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How should the world deal with the problem of insufficient water infrastructure financing? Here we attempt to answer this question in the context of Asia. We estimate investment needs in water infrastructure to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals to be in the range of US$120–330 billion/year until 2030, compared with current investment of US$40–50 billion/year. Closing this financing gap is not just a matter of spending more, but also spending with greater quality and efficiency considering competing national policy goals and the distinctive characteristics of water infrastructure that make its financing more challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The S-Star Trial Bioinformatics on-line course (www.s-star.org) is a global experiment in bioinformatics distance education. Six universities from five continents have participated in this project. One hundred and fifty students participated in the first trial course of which 96 followed through the entire course and 70 fulfilled the overall course requirements. The course was built up of 12 lectures covering different basic and advanced topics within bioinformatics. The lectures consist of streaming video and synchronized slides with follow-up discussion forums and a final assessment. It draws on experts from diverse institutions to share their teaching expertise and resources via distance learning. A major goal of S-Star is to provide free introductory web-based education. Here we present the outline of the course, experiences from a global collaboration, and feedback from the first trial of the on-line S-Star course. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

The association between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and tuberculosis disease (TB) has been recognized for decades. Recently CKD prevalence is increasing in low- to middle-income countries with high TB burden. Using data from the