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This paper reviews the trends and driving forces for the relatively recent growth in cross‐national marriages in East and Southeast Asia with a specific focus on the experiences of female marriage migrants from Southeast Asia. It explicates the various forms of inequality faced by the low‐income marriage migrant women including gender power dynamics within the household, socioeconomic inequalities, integration into the destination society, and intergenerational transfer of inequalities. We acknowledge that the inequality experienced by marriage migrant women results from a complex web of intersecting social‐cultural, political, and economic forces occurring in Asia in the past three decades. As a result of rising female educational attainment and the practice of marriage hypergamy in Asia, an increasing number of low socioeconomic‐status men from developed countries seek marriage partners abroad from lower‐income and less‐developed countries. Upon entering the cross‐national marriage market, many low‐income migrant women face multiple disadvantages in the host country due to inadequate socioeconomic support, language barriers, social stigma on foreign brides, and a lack of legal status. These inequalities exacerbate their initial disadvantages to perpetuate a vicious cycle of intergenerational disadvantages for their offspring. We conclude with a critique of extant literature and identify promising future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been an accelerated growth in the education field in developed countries since the second half of the 20th century, it is not the case among developing regions where progress is slow and uneven. To help the Southeast Asian region move forward, it is imperative to examine the topographical trends within this field of study. Thus, this study sought to gain empirical insights into the current status of educational research in Southeast Asia and how it compares globally and to the United States as the leading country in the field. A total of 13,527 documents from 709 education-related source titles from the Scopus database were examined. Using a bibliometric approach, the findings revealed that despite the region's progress in educational research, its contribution to global scientific knowledge remains modest compared to other leading countries. A stable growth rate and selective publications in favour of top-tier journals were also observed among the leading countries in the region. Meanwhile, education scholars from emerging countries frequently publish their work in low-tier journals. A substantial link between research productivity, impact, and collaboration was also observed. The paper concludes with practical, theoretical, and methodological implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between commuting distances and where people work has been studied for urban contexts in both developed countries and developing countries. However, few studies have examined the situation in rural areas, and none look at commuting distances to non‐farm workplaces in rural areas of developing countries. This paper investigates how commuting distance, and thus accessibility, to local non‐farm work influences non‐farm employment and out‐migration from rural villages in Northeast Thailand. The main issues examined are: (i) the distance that rural residents travel to work in local non‐farm jobs; and (ii) the influence that local non‐farm employment has on the number of outmigrants from rural villages. The study finds: (i) distance between villages and non‐farm work sites impact the number of villagers who are employed in regular wage work; (ii) beyond 20 km villagers are less likely to travel to non‐farm employment using their own means of transportation; and (iii) employment in regular wage work decreases outmigration. The findings from this study contribute to the debates over the drivers of rural out‐migration, rural livelihood changes, and agrarian changes that are taking place in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Southeast Asia (SEA) has become a very attractive region for FDI from developed countries. This trend has led to the rapid development of logistics services. However, in the existing literature, there is very little empirical research to compare SEA countries like for example Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and The Philippines. Current studies mainly focus on a single country or some typical industries. Therefore, a comprehensive model with various attributes able to compare which country is performing a better logistics service is still missing. For this reason, the authors conducted this study with the expectation of providing a model that uses attributes able to make it easier to compare and evaluate the attractiveness of logistics services in each country. To do so, the paper uses AHP theory to set up the research model and a questionnaire to obtain data from 23 experts in the logistics industry. Based on an analysis of the results, Vietnam is the most attractive destination for logistics services. This finding was driven by the importance of the government-related attributes. Thailand because of the country's cost competitiveness proved attractive. The results of the study make it easier for managers to assess and select the best suited country for logistics services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intense period of human population expansion over the past 250 years is about to cease. Total fertility rates are falling dramatically all over the world such that highly industrialized nations, including China and the tiger economies of SE Asia, will see their populations decline significantly in the coming decades. The socioeconomic, geopolitical and environmental ramifications of this change are considerable and invite a multidisciplinary consideration of the underlying mechanisms. In the short-term, socioeconomic factors, particularly urbanization and delayed childbearing are powerful drivers of reduced fertility. In parallel, lifestyle factors such as obesity and the presence of numerous reproductive toxicants in the environment, including air-borne pollutants, nanoplastics and electromagnetic radiation, are seriously compromising reproductive health. In the longer term, it is hypothesized that the reduction in family size that accompanies the demographic transition will decrease selection pressure on high fertility genes leading to a progressive loss of human fecundity. Paradoxically, the uptake of assisted reproductive technologies at scale, may also contribute to such fecundity loss by encouraging the retention of poor fertility genotypes within the population. Since the decline in fertility rate that accompanies the demographic transition appears to be ubiquitous, the public health implications for our species are potentially devastating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses how correct is the view that a rise in income inequality is unavoidable in a globalizing economy characterized by rapid skill-biased technical change. To do so, it reviews the inequality trends recorded in the main developed and developing region during the last three decades. The data show that inequality rose in almost 70% of the countries with data during the years 1980–2000. These years were characterized by rapid internal and external liberalization and privatization. Yet, this trend was reversed during the subsequent decade, when Latin America and parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia recorded a decline in inequality. The evidence also suggests that while globalization and technical change may indeed increase inequality, domestic factors and policies were often behind the inequality increases of the last three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between bank-specific variables, macroeconomic variables and non-performing loans (NPLs) in the