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The height of the F2 peak electron density (hmF2) is an essential parameter in studying ionospheric electrodynamics and high-frequency wireless communication. Based on ionosphere ray propagation theory, the physical relationship between M3000F2 and hmF2 is derived and visualized. Furthermore, based on the above physical theory and the machine learning method, this paper proposes a new model for determining hmF2 using propagation factor at a distance of 3000 km from the ionospheric F2 layer, time, and season. This proposed model is easy to understand and has the characteristics of clear principles, simple structure, and easy application. Furthermore, we used six stations in east Asia to verify this model and compare it with the other three models of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model. The results show that the proposed model (PRO) has minor error and higher accuracy. Specifically the RMSE of the BSE, AMTB, SHU, and the PRO models were 20.35 km, 31.51 km, 13.59 km, and 5.68 km, respectively, and the RRMSE of the BSE, AMTB, SHU, and PRO models were 8.17%, 11.88%, 4.96%, and 2.12%, respectively. In addition, the experimental results show that the PRO model can better predict the trend of the hmF2 inflection point. This method can be further extended to add data sources and provide new ideas for studying the hmF2 over global regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first outlines the digital interaction and integration in the dynamic process of production, circulation and consumption of Asia-produced media that evoke the shared values and traditions among Asian audiences. It then introduces the papers collected in this special issue, which explore a variety of widespread but underexplored phenomena in the newly interconnected Asian cultural industries and the sites of digital convergence between production and consumption (digital prosumption). In regard to future research, it suggests that multidisciplinary expertise in and from the region should maintain a critical, dialogical connection with Western scholarship in order to contribute to a holistic understanding of the constantly evolving translational creativity in the global audiovisual world. Simultaneously, novel practices in new media habitats, such as danmaku-titling and video remixes, pose new conceptual and ethical challenges to the present scholarship in user-generated AVT and calls for further theoretical revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countries of East and Southeast Asia where fertility has reached ultra-low levels, there has been a flurry of developments in pro-natalist policy over the past five years or so, but its impact appears to be limited. This paper addresses the strong obstacles hindering the success of pro-natalist policies in the region, suggests key interventions that are needed, and stresses that the policies in these countries should also be considering other ways of addressing the issues. Social policy has certainly moved ahead in positive ways in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, as evidenced by parental leave policy and childcare reform, but workplace cultures have yet to follow suit. The slow changes in gender norms, along with the pressures of educating children and finding housing in the big cities where most people in the region live, are the continuing realities facing couples considering marriage and childbearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Family Therapy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Stepfamilies, an emerging family form in Asia, are gaining growing academic and social attention in Asia. This paper presents an overview of stepfamilies in Asia, based primarily on research findings in Japan, which suggest underlying two competing stepfamily models as key factors in understanding stepfamily dynamics: the "scrap and build" household model versus the expanded and interconnected network model. The findings in Japan are, then, juxtaposed with existing research findings on stepfamilies in East Asia and Singapore in terms of (a) cultural views on stepfamilies; (b) values of grandparenting, mothering, and fathering; and (c) family law and policies. Some commonalities are found in remaining influence of the "scrap and build" household model and in recent policy changes toward the expanded and interconnected network model, along with some variations, across these societies. Evidently, more studies across Asian societies are needed to obtain a clearer picture of stepfamilies in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Business & Global Economy is the property of Jagiellonian University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper develops a semi-open dualistic model of the development process. Within this context rapid structural change and development is likely to be stymied by low productivity in staple food production. This will result in labor being relatively expensive, even when it is physically abundant. Thus solving the food problem is essential for successful economic development. However, different countries have resolved this problem in very different ways. The experiences of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia are used to illustrate the problem and the different ways each country has evolved to solve it. These experiences have implications for today's developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in social protection in East Asia. The article focuses on two types of NGO roles in social protection—direct provision and indirect pressure—and examines how the relative proportions of the two types of roles vary by country in East Asia, depending on factors that are