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Educational experiences rooted in community engagement offer a powerful and effective method by which to prepare students as the next generation of active citizens. This study critically analyzes and illustrates the potential of using community engagement as the focus of an informal curriculum in an Asian university's living-and-learning undergraduate residential college program designed to prepare the next generation of active citizens. Grounded in empirical evidence from four academic years (2013/14-2016/17) and using the active citizenship and community-based learning theoretical frameworks, this research study systematically evaluates the contribution of hands-on community engagement in undergraduate learning and development. Specifically, conceptual codes were derived from the stated informal learning outcomes related to citizenship competencies, to map the extent of achievement of the target outcomes and objectives of the engagement activities over time. Results from this quasi-quantitative content analysis of 89 programs, involving more than 80% of the College students during each academic year, confirm and complicate our understanding of how critical citizenship competencies of awareness, empathy, deeper understanding and hard and soft skills are achieved. Moreover, findings also highlight how perceptions on learning through active community engagement differ between activities/events in shaping the development of active citizenship competencies. The study findings have ramifications for policies related to community-engagement-based learning in higher education.

Tropical peatlands in South-East Asia are some of the most carbon-dense ecosystems in the world. Extensive repurposing of such peatlands for forestry and agriculture has resulted in substantial microbially-driven carbon emissions. However, we lack an understanding of the microorganisms and their metabolic pathways involved in carbon turnover. Here, we address this gap by reconstructing 764 sub-species-level genomes from peat microbiomes sampled from an oil palm plantation located on a peatland in Indonesia. The 764 genomes cluster into 333 microbial species (245 bacterial and 88 archaeal), of which, 47 are near-complete (completeness ≥90%, redundancy ≤5%, number of unique tRNAs ≥18) and 170 are substantially complete (completeness ≥70%, redundancy ≤10%). The capacity to respire amino acids, fatty acids, and polysaccharides was widespread in both bacterial and archaeal genomes. In contrast, the ability to sequester carbon was detected only in a few bacterial genomes. We expect our collection of reference genomes to help fill some of the existing knowledge gaps about microbial diversity and carbon metabolism in tropical peatlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) region of Indian Himalayas is one of the most important pharmaceutical industrial clusters in Asia. This study investigated the distribution, and ecological and human health risks of four most frequently used pharmaceuticals [ciprofloxacin (CIP), norfloxacin (NOR), cetirizine (CTZ) and citalopram oxalate (ECP)] when co-occurring with metal ions in the Sirsa river water of the BBN region. The concentration range of the selected pharmaceuticals was between 'not detected' to 50 μgL−1 with some exception for CIP (50–100 μgL-1) and CTZ (100–150 μgL-1) in locations directly receiving wastewater discharges. A significant correlation was found between the occurrences of NOR and Al (r2 = 0.65; p = 0.01), and CTZ and K (r2 = 0.50; p = 0.01) and Mg (r2 = 0.50; p = 0.01). A high-level ecological risk [risk quotient (RQ) > 1] was observed for algae from all the pharmaceuticals. A medium-level risk (RQ = 0.01–0.1) was observed for Daphnia from CIP, NOR and ECP, and a high-level risk from CTZ. A low-level risk was observed for fishes from CIP and NOR, whereas CTZ and ECP posed a high-level risk to fishes. The overall risk to ecological receptors was in the order: CTZ > CIP > ECP > NOR. Samples from the river locations receiving water from municipal drains or situated near landfill and pharmaceutical factories exhibited RQ > 1 for all pharmaceuticals. The average hazard quotient (HQ) values for the compounds followed the order: CTZ (0.18) > ECP (0.15) > NOR (0.001) > CIP (0.0003) for children (0–6 years); ECP (0.49) > CTZ (0.29) > NOR (0.005) > CIP (0.001) for children (7–17 years), and ECP (0.34) > CTZ (0.21) > NOR (0.007) > CIP (0.001) for adults (>17 years). The calculated risk values did not readily confirm the status of water as safe or unsafe because the values of predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) would depend on various other environmental factors such as quality of the toxicity data, and species sensitivity and distribution, which warrants further research. [Display omitted] • Mode concentration of four pharmaceuticals was 'not detected' to 50 μgL−1. • Ciprofloxacin and cetirizine concentration crossed 100 μgL−1 at few locations. • Norfloxacin co-occurred with high aluminum, cetirizine with high potassium. • Cetirizine showed high-level ecological risk to algae, Daphnia and fishes. • Citalopram oxalate had the highest hazard quotient, ciprofloxacin the least. