The Tibetan Plateau is an important water source in Asia. As the "Third Pole" of the Earth, the Tibetan Plateau has significant dynamic and thermal effects on East Asian climate patterns, the Asian monsoon process and atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. However, little systematic knowledge is available regarding the changing climate system of the Tibetan Plateau and the mechanis...

It is a major question in archaeology and anthropology whether human populations started to grow primarily after the advent of agriculture, i.e., the Neolithic time, especially in East Asia, which was one of the centers of ancient agricultural civilization. To answer this question requires an accurate estimation of the time of lineage expansion as well as that of population expansion in a popul...

There has been recently increasing interest in the establishment of a common currency area in East Asia in the aftermath of the East Asian financial crisis. In this paper, we examine the desirability and feasibility of forming a currency area in the region by checking the symmetry of shocks as an important criterion of the Theory of Optimum Currency Area. We employ a Dynamic Factor Model to dec...

In the coastal countries of East Asia and Southeast Asia, ciguatera should be common because of the extensive tropical and subtropical coral reefs along the coasts and in the neighboring seas with ciguatoxic fishes. An extensive search of journal databases, the Internet and the government websites was performed to identify all reports of ciguatera from the regions. Based on the official data an...

It is known that aerosol and precursor gas emissions over East Asia may be underestimated by 50% due to the absence of data on regional rural and township industries. As the most important element of anthropogenic emissions, sulphur dioxide (SO2) can form sulfate aerosols through several chemical processes, thus affecting the regional and global climate. In this study, we use the Community Atmo...

In this study, five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ABCC4, FBN1, CEP152, ZNF804B, and GALNT11 genes were investigated to assess allele frequencies in 14 different populations by a novel pentaplex PCR method. All SNPs were polymorphic in East Asians, whereas mutant alleles were absent or rare in non-East Asians. The frequencies of a mutant allele in FBN1 (rs140598) showed a north-s...

This chapter investigates the impact of inward and outward FDI on ICT diffusion in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions for the period 1996-2008. The results indicate that while inward FDI has generally had a positive and significant impact on ICT diffusion in Asia-Pacific economies, its impact on the Middle Eastern countries has been detrimental. In contrast, the results of this study also...

Foreign direct investment has been of great importance in economic growth and global economic integration over the last decades. South East Asia has been part of this development with rapidly increasing inflows of FDI. However, there are large variations over time and between countries in the region as regard to the policies towards FDI, and in actual inflows of FDI. This chapter aims at examin...

Since its emergence in South East Asia in 2003, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) A/H5N1 has reportedly caused outbreaks in poultry and/or wild birds in 62 countries, of which 24 were in Europe. Interestingly, out of the many genetic clades circulating in Asia, the westward spread of HPAI A/H5N1 to Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa was dominated by one single clade, namely...

Stigmella multispicata Rocienė & Stonis, sp. nov., S. sexcornuta Rocienė & Stonis, sp. nov., and Ectoedemia paraortiva Rocienė & Stonis, sp. nov. are described from Primorskiy Kray (Russian Far East). The new species are illustrated with photographs and drawings of the adults and genitalia. Stigmella thuringiaca (Petry), a species previously known only from West Palaearctic, is here newly recor...