• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

Purpose - The propose of this study is to examine the effect of human development index on mobile telephony diffusion. Design/methodology/approach - This study fits the modidensity of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries with an econometric Gompertz growth model. The diffusion factors, including the human development index (HDI), gross domestic product (nominal) per capita, fixed-line telephony subscription, and population data of each member country from 2005 to 2018 are considered for the empirical experiment. Furthermore, the mobidensity of randomly sampled countries with very high human development scores (the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Norway) and high development scores (Brazil and Costa Rica) have been examined with the same process as SAARC members. Findings - We have found a positive but insignificant relationship between the HDI value and mobile telephony diffusion in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Pakistan; a positive and statistically significant relationship at a 99% confidence level in SriLanka; and a negative and insignificant relationship in the Maldives and Nepal. HDI has both positive and negative effects on mobile telephony diffusion, with the nature of effect depending on the profiles of each country. HDI is a diffusion determinant of mobile telephony only for the high human development country groups. Research implications or Originality - This study provides a reference for policymakers, telecommunication stakeholders, and future researchers to design the telecommunication policies and strategies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.485-490
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• 2011

In Southeast Asia, Myanmar is the largest country of the continent with land area 676,577 km² that is three times higher than Korea. Nonetheless, a lot of diversity in agricultural enterprises is available in Myanmar as different climatic zones are available due to its unique location from north to south and east to west. Agriculture is considered the most important industry in Myanmar that largely relies on rice production. During 2009-10, rice and black gram are also among the major export items of Myanmar. Wheat, maize and sorghum are among the other major crops of the country and cultivation area of wheat and corn has been steadily increasing. Sesame is an important oilseed crop of Myanmar that is cultivated on the largest area. Presently, Myanmar has trade relations with Thailand, India and China.

• Annals of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.287-291
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• 2023

Backgrounds/Aims: Pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is commonly performed pancreatic procedure for tumors of periampullary region. Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) and pancreatic fistula are the most common specific complications following PD. DGE can lead to significant morbidity, resulting in prolonged hospital stay and increased cost. Various factors might influence the occurrence of DGE. We hypothesized that kinking of jejunal limb could be a cause of DGE post PD. Methods: Antecolic (AC) and retrocolic (RC) side-to-side gastrojejunostomy (GJ) groups in classical PD were compared for the occurrence of DGE in a prospective study. All patients who underwent PD between April 2019 and September 2020 in a tertiary care center in south India were included in this study. Results: After classic PD, RC GJ was found to be superior to AC in terms of DGE rate (26.7% vs. 71.9%) and hospital stay (9 days vs. 11 days). Conclusions: Route of reconstruction of GJ can influence the occurrence of DGE as RC anastomosis in classical PD provides the most straight route for gastric emptying.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2850-2858
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• 2024

Amidst the uncertainties of climate policy, investing in nuclear energy technology emerges as a sustainable strategy, fostering innovation in a critical sector, while simultaneously addressing urgent environmental concerns and managing budgetary dynamics. Our investigation inspects the asymmetric influence of climate policy uncertainty on nuclear energy technology in the top 10 nations with the highest nuclear energy R&D budgets (Germany, Japan, China, France, USA, UK, India, South Korea, Russia, and Canada). Previous studies adopted panel data methods to evaluate the linkage between climate policy uncertainty and nuclear energy technology. Nonetheless, these investigations overlooked the variability in this association across various countries. Conversely, this investigation introduces an innovative tool, 'Quantile-on-Quantile' to probe this connection merely for every economy. This methodology concedes for a more accurate evaluation, offering a holistic global perspective and delivering tailored insights for individual countries. The findings uncover that climate policy uncertainty significantly reduces nuclear energy technology budgets across multiple quantiles in most selected economies. Additionally, our results highlight the asymmetries in the correlations between our variables across the nations. These findings stress the need for policymakers to conduct thorough assessments and skillfully manage climate policy uncertainty and nuclear energy budgets.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-114
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• 2022

