East Asian (Japanese, Korean, Chinese [Cantonese]) languages. Using somatic idioms such as make big eyes or die Nase rümpfen as a pool of evidence to shed linguistic light on the psychological controversy, the paper engages with the following general research question: Is there a significant difference between European and East Asian somatic idioms or do these constructions rather speak for a universal apprehension of facial emotion displays? To answer this question, the paper compares somatic expressions that are selected from (idiom) dictionaries of the languages listed above. Moreover, native speakers of the East Asian languages were consulted to support the analysis of the respective data. All corresponding entries were analysed categorically, i. e. with regard to whether or not they encode a given facial area to denote a specific emotion. The results show arguments both for and against the universalist and the cultural-relativist positions. In general, they speak for an opportunistic encoding of facial emotion displays.

Characteristics of patients presenting post-suicide attempt to an Academic Medical Center Emergency Department in Lebanon

BackgroundEmergency Department (ED) visits for suicide attempts have been described worldwide; however, the populations studied were predominantly Western European, North American, or East Asian. This study aims to describe the epidemiology of ED patients presenting post-suicide attempt to an academic medical center in Lebanon and to report on factors that affect ED disposition.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted between 2009 and 2015. Patients of any age group were included if they had presented to the ED after a suicide attempt. Patients with unintentional self-harm were excluded. Descriptive analysis was performed on the demographics and characteristics of suicide attempts of the study population. A bivariate analysis to compare the two groups (hospitalized or discharged) was conducted using Student’s t test and Pearson Chi-square where appropriate. A multivariate analysis was then conducted to determine the predictors of hospital admission.ResultsOne hundred and eight patients were included in the final analysis. Most patients were females (71.4%) and between 22 and 49 years of age. A considerable number of patients were unemployed (43%), unmarried (61.1%), and living with family (86.9%). Most suicide attempts were performed at home (93.5%) and on a weekday (71.3%). The most common mechanisms of injury were overdose with prescription medications (61.3%), overdose with over-the-counter drugs (27.9%), and self-inflicted lacerations (10.1%). The classes of medication most commonly abused were benzodiazepines (39.3%) followed by acetaminophen (27.3%). A large portion of our patients were admitted (70.3%), with the majority going to the psychiatric ward (71.1%). Of note, a quarter (27.5%) of our patients left the ED against medical advice, with 23.5% of admitted patients leaving the hospital before completion of treatment. The main predictors of admission were found to be overdose on prescription medications OR 9.25 (2.12–40.42 CI95%).ConclusionsThe characteristics of our suicide attempters mirror those of international and regional suicide attempters. Further work is required to quantify the effect of voluntary refusal of hospital treatment, the repercussions of family, and financial barriers to healthcare and suicide as a whole in our society.

An Opportunity for Academic Research on Eurasia

With the Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research (JEECAR) accepted to the Elsevier-SCOPUS, this publication presents a fresh prospect for the advanced research activities related to the Eurasian continent. A current vibrant political situation in this part of the world, partially explain the “turbulences” taking place and affecting the economic development of countries representing the region. As of today, relatively little economic research has been performed on the dramatically changed situation in the region, and especially in the Central Asian area.

Man and his Ancestors – The Legacy and Fate of Neanderthal Man

First discovered in lime quarries in the Neander Valley near Dusselorf, Germany, in 1856, Neanderthal Man ( Homo neanderthalensis ) was the first modern hominid species to be named. Since the discovery of the original fossil (subsequently named as Neander 1), numerous Neanderthal fossils, varying from sets of teeth to virtually complete skeletons, have been discovered at numerous European and Central Asian sites, including La Chapelle-aux-Saints and Moustier (France) and Shanidar (Kurdistan).

Long Term Winter Season 2017/2018 Northern Hemisophere and Their Impact over Indonesia Maritime Continent Area

The winter season 2017/2018 could be one of the unusual condition with increasing the winter storm activities over Northern Hemisphere to affect aerodrome closed for certain airports in big city of the United States of America and Canada in Northern America Continent, it could be over European Countries and North Asian Continent. The freezing water Niagara for the first time during last 50 years could be additional condition from coolest than normal and it might longer than usual based upon public information and collecting the global climatic chart from National Climate Centers under coordination from the World Meteorological Organization.

An Adjusted Trinomial Lattice for Pricing Arithmetic Average Based Asian Option

An adjusted trinomial model for pricing both European and American arithmetic average-based Asian options is proposed. The Kamrad and Ritchken trinomial tree governs the underlying asset evolution. The algorithm selects a subset of the true averages realized at each node to serve as the representative averages. The option prices are then computed via backward induction and interpolation. The results show that the trinomial method produces more accurate prices especially in the case of European style Asian options.