contextual (political democratization), pulling (developmental welfare state), or pushing (civil society). A comparative analysis of Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia reveals that each represents a differing mix of pressure and provision functions by NGOs in social protection. In Korea pressure seems to be the main role of NGOs; in Indonesia it is provision; while in Thailand pressure and provision are relatively evenly mixed. The study concludes with a summary of the research findings, discussion on the limitations of the paper, and suggestions for future research in order to develop more sophisticated accounts of NGO roles in social protection in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts country-panel econometric analysis with a focus on the different roles of scientific and technological knowledge on economic growth and on the knowledge production functions. It finds that it is not scientific knowledge (academic articles) but technological knowledge (patents) that matters for economic growth, and that generating scientific knowledge does not automatically lead to the generation of technological knowledge. We find that technological knowledge is primarily determined by corporate research and development efforts, which used to be more lacking in Latin American countries, compared with East Asia. This finding sheds new light on the question of why Latin American and East Asian countries have shown such divergent economic performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twelfth-thirteenth centuries massive quantities of bronze coin issued by the Song dynasty in China were exported and became the de facto monetary standard throughout maritime East Asia. However, the cessation of minting by the Ming dynasty in the 1430s provoked a monetary crisis. Private coinage proliferated both in China and abroad, creating a profusion of heterogeneous transactional currencies and numerous regional monetary circuits. This paper examines monetary circulation in maritime East Asia--encompassing China, Japan, Ryükyü, Vietnam, and Java--during the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries in order to re-assess the impact of Chinese coin in fostering monetary integration (and disintegration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neolithic is regarded as one of the most important developments in prehistory, a major cultural threshold marked by combined shifts in economy, technology, ideology, settlement and social organisation. Many foundational ideas about the Neolithic emerged within the context of European archaeology, and substantial work has now been directed at understanding how this 'package' of innovations appeared first in the Near East, and then dispersed steadily out into the rest of northwest Europe. Papers presented in this special issue are an output of the international NEOMAP Project (Neolithization and Modernization: Landscape History on East Asian Inland Seas) (2005-2012), which sought to apply two key approaches drawn from European Neolithic studies to the archaeology of East Asia: (a) the concept of Neolithization, defined as a long-term and historically-contingent process of culture-change; and (b), the contextual study of this process via the framework of cultural landscape research. This exercise has been highly productive, and provides new insights into a series of unique cultural transformations in East Asia, most of which have a very different sequence and character to those in the European Neolithic. It is hoped that, in turn, these comparative insights into the Neolithization of East Asian cultural landscapes will encourage those working on the European Neolithic to look back over their own regional datasets and critically reflect on some of their deeper assumptions about the internal logic and cultural content of the European Neolithic transition. Given the existence of so many fundamentally different kinds of Neolithic across the broader continent of Eurasia, the overall goal of this special issue is to re-kindle international debates about how best to explain each of these distinctive regional Neolithization trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that to understand the relevance of developmental states in East Asia and elsewhere, we need to focus on the changing development agenda in the early twenty-first century, especially how this connects with the global challenge of climate change and thereby sustainable, low-carbon development. It combines theories on state capacity and ecological modernisation to form the 'new developmentalism' concept. This is applied to study revitalised and refocused forms of state capacity aimed at realising the transformative economic objectives associated with sustainable development. New developmentalism helps us understand not only current state capacity practice in a climate challenged world but also how we have moved beyond original conceptions of developmental statism. It may be understood in the wider context of the sustainable development agenda and climate interventionism. As is argued, new developmentalism is most clearly evident in East Asia but can be applied in a wider geographic sense where strong forms of developmental state capacity are exercised towards meeting transformative sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental advocacy in East Asia takes place in a context where there are few well-funded professional advocacy organizations, no viable green parties, and governments that are highly pro-business. In this advocacy-hostile environment, what strategies are environmental organizations using to promote better environmental outcomes? Using an original database of environmental organizations and interviews with activists