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Brassica juncea (AABB), commonly referred to as mustard, is a natural allopolyploid of two diploid species—B. rapa (AA) and B. nigra (BB). We report a highly contiguous genome assembly of an oleiferous type of B. juncea variety Varuna, an archetypical Indian gene pool line of mustard, with ~100× PacBio single‐molecule real‐time (SMRT) long reads providing contigs with an N50 value of >5 Mb. Contigs were corrected for the misassemblies and scaffolded with BioNano optical mapping. We also assembled a draft genome of B. nigra (BB) variety Sangam using Illumina short‐read sequencing and Oxford Nanopore long reads and used it to validate the assembly of the B genome of B. juncea. Two different linkage maps of B. juncea, containing a large number of genotyping‐by‐sequencing markers, were developed and used to anchor scaffolds/contigs to the 18 linkage groups of the species. The resulting chromosome‐scale assembly of B. juncea Varuna is a significant improvement over the previous draft assembly of B. juncea Tumida, a vegetable type of mustard. The assembled genome was characterized for transposons, centromeric repeats, gene content and gene block associations. In comparison to the A genome, the B genome contains a significantly higher content of LTR/Gypsy retrotransposons, distinct centromeric repeats and a large number of B. nigra specific gene clusters that break the gene collinearity between the A and the B genomes. The B. juncea Varuna assembly will be of major value to the breeding work on oleiferous types of mustard that are grown extensively in south Asia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to find out the spatial and temporal movement of rice yield in twelve countries in Asia which is its lifeline over the period 1961 to 2016 by following Bai-Perron multiple structural break tests. The results based on endogenous multiple structural break analysis show that many of these countries passed through several phases of acceleration and deceleration in rice yield over this period The results also demonstrate that except Japan, all the twelve countries considered in our study experienced at least one structural break in rice yield at level during the period 1961 to 2016. The acceleration phases of rice yield growth observed mostly during 1970’s and 1980’s are resulted from improved technological innovations in agriculture whereas deceleration phases observed in the last two decades are mainly caused by environmental challenges on rice production. Cross country yield gaps have been showing declining trend since early 80’s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Melioidosis is gaining recognition as an emerging infectious disease with diverse clinical manifestations and high-case fatality rates worldwide. However, the molecular epidemiology of the disease outside the endemic regions such as northeast part of Thailand and northern Australia remains unclear. Methodology/Principal findings: Clinical data and B. pseudomallei isolates obtained from 199 culture-confirmed cases of melioidosis diagnosed during 2006–2016 in South India were used to elucidate the host and pathogen specific variable virulence determinants associated with clinical presentations and disease outcome. Further, we determined the temporal variations and the influence of ecological factors on B.pseudomallei Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) genotypes causing infections. Severe forms of the disease were observed amongst 169 (85%) patients. Renal dysfunction and infection due to B.pseudomallei harboring BimABm variant had significant associations with severe forms of the disease. Diabetes mellitus, septicemic melioidosis and infection due to LPSB genotype were independent risk factors for mortality. LPSB (74%) and LPSA (20.6%) were the prevalent genotypes causing infections. Both genotypes demonstrated temporal variations and had significant correlations with rainfall and humidity. Conclusion/Significance: Our study findings suggest that the pathogen specific virulence traits under the influence of ecological factors are the key drivers for geographical variations in the molecular epidemiology of melioidosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Patients' and family's satisfaction data from the Asian intensive care units (ICUs) is lacking. Objective. Domains between patient and family satisfaction and contribution of each domain to the general satisfaction were studied. Method. Over 3 months, adult patients across 4 ICUs staying for more than 48 hours with abbreviated mental test score of 7 or above and able to understand English and immediate family members were surveyed by separate validated satisfaction questionnaires. Results. Two hundred patients and 194 families were included in the final analysis. Significant difference in the satisfaction scores was observed between the ICUs. Patients were most and least satisfied in the communication (4.2 out of 5) and decision-making (2.9 out of 5) domains, respectively. Families weremost and least satisfied in the relationship with doctors (3.9 out of 5) and family's involvement domains (3.3 out of 5), respectively. Domains contributing most to the general satisfaction were the illness management domain for patients (β coefficient = 0.44) and characteristics of doctors and nurses domain for family (β coefficient = 0.45). Discussion. In an Asian ICU community, patients and families differ in their expectations and valuations of health care processes. Health care providers have difficult