seven countries of Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 pandemic. This study adopts panel data regression and distributed lagged regression to examine the impact of bank-specific variables and macroeconomic variables as NPL determinants. The results show that bank-specific variables significantly correlate to NPL, but limited evidence indicates the influence of macroeconomic variables during pre-COVID. Nonetheless, macroeconomic variables are significant to NPL with the emergence of the pandemic, while the bank-specific variables are found to be insignificant. It shows that macroeconomic variables have a greater impact during the turbulent period as they affect most businesses, especially during the pandemic. Furthermore, macroeconomic variables are observed to have a stronger influence on developed countries, but the impact of bank-specific variables is stronger in emerging countries. The results of this study assist policymakers, regulators, banks and governments in identifying the determinants of high NPL as the indicator of a financial crisis. Greater emphasis shall be given to the changes in macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What influences Taiwanese public opinion on immigration? Taiwan faces the same immigration challenges as many other developed nations, where the demand for immigrant workers produces a domestic backlash. Our study addresses to what extent public opinions on immigration are influenced by two factors: the skills of immigrants and their place of origin. Our results show, besides the preference for skilled labour, that public opinion on the three Southeast Asian immigrant groups varies considerably, with the strongest negative reaction to Indonesian migrants. As Taiwan prides its progress on human rights among East Asian democracies, the results suggest the need for targeted policy efforts to overcome public biases towards Southeast Asian immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Pedobarography has been widely used in developed countries for few decades. However, in Malaysia it is still in its infancy. Studies showed that the normal values of pedobarography vary between races. To the best our knowledge there is no standard value available for Malaysian or Southeast Asia. This study is designed to measure the pressure values in the normal foot of Malays in Pahang, Malaysia and its difference between different gender and body mass index (BMI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 400 feet of adult Malay subjects with no existing diabetes mellitus, lower limb and spine pain or problem are measured using Emed-q100 pedobarography device. RESULTS: 226 (56.5%) were females. 44.5% were with normal BMI followed by overweight (31.5%), and obese (24%). The mean-maximum-peak pressure (MPP) is 509kPa (SD 167) with no significant difference among gender and BMI. Most (38.5%, n=154) of the peak pressure area (PPA) are observed in 1st metatarsal head and big toe region (1MH&T), followed by 2nd metatarsal head (2MH) (34.3%, n=137). In the normal BMI group, 48.3% were in 1MH&T region while in the overweight and obese groups, 42.1% and 43.8%, respectively were in 2MH. This difference is significant (x2(df=8) =36.963, p<0.001). There was no significant difference between PPA and gender. CONCLUSION: The MPP among Malays in this study was 509kPa(SD 167) and it is not affected by different genders or BMI. The PPA are most commonly fall on 1MH&T. There is a significant shift in the overweight and obese groups to the 2MHT. This finding can be used as initial reference for further studies, in Malaysia particularly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Physical inactivity is a risk factor for premature mortality and several non-communicable diseases. The purpose of this study was to estimate the global burden associated with physical inactivity, and to examine differences by country income and region.Methods: Population-level, prevalence-based population attributable risks (PAR) were calculated for 168 countries to estimate how much disease could be averted if physical inactivity were eliminated. We calculated PARs (percentage of cases attributable to inactivity) for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality and non-communicable diseases including coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression and cancers of the bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, oesophagus, stomach and kidney.Results: Globally, 7.2% and 7.6% of all-cause and cardiovascular disease deaths, respectively, are attributable to physical inactivity. The proportions of non-communicable diseases attributable to physical inactivity range from 1.6% for hypertension to 8.1% for dementia. There was an increasing gradient across income groups; PARs were more than double in high-income compared with low-income countries. However, 69% of total deaths and 74% of cardiovascular disease deaths associated with physical inactivity are occurring in middle-income countries, given their population size. Regional differences were also observed, with the PARs occurring in Latin America/Caribbean and high-income Western and Asia-Pacific countries, and the lowest burden occurring in Oceania and East/Southeast Asia.Conclusion: The global burden associated with physical inactivity is substantial. The relative burden is greatest in high-income countries; however, the greatest number of people (absolute burden) affected by physical inactivity are living in middle-income countries given the size of their populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remanufacturing is a life cycle renewal process that is recognized as one of the most effective green strategies to attain sustainable manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to address the current challenges confronting by Malaysian remanufacturing industries and to explore its future opportunities. The research technique of this study is based on extensive scholarly literature review and scenario analysis in the field of remanufacturing. The findings highlighted five main challenges and two main future opportunities in Malaysian remanufacturing industries. The results based on scenario analysis suggested that Malaysia possessed the potential to become the center hub of automotive components remanufacturing and novel entire vehicle remanufacturing (rebuilt vehicle) in the Southeast Asia region by overcoming its current challenges. This study has shown that the challenges and opportunities in Malaysia remanufacturing industries are significantly different from the developed countries due to its distinctive business environments. The outcome of this study is to ensure the smooth implementation of the National Remanufacturing Policy and facilitate the sustainable development of remanufacturing industries in Malaysia and other developing countries with a similar business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 60 years, there has been a marked increase in the prevalence of high myopia in developed countries in East and Southeast Asia, and there are signs of similar, but less dramatic increases, in North America and Europe. In some parts of the world, 70‐90% of children completing high schools are myopic, and as many as 20% may be highly myopic. It is accepted now that myopia results from excessive axial elongation of the eye, which appears to be environmentally driven. The present methods of myopia control are based on the use of topical atropine and increased outdoor activity. Interestingly, the early observations on similar concepts and the first reports of atropine treatment date back to the 19th century. This is evidenced by papers of Ware (1813), Cohn (1864), and Tscherning (1883). Dobrowolsky published the first case series case series of myopia improvement after atropine therapy in German in 1868. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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