and officials throughout the region, this paper investigates which strategies are most common, and compares them to the advocacy strategies found in the United States. It finds, perhaps surprisingly, that (a) environmental organizations across East Asia employ similar advocacy strategies, even though they are operating in very different political conditions, and (b) the strategies most favoured in East Asia are also the strategies most often utilized in the United States. It then argues that new theories of advocacy should be developed to pay closer attention to certain actors (academics and artists), and particular processes (organizational networking, government collaboration, and culture-making), that appear to play important roles in advocacy in countries around the world, irrespective of political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue takes on a new cross-regional comparison between Southern Europe and East Asia in an attempt to identify ‘new politics’ of welfare state adjustments. Departing from the previous literature that overemphasized regional peculiarities of East Asian and Southern European welfare states, our Special Issue highlights family resemblances – among Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain. We argue that these four welfare states – often labelled as ‘familialist’ – share key common characteristics, which in turn experienced very similar policy problems in recent years. Interestingly, despite their initial similarities, these four countries have been trying to cope with new policy problems in different ways. In this process, some are clearly becoming less familialist. The main aim of this introductory article is to demonstrate the theoretical advantages based on the new cross-regional comparison. This article proceeds in three steps. First, it establishes the usefulness of the concept of family resemblances in our cross-regional comparison. Second, it presents a brief historical account of recent policy differences across the four countries going beyond familialism and shows that the existing theories fail to account for the new divergences. Third, it provides the overview of the Special Issue by explaining the research puzzles each paper tackles. We argue that these four welfare states, which are moving beyond familialism to varying degrees, represent heuristically helpful cases to explore the effects of both domestic and international political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Anecdotal evidence suggests that casting actors with similar facial features in a movie can pose challenges in foreign markets, hindering the audience's ability to recognize and remember characters. Extending developments in the literature on the cross-race effect, we hypothesize that facial similarity – the extent to which the actors starring in a movie share similar facial features – will reduce the country-level box-office performance of US movies in East and South-East Asia (ESEA) countries. Design/methodology/approach: We assembled data from various secondary data sources on US non-animation movies (2012–2021) and their releases in ESEA countries. Combining the data resulted in a cross-section of 2,616 movie-country observations. Findings: Actors' facial similarity in a US movie's cast reduces its box-office performance in ESEA countries. This effect is weakened as immigration in the country, internet penetration in the country and star power increase and strengthened as cast size increases. Originality/value: This first study on the effects of cast's facial similarity on box-office performance represents a novel extension to the growing literature on the antecedents of movies' box-office performance by being at the intersection of the two literature streams on (1) the box-office effects of cast characteristics and (2) the antecedents, in general, of box-office performance in the ESEA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusiveness in economic development has lately emerged as a critical factor for development. This paper adopts an analytical concept of inclusive growth to evaluate East Asia’s economic success. It contests the Western conceptualization of the critical role of public participation in development, and argues that it has played a limited role in terms of inclusive growth in East Asia. Several factors have influenced the outcome of research in this area including the choice of methodology adopted, the challenge of defining and measuring inclusive growth, and the unclear mode and impact of public participation in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Through an examination of East Asian economies, this paper proposes two new capitalist ideal types: family market economies and state market economies. In contrast to coordinated and liberal market economy types, the new capitalist ideal types proposed here display alternative forms of hierarchical coordination. These ideal types are also genuinely novel models of capitalism because they exhibit distinct and stable institutional structures and comparative advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• 18 new Ancestry informative markers (AIMs) were screened from the 1000 Genomes Project. • A novel panel of 18 AIMs can improve ancestry distinctions among Asian populations. • Our panel could distinguish the GIH (Gujarati Indian in Houston, TX) from other South Asian groups. At present, several mature ancestry informative SNP (AISNP) panels are used to distinguish between continental regions of the world, but a more accurate division within the continent requires a secondary panel to complete. However, many AISNPs for the subgroup ancestry inference are selected from the Kidd Lab panel of 55 AISNPs or other published papers. These