This paper analyzes Taiwan's 「New Southbound Policy」 from the perspective of 'balancing' and 'bandwagoning' in international politics. Specifically, it examines the changes and characteristics of 'Southbound policies' that have continued since the period of the Lee Teng-hui(李登輝) administration, and examines the meaning of the New Southbound Policy promoted by the Tsai Ing-wen(蔡英文) administration. Taiwan's foreign policy has been strongly influenced by external variables such as U.S.-China relations. Previous Taiwanese governments have actively promoted Southbound policies to advance to Southeast Asian countries such as ASEAN with the aim of 'De-Sinicization', but have not achieved much results. This is because variables such as cooperative U.S.-China relations and strong checks from China played a role at the time. In this environment, Taiwan had to pursue an appropriate 'balancing' between the United States, China, and Southeast Asian countries. However, since the inauguration of the Trump administration, strategic competition between the U.S. and China has been maximized, creating a new space for Taiwan's foreign policy. This is because the U.S. valued cooperation with Taiwan in the process of embodying the 'Indo-Pacific Strategy' to curb China's rise. The New Southbound Policy promoted by the Tsai Ing-won administration is different from the existing Southbound policies in that it seeks to link with the U.S. India-Pacific Strategy and attempts to advance to South Asian countries such as India. From an international political point of view, the Tsai Ing-won administration's New Southbound Policy can be interpreted as a 'bandwagoning' to the United States, not a balanced strategy between the U.S. and China. Strategic competition between the U.S. and China is expected to intensify for a considerable period of time in the future, and honeymoon between Taiwan and the U.S. are also expected to continue. Taiwan's bandwagoning strategy, which actively pursues a link between the New Southbound Policy and the India-Pacific Strategy, is also expected to be maintained.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1146-1153
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• 2024

The increasing economic losses associated with growth retardation caused by Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP), a microsporidian parasite infecting penaeid shrimp, require effective monitoring. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-1 region, the non-coding region of ribosomal clusters between 18S and 5.8S rRNA genes, is widely used in phylogenetic studies due to its high variability. In this study, the ITS-1 region sequence (~600-bp) of EHP was first identified, and primers for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay targeting that sequence were designed. A newly developed nested-PCR method successfully detected the EHP in various shrimp (Penaeus vannamei and P. monodon) and related samples, including water and feces collected from Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, India, and Malaysia. The primers did not cross-react with other hosts and pathogens, and this PCR assay is more sensitive than existing PCR detection methods targeting the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) and spore wall protein (SWP) genes. Phylogenetic analysis based on the ITS-1 sequences indicated that the Indonesian strain was distinct (86.2% nucleotide sequence identity) from other strains collected from Thailand and South Korea, and also showed the internal diversity among Thailand (N = 7, divided into four branches) and South Korean (N = 5, divided into two branches) samples. The results revealed the ability of the ITS-1 region to determine the genetic diversity of EHP from different geographical origins.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1-17
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• 2024

Recently, interest in edutech has been focused on its fusion with AI technology, and the market in this field is expanding. This study aims to analyze the technological competitiveness and key technological areas of major countries in the AI-edutech field. Additionally, considering that AI-edutech is a convergence of AI technology and edutech, the study seeks to examine the path dependence of AI-edutech in each country to determine whether they are based on existing AI technologies or edutech. To this end, AI-edutech patents were collected and competitiveness was analyzed using patent activity, patent impact, and market acquisition indicators. Path dependence for each country was analyzed using the hurdle negative binomial regression model. The analysis results indicate that the major countries in the AI-edutech field are China, South Korea, the United States, India, and Japan. In terms of patent activity, China had the highest level, followed by South Korea. In terms of patent impact and market securing power, the United States was high in both aspects, Japan had high market securing power, and South Korea had high patent influence. The results of the hurdle negative binomial analysis presented unique findings. The logit part results indicated that the possession of existing AI and edutech did not positively affect the emergence of current AI-edutech, but the count part results showed a positive influence. This suggests that, overall, it is difficult to assert that current AI-edutechs are based on past AI and edutechs. However, once some AI-edutechs based on existing AI and edutechs emerge, they are influenced by the existing technologies. These findings provide implications for future research and technological strategies in this field.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.153-202
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• 2014