tasks in attending to these different domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Diabetic kidney disease independently predicts cardiovascular disease and premature death. We examined the burden of chronic kidney disease ( CKD, defined as an estimated GFR < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2) and quality of care in a cross-sectional survey of adults (age ≥ 18 years) with Type 2 diabetes across Asia. Methods The Joint Asia Diabetes Evaluation programme is a disease-management programme implemented using an electronic portal that systematically captures clinical characteristics of all patients enrolled. Between July 2007 and December 2012, data on 28 110 consecutively enrolled patients (China: 3415, Hong Kong: 15 196, India: 3714, Korea: 1651, Philippines: 3364, Vietnam: 692, Taiwan: 78) were analysed. Results In this survey, 15.9% of patients had CKD, 25.0% had microalbuminuria and 12.5% had macroalbuminuria. Patients with CKD were less likely to achieve HbA1c < 53 mmol/mol (7.0%) (36.0% vs. 42.3%) and blood pressure < 130/80 mmHg (20.8% vs. 35.3%), and were more likely to have retinopathy (26.2% vs. 8.7%), sensory neuropathy (29.0% vs. 7.7%), cardiovascular disease (26.6% vs. 8.7%) and self-reported hypoglycaemia (18.9% vs. 8.2%). Despite high frequencies of albuminuria (74.8%) and dyslipidaemia (93.0%) among CKD patients, only 49.0% were using renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and 53.6% were on statins. On logistic regression, old age, male gender, tobacco use, long disease duration, high HbA1c, blood pressure and BMI, and low LDL cholesterol were independently associated with CKD (all P < 0.05). Conclusions The poor control of risk factors, suboptimal use of organ-protective drugs and high frequencies of hypoglycaemia highlight major treatment gaps in patients with diabetic kidney disease in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper highlights the current state of open access repositories (OARs) movement in Agricultural field of Asian countries. It describes their characteristics in terms of types, contents, disciplines, languages covered, technical and operational issues, and policy matters. Compares and evaluates repositories against selected parameters and makes some recommendations for the growth of agricultural repositories Worldwide. Also presents a unified interface that can harvest metadata from different OAI-PMH compliant agricultural repositories Worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of control is an integral part of asthma management. We investigated the relationship between control status derived from the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), the Asthma Control Test (ACT) and urgent health-care utilization. Asthma Insights and Reality in Asia-Pacific Phase 2 (AIRIAP 2) was a cross-sectional, community-based survey of 4805 subjects with asthma from urban centres across Asia. A symptom control index was derived from the AIRIAP 2 questionnaire using the GINA control criteria for day- and night-time symptoms, need for rescue medication, activity limitation and exacerbations; lung function was excluded. The main outcomes were asthma control, based on these GINA criteria and the ACT, and the relationship between control and self-reported urgent health-care utilization (hospitalization, emergency room visits or other unscheduled urgent visits) related to asthma over the previous 12 months. Each of the symptom criteria was significantly associated with urgent health-care utilization, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 2.25 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.94-2.61) for daytime symptoms to 2.57 (95% CI: 2.29-2.90) for nocturnal awakening. Similarly, control status was significantly associated with urgent health-care utilization, with ORs of 0.19 (95% CI: 0.13-0.28), 0.70 (95% CI: 0.65-0.76) and 1.00 for controlled, partly controlled and uncontrolled, respectively. The optimal ACT cut-off score for identifying uncontrolled asthma was ≤19 for subjects aged ≥12 years. Urgent health-care utilization was reported by 57.2% versus 28.7% of patients scoring ≤19 versus >19 ( P < 0.001). The GINA control classification and the ACT are valid symptom-based measures that are significantly associated with urgent health-care utilization. A GINA-derived symptom control classification and the ACT are significantly associated with urgent health-care demand in a sample of 4805 community-based asthmatic subjects across Asia. Symptom-based measures may facilitate assessment of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ovarian cancer is a challenging disease to diagnose and treat effectively with five-year survival rates below 50%. Previous patient experience research in high-income countries highlighted common challenges and opportunities to improve survival and quality of life for women affected by ovarian cancer. However, no comparable data exist for low-and middle-income countries, where 70% of women with the disease live. This study aims to address this evidence gap., Methods: This is an observational multi-country study set in low- and middle-income countries. We aim to recruit over 2000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer across multiple hospitals in 24 countries in Asia, Africa and South America. Country sample sizes have been calculated (n = 70-96 participants /country), taking