panels inevitably lack valuable markers for subgroup ancestry inference. Therefore, instead of choosing from the published panels, we used the 1000 Genomes Project to screen potentially informational markers in Asian populations, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels). The allele frequencies of all autosomal SNPs and InDels of the 1000 Genomes Project were compared between 10 populations in Asia to identify markers with the largest pairwise allele frequency differences. Finally, we established a second-tier panel of 18 AIMs in this study, which not only divided the 26 populations of the 1000 Genomes Project into six clusters, but also divided the Asia subgroup into four clusters: Gujarati, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Megacities in Asia have been growing and showing dynamic ‘compressed’ changes. Tokyo, Bangkok and Shanghai are serving as the centre of finance, production and other functions of the region, while disparities within the city are widening to form multi-layered stratification. Besides, in the advancement of globalisation, they now experience uncertainty, insecurity, and more difficult new challenges – facing challenges of global cities in developed countries and of cities in developing countries simultaneously. In order to consider social environment where individual can live well in such Asian cities, this paper explores potential urban risks, risk responses, and actual condition of well-being of urban residents in three cities. The data from field survey show that Tokyo residents face to the work-related problems, while shanghai and Bangkok residents to the fundamental economic risks. As the responses to those risks, all three cities use some personal networks to ensure enough resources to overcome, even if what relationships they have developed and how to use those vary. An interesting but not surprising finding is that, despite a better living condition, Tokyo residents show the lowest level of life satisfaction among the surveyed cities. In reality, there is a limit in responding to the public needs due to the austerity, which results in a serious policy dilemma. Managing the urban risks in a creative way by multi-actors in local context, such as involving individuals’ personal networks, is one of the key challenges to be tackled for the future development and economic and social sustainability of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese members of Haliplidae were reviewed and 13 species in two genera are recognized. A new species, Haliplus morii sp. nov. is described from Honshu; it is similar to Haliplus japonicus Sharp, 1873, but belongs to a different subgenus. Haliplus diruptus J. Balfour-Browne, 1946, syn. nov. is treated as a junior synonym of Haliplus kotoshonis Kano & Kamiya, 1931. The records of Haliplus davidi Vondel, 1991 from Japan are regarded as misidentifications of H. kotoshonis. Haliplus basinotatus latiusculus Nakane, 1985, syn. nov. is treated as a junior synonym of H. basinotatus. Haliplus angustifrons Re'gimbart, 1892 known from south and southeast Asia, is newly recorded from Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provide a comprehensive overview of the solidarity in health and long-term care sectors. • The overall direction of reforms is developing toward universal coverage. • Reforms might be possible without overall consensus on solidarity. • The pay-as-you-go financial arrangements will require strong intergenerational solidarity. • The capacity of informal caregiving of family could be considered. Different from the development of health sector, there are significant variations in the underpinnings and formation timings of solidarity-based long-term care (LTC) systems. This paper compares the historical developmental trajectories and identifies factors of the transitions of the actual practices of solidarity - the scope of community, the scope of interdependence, and the costs of joint action - in the health and LTC sectors in four East Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Comparative policy analysis. Healthcare tends to be considered a universal value such that its boundary should include all residents, while LTC is closer to an entitlement of citizens. The differing solidarity reflects path dependency as well as historical legacies and policy diffusion between the health and LTC sectors. In both health and LTC sectors, the costs involved in collective service provision are not distributed evenly between generations. Centralized governance is a prevailing feature of health and LTC sectors in East Asia, allowing solidarity-based institutional arrangements to be established without an overall sense of solidarity. The relationship between solidarity and health and LTC systems is complex and dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine and compare decision‐making preferences on end‐of‐life care for older people in Japan, the Hong Kong SAR and South Korea. Background: Cultural values and beliefs influence decision‐making on end‐of‐life care. Design: A cross‐sectional design was adopted. Methods: Community‐dwelling people aged ≥65 with additional requirements were recruited in 2016–2017 in the three regions. Their decision‐making preferences on end‐of‐life care were assessed using Pang et al.'s questionnaire. These preferences and their sociodemographic and personal experience variables were compared and analysed using univariate and multiple logistic regressions. The STROBE checklist was followed. Results: This study involved 415 participants. In all three regions, the most preferred decision maker and person with whom to discuss end‐of‐life care issues was a family member. Participants in the Hong Kong SAR were less likely to select a