Aside from political leaders' popularity rates and the stock exchange index of business firms, ordinary people are highly interested in aspects of daily life, such as housing, income, health, family, food, human relations and work. Cross-national opinion polls on daily-life satisfaction were carried out in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macao, the Philippines, India, Myanmar, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Pakistan in the fall of 2013 and winter 2014. The percent difference index (PDI) is formulated as the sum of two positive responses (satisfied and somewhat satisfied) minus the sum of two negative responses (dissatisfied and somewhat dissatisfied). Percent difference indices are given according to society and daily-life aspects. For our analysis to go beneath national average and to go beyond national borders, two lines of analysis are carried out. First, the distance between the level of satisfaction of the top and bottom quartiles is given for each society and according to each of the daily-life aspects. Second, the regional sum of satisfaction of the top quartiles and bottom quartiles are shown crossed by daily-life aspects. In this article we confine ourselves to preliminary comparative description and analysis. More solid and deep comparisons will be carried out by local polling leaders of 12 Asian societies in the succeeding issue of the Asian Journal of Public Opinion Research. Nevertheless, two key threads stand out from this preliminary comparisons. First, social relations (family and human relations) stand out as most satisfied aspects of life in most of twelve societies. Second, the need to go beneath national averages and beyond national borders in analyzing cross-national surveys is confirmed. The comparability and validity of cross-national surveys with varying sampling method and survey mode are briefly discussed toward the end of the article.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5993-5999
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• 2015

Background: Molecular testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most objective and reproducible of all cervical cancer screening tests and also less demanding in terms of training and quality assurance. However, there is an impending need for cost effective molecular HPV testing methods with sampling ease, easy storage measures and minimum turn around times suitable for a low resource setting. Objective : Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility of using a fast transfer analysis (FTA) mini elute cartridge for cervical sampling to identify high risk HPV by real time PCR and to compare molecular HPV testing and Pap cytology testing to predict histologically confirmed cervical precancer (CIN 2+ lesions) in a cervical cancer prevention program. Materials and Methods: This was conducted as a pilot study (n=200) on women sampled using FTA mini elute cartridges, genotyped by two different real time PCR assays, detecting 13 high risk HPV (HR HPV) species, including HPV16 along with its physical DNA status. Results obtained from each of the tests were compared and analysed using suitable statistical tests. Results: With FTA mini elute cartridge samples HR HPV positivity was seen in 48/200 (24%). Of these, presence of HPV 16 DNA was observed in 28/48 (58.3%) women. High risk HPV was positive in 20% (37/185) of women with benign cytology and 73.3% (11/15) of women with abnormal cytology findings. A very significant correlation (${\chi}^2=22.090$ ; p=0.000) was observed between cytology and HR HPV findings showing an increasing trend of HR HPV prevalence in 50% (1/2) of LSIL, 75% (3/4) of HSIL and 100% (3/3) of SCC. Of the CIN 2+ lesions identified by histopathology, 88.9% (8/9) had HR HPV. A significant association (${\chi}^2=11.223$ ; p=0.001) of HR HPV and histopathologically confirmed CIN 2+ lesions was found. Sensitivity of the two tests were comparable but specificity of Pap testing was better (90.7% vs 70.4%) to predict histopathologically diagnosed cervical precancers. Conclusions: The current study explored the feasibility of using a FTA mini elute cartridge for cervical sampling for the first time in India as a part of a community based cervical cancer prevention program. We suggest that FTA based sampling is suitable and feasible for real time based HPV testing. Molecular HR HPV testing can be more sensitive and useful to identify high risk women requiring Pap testing which is more specific to detect histologically confirmed cervical precancer.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.183-196
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• 2010

Increasing human activity due to rapid economic growth and land use change alters the patterns of the Asian monsoon, which is key to crop yields in Asia. In this study, we tested the performance of regional climate model (RegCM3) by simulating important components of Indian summer monsoon, including land-ocean contrast, low level jet (LLJ), Tibetan high and upper level Easterly Jet. Three contrasting rain years (1994: excess year, 2001: normal year, 2002: deficient year) were selected and RegCM3 was integrated at 60 km horizontal resolution from April 1 to October 1 each year. The simulated fields of circulations and precipitation were validated against the observation from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis products and Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC), respectively. The important results of RegCM3 simulations are (a) LLJ was slightly stronger and split into two branches during excess rain year over the Arabian Sea while there was no splitting during normal and deficient rain years, (b) huge anticyclone with single cell was noted during excess rain year while weak and broken into two cells in deficient rain year, (c) the simulated spatial distribution of precipitation was comparable to the corresponding observed precipitation of GPCC over large parts of India, and (d) the sensitivity experiment using NIMBUS-7 SMMR snow data indicated that precipitation was reduced mainly over the northeast and south Peninsular India with the introduction of 0.1 m of snow over the Tibetan region in April.