account of varying national five-year disease prevalence rates. Women within five years of their diagnosis, who are in contact with participating hospitals, are invited to take part in the study. A questionnaire has been adapted from a tool previously used in high-income countries. It comprises 57 multiple choice and two open-ended questions designed to collect information on demographics, women's knowledge of ovarian cancer, route to diagnosis, access to treatments, surgery and genetic testing, support needs, the impact of the disease on women and their families, and their priorities for action. The questionnaire has been designed in English, translated into local languages and tested according to local ethics requirements. Questionnaires will be administered by a trained member of the clinical team., Conclusion: This study will inform further research, advocacy, and action in low- and middle-income countries based on tailored approaches to the national, regional and global challenges and opportunities. In addition, participating countries can choose to repeat the study to track progress and the protocol can be adapted for other countries and other diseases., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Reid et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Few data on asthma management are available for the Asia-Pacific region., Objective: This study examined asthma symptoms, health care use, and management in the Asia-Pacific region., Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey, followed by administration of a questionnaire in a face-to-face setting in the respondents' homes in their language of choice. Urban centers in 8 areas were surveyed: China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam., Results: A population sample of 3207 respondents with physician-diagnosed asthma was identified by screening 108,360 households. Daytime asthma symptoms were reported by 51.4% of respondents, and 44.3% reported sleep disturbance caused by asthma in the preceding 4 weeks. At least 2 in every 5 respondents (43.6%) had been hospitalized, attended a hospital emergency department, or made unscheduled emergency visits to other health care facilities for treatment of asthma during the previous 12 months. Overall, 15.3% of respondents reported that they had required admission to the hospital for asthma treatment. Asthma severity correlated with the frequencies of hospitalizations and emergency visits for asthma in the past year. Even in those patients with severe persistent asthma, 34.3% regarded their disease as being well or completely controlled. Current use of an inhaled corticosteroid was reported by only 13.6% of respondents, and 56.3% used quick-relief bronchodilators. Absence from school and work in the past year was reported by 36.5% of children and 26.5% of adults., Conclusion: As reported for other regions, current levels of asthma control in the Asia-Pacific region fall markedly short of goals specified in international guidelines for asthma management.

The history of rinderpest and control of the disease in Africa and Asia is reviewed briefly. The present distribution of rinderpest virus in relation to its phylogenetic lineages is presented. Rinderpest-free countries bordering rinderpest-infected countries are considered to be under permanent threat of a transboundary rinderpest incursion and therefore face continuous and serious emergency situations. The nature of these emergencies in relation to the remaining foci of the three lineages is described. It is argued that the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP) eradication strategies now need to focus on the use of epidemiological studies to define foci of infection and guide targeted, pulsed vaccination campaigns rather than broad, routine vaccination. The emergency posed by the re-emergence of African lineage 2 virus in East Africa and the challenge of mild rinderpest is explored in some detail as a phenomenon which may be more widespread than has been assumed. Points at which the future of GREP is threatened are illustrated and means of removing some of the dangers are suggested. The lessons which need to be learnt from the experience of the Indian National Project on Rinderpest Eradication and the Pan-African Rinderpest Campaign are discussed, including the value of strengthening surveillance systems in accordance with the Office International des Epizooties Pathway and how to cope with the problem associated with cryptic foci of rinderpest persistence--perhaps the greatest challenge facing GREP. The value of vaccine buffer zones is considered in detail and the authors conclude that unless those zones are of considerable depth and are well maintained, they are unlikely to prevent dissemination of the virus. The role of emergency preparedness planning in preventing the spread of rinderpest is discussed, with the understanding that effective surveillance, as a component of emergency preparedness planning, is safer than vaccination as a means of ensuring that the disease does not re-enter or penetrate a population. The swift initiation of a programme for the eradication of rinderpest from Pakistan is seen as the key issue in dealing with the Asian lineage rinderpest emergency. Development and implementation of strategies with the benefit of experience gained in Africa and India could provide a rapid resolution of the emergency.