family member as their preferred decision maker than those in Japan (adjusted odds ratio = 0.129). Koreans were less likely to discuss end‐of‐life care issues with medical professionals than people in Japan (adjusted odds ratio = 0.278). More than 70% of the participants in each region indicated that they would not prefer to leave an advance directive to decide their end‐of‐life care. Conclusion: Older Asians prefer to make their own decisions after consulting others. Family members play an important role in helping older people plan their preferred end‐of‐life care arrangements, even acting as decision makers when older people become incapable of deciding for themselves. Relevance to clinical practice: Sufficient information should be provided to older people and their families for the older people to determine their preferred care. Helping families to understand and support the planned care and advance directives is a strategy for maximising family compliance with the care. Continuous efforts should be made to promote advance care planning and advance directives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia has been one of the most dynamic regions of economic growth and development. The past two decades have seen tremendous economic and technological catching up in the region. Using South Korea as a case to illustrate the process of technology catching up, we find that the process of graduating from imitation to innovation is a nonlinear one, and requires conscious efforts to invest in research and development and other technological capability-enhancing activities. Successful technology upgrading also calls for policies and institutions that are relevant to technological innovation to evolve and adapt as an economy goes through the different stages of economic and technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the adoption of the first EU-Asia Strategy in 1994, there has been persistent scepticism about the EU's ability to play a significant role in Asian security. Yet, since the release of the 2012 Updated East Asia Policy Guidelines, the EU has declared its intent to make greater practical contributions to Asian security. Against these premises, this article attempts to reflect on the evolution of the EU's security approach to Asia, with the ultimate goal of analysing to what degree, it represents a continuation or a departure from former EU policies in the region. In scrutinising these developments, this article argues that in light of the strategic changes, that have occurred in Europe and in Asia, the EU has started to revise its security approach to the region in more pragmatic terms. The pragmatic character of the EU is seen as looking into the changes of the content of the security discourse, which appears increasingly depoliticised and, into the new practices of cooperation, which unlike in the past, seek to empower local actors, are sensitive to local needs and, call for greater security collaboration between the EU and Asian countries, to cope with regional and global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to test key social capital indicators in a disaster context by considering the bonding and bridging types of social capital. Using the East Asian Social Survey, this study chooses three behavioural/cognitive elements of social capital—social trust, voluntary association membership, and personal networks—and divides them into bonding and bridging social capital, in‐group and out‐group trust, homogeneous and heterogeneous membership, and strong and weak ties to test their effects on self‐evaluated community resilience to natural hazards. The results showed that social trust and personal networks had strong positive effects, but the effect of voluntary association membership was positive in societies with high rates of membership (Japan and South Korea) and negative in a society with a low rate of membership (Taiwan). Furthermore, while bonding social capital generally showed a stronger effect than bridging social capital in East Asia, a society with more frequent and intense disasters (Japan) showed a strong effect of heterogenous membership on self‐evaluated community resilience. This study connects two aspects of social capital studies—the elements and the types of social capital—and the findings imply that the relationship between social capital and community resilience may have some mediator variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the accuracy of predictions and simplify the difficulty with the algorithm, a simplified empirical model is proposed in developing a long-term predictive approach in determining the ionosphere's F2-layer critical frequency (foF2). The main distinctive features introduced in this model are: (1) Its vertical incidence sounding data, which were obtained from 18 ionosonde stations in east Asia between 1949 and 2017, used in reconstructing the model and verification; (2) the use of second-order polynomial and triangle harmonic functions, instead of linear ones, to obtain the relationship between the seasonal vs. solar-cycle variations of foF2 and solar activity parameters; (3) the flux of solar radio waves at 10.7 cm and sunspot number are together introduced in reconstructing the temporal characteristics of foF2; and (4) the use of the geomagnetic dip coordinates rather than geographic coordinates in reconstructing the spatial characteristics of foF2. The statistical results reveal that foF2 values calculated from the proposed model agree well with the trend in the monthly median statistical characteristics obtained from measurements. The results are better than those obtained from the International Reference Ionosphere model using both the CCIR and URSI coefficients. Furthermore, the proposed model has enabled some useful guidelines to be established for a more complete and accurate Asia regional or global model in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

International development agencies, with the help of the central government, support building state of art Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in low-income Asian cities. However, BRT investment over indigenous modes of mobility is creating socio-political tensions at the local level. This article uses multi-level governance as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among actors in BRT investment decisions in Bandung and Surabaya, Indonesia. The research finds that local stakeholders can distort national and supranational policy initiatives totally or in a way that while projects are delivered, they are of limited use to the local communities they intended to help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing number of single people in the population in Asia, with a higher tendency for single people to be found in the East and Southeast Asia regions. Nevertheless, limited studies are available on the sociopsychological aspects of Asian singles. In fact, societies in many Asian countries have a variety of responses and attitudes toward singles. The overarching purpose of this literature review is, thus, to present many profiles of singles in Asia, although societal acceptance toward singles in each country varies. This study also explores several government policies and social acts that have been implemented to control the rising number of singles, and reviews their effectiveness. Directions for future studies are discussed at the end of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claims of a special cultural emphasis on learning and education (SCELE) in East Asia versus the West - the United States in particular - are legion in the research literature. The evidence is, however, largely anecdotal, severely geographically limited, or reflects an unrepresentative selection of respondents. We review the evidentiary strategies of earlier studies, situate the assumed SCELE in a theoretical framework, and compare the prevalence of learning and education words in general-interest newswriting samples from across East Asia and the United States (N = 61). Our findings confirm earlier unsubstantiated claims, provide new insight into the strength of the difference, and illustrate a novel means of quantifying the difference in magnitude of SCELE in East Asia in comparison to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of green field investment, energy consumption, economic growth and urbanization on the environmental performance of nine selected Asian developing countries over 2003–2014 period. It uses Environmental Performance Index (EPI), developed by the Yale University as proxy for environment. By applying the fixed and random effect estimators and robust least squares technique, the empirical findings show that green field investment has adverse effect on the environmental performance of the nine selected Asian developing countries. However, economic growth is found to have positive influence on the environmental performance. The results suggest that strict environmental regulations should be introduced to mitigate the detrimental effects of foreign capital in these countries and there should not be compromise on the quality of foreign capital. In addition, adequate policies should be formulated to enhance economic growth to ensure sustainable environment in these regions. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 1085–1092, 2018 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedge funds exemplify complex finance in the global economy and are appearing in diverse national settings. One question that follows is whether hedge funds in the Asian region have been localized and exhibit significant differences to their US/UK counterparts or whether there is predominantly one global model. The analysis here point to the importance of what is called replica localization, wherein local control has entailed little deviation from the practices of Anglo-American hedge funds. Evidence generated from databases and interviews confirms the largely equivalent structures and strategies found in the new Asian hedge fund sector. The significance is that a small but growing Asian financial space has been carved out that is funded by Asian capital and managed by Asian elites but matches external models. To further delineate globalized finance, comparative research is needed to determine when and why complex finance is either present or absent outside of Anglo-American economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s trade surplus remains huge. Researchers reported that China’s exports decimate manufacturing job abroad and stoke protectionist pressures. China’s surplus is concentrated in the electronics sector. Much of the value-added of China’s exports of smartphones, tablet computers, and consumer electronics goods comes from processors, sensors, and other parts and components (p&c) produced in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and ASEAN. This article finds that the exchange rates in countries supplying p&c are crucial for understanding China’s electronics exports. A concerted appreciation of East Asian currencies is needed to rebalance the region’s exports. However, because of underdeveloped financial markets, the U.S. dollar remains the most important currency in the currency baskets of many East Asian economies. Countries resist appreciation against the dollar to maintain competitiveness vis-à-vis neighboring economies. This article considers ways to overcome this coordination failure and develop stronger consumption-oriented economies in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's rise has been accompanied by a rise in nationalism. But what are the characteristics of this nationalism now being witnessed? Does it support China's constructive engagement with the international order, or does it seek to assert China's supremacy? These questions lie at the hub of a rapidly expanding secondary literature on the emergence of nationalism in China and its impact on China's foreign relations. What is, however, absent from the academic discourse is the voice of the Chinese people themselves. What are their perceptions of the nation-state, and how do these beliefs shape their views of China's relationship with East Asia? To address this gap, we conducted a series of large-scale surveys in Beijing between 2011 and 2013 on the twinned topics of domestic nationalism and international relations. Our findings, as reported below, represent an initial attempt to answer this final and, arguably, most critical set of questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hedge funds and private equity funds are two of the most discussed features of contemporary global finance. This article explores the extent to which these new financial forms have arisen outside of the US and a small number of other advanced financial markets. There has been greater experimentation with global finance in emerging markets than is often acknowledged and domestic resistance to Anglo-Saxon business processes has not derailed the spread of new finance across the Asian region. The rise of these new financial industries, with the notable exception of Japan, would have been impossible without the commitment of one key domestic actor. Asian institutional investors, especially pension funds, have served as crucial financiers to hedge funds and private equity groups. The article concludes with caution concerning whether these new financial actors are set to capture significant global market share. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Asian Politics & Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigated preferred leisure type and its associations with value orientations and psychological well-being (PWB) among adolescents in South Korea, China, and Japan (N = 6,157). Chi-square analyses were performed to examine differences in preferred leisure type (i.e., active vs. passive) across countries. Overall, adolescents preferred passive to active leisure. A series of logistic regressions showed that students who value religion (Japanese and Korean), community (Chinese), and same-sex friends (Chinese) were more likely to prefer active leisure. Furthermore, active leisure pursuit was associated with high PWB among adolescents in all three countries. Though some of the findings support previous studies suggesting cultural differences in leisure, values, and PWB, similar patterns were observed in the associations between variables among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The largely unexpected election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has overturned many assumptions and expectations about the future of Australia's regional relationships. Even before Trump's election, however, the history of regional evolution in East Asia presented a number of striking paradoxes and raised important questions about the forces that encourage or obstruct integration and cooperation at the regional level. For a region that has frequently been associated with comparatively limited cross-border political institutionalization and development, East Asia has recently been the centre of a large number of initiatives and proposals that are intended to give expression to particular visions of the region. We argue that the outcome of such regional processes is profoundly influenced by both geo-economic and geopolitical forces. We illustrate this claim by looking at the history of institutional development in the 'Asia-Pacific', before considering the attempt to create a new 'Indo-Pacific region', which, we suggest, has more to do with contemporary geopolitical concerns rather than any underlying 'natural' coherence. The Australian policy-making community needs to think carefully about the implications of the Trump presidency for such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia has experienced fast economic growth along with large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and accumulated human capital since the 1960s. Economic literature suggests a link between FDI and human capital development via technology transfer. This study employs a panel of sample data from 16 East Asian countries from 1985 to 2010 to examine the effect of inward FDI on human capital accumulation. The results show that an increase in foreign presence is associated with an increase in secondary schooling, yet has a negative impact on tertiary schooling. FDI from OECD countries presents positive effects on both secondary and tertiary schooling in East Asian countries. The findings are robust to different measures of educational attainment and different specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two prominent approaches to the history of empires and nation-states are comparative imperial history [CIH] and transnational history [TNH]. Each group of historians has actively promoted their perspective, but the two have had little interaction. Furthermore, in the history of East Asia, nationalist perspectives have dominated over transnational approaches until very recent times. This article points to new studies that examine Chinese imperial and national history from transnational and comparative perspectives, and encourages further work, including an ecological and environmental viewpoint, that will foster this trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconsiders state-led development in the changing political context of the East Asian economies of South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Grounded in a political economy approach advanced by the late Alice Amsden and others, I argue that since the late 1980s, the developmental state faced significant challenges of managing the greater desire for democracy and welfare from domestic interest groups and social movements. These three East Asian economies began to adjust and adapt to a new political economy in which the state could no longer wield autonomous power in governing the market and directing the growth trajectories of national firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of institutional balancing is the predominant factor prompting East Asian countries to move to mega-FTAs. Rather than seeking mega-FTAs purely on the basis of economic benefits, these countries, particularly major powers, have attempted to form mega-FTAs to counter the target state's vision of the regional architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Europe and East Asia are two distinct groups of nations which share a number of striking family resemblances warranting a close investigation. Such resemblances form a relatively coherent set best captured through the concepts of familialism and familial welfare state. A cross-regional comparison of Italy, Japan, Spain and Korea leads to interesting results in both descriptive and explanatory terms, highlighting the role played by culture and religion as well as by the compressed modernization which characterized the four countries during the 20th century. The comparative exercise of this Special Issue offers a significant contribution to the wider field of welfare research. It reshuffles the cards of the traditional ‘world of welfare capitalism’ debate, shows the significance of region-level (as opposed to nation-level) variables and invites a specification of temporal arguments in institutional transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on atmospheric circulation reanalysis, global gridded precipitation, and outgoing longwave radiation datasets, this study reveals the physical process through which the land-sea thermal contrast over East Asia interrelates with the variability of the interface between the Indian summer monsoon and East Asian summer monsoon (IIE). The results indicate that the release of latent heating exerted by the low-frequency variability of anomalous land-sea thermal contrast is one of the most important physical processes correlating with the zonal movement of the IIE, in which the release of latent heating over eastern East Asia makes the greatest contribution. When a lower apparent moisture sink occurs over the South China Sea but a higher one over southern China, an anomalously positive land-sea thermal contrast is formed. An anomalous convergent zone in relation to the positive land-sea thermal contrast, located in the eastern part of the IIE, will favor the IIE to move more eastward than normal, and vice versa. An anomalous divergent zone located in the eastern part of the IIE will benefit the IIE to shift more westward than normal. Experiments using a linear baroclinic model confirm the physical processes revealed by the observational analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the interannual variation of summer surface air temperature over Northeast Asia (NEA) and its associated circulation anomalies. Two leading modes for the temperature variability over NEA are obtained by EOF analysis. The first EOF mode is characterized by a homogeneous temperature anomaly over NEA and therefore is called the NEA mode. This anomaly extends from southeast of Lake Baikal to Japan, with a central area in Northeast China. The second EOF mode is characterized by a seesaw pattern, showing a contrasting distribution between East Asia (specifically including the Changbai Mountains in Northeast China, Korea, and Japan) and north of this region. This mode is named the East Asia (EA) mode. Both modes contribute equivalently to the temperature variability in EA. The two leading modes are associated with different circulation anomalies. A warm NEA mode is associated with a positive geopotential height anomaly over NEA and thus a weakened upper-tropospheric westerly jet. On the other hand, a warm EA mode is related to a positive height anomaly over EA and a northward displaced jet. In addition, the NEA mode tends to be related to the Eurasian teleconnection pattern, while the EA mode is associated with the East Asia-Pacific/Pacific-Japan pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De-industrialization has created new economic environments for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. While structural changes in the labour market took place rather rapidly, accompanying institutional changes have been more gradual. While maintaining some core institutional arrangements, each country has adjusted to new labour market challenges and thereby created various labour market risks. In the period of de-industrialization, both South Korea and Japan experienced a sharp increase in the proportion of atypical workers, unlike the case of Taiwan. This study investigates how the institutional legacy of state corporatism matters in explaining how these three economies have differed in two respects: (a) a rapid increase in the proportion of atypical workers, and (b) the gendered characteristic of atypical employment—that is to say, a disproportionate concentration of women in atypical employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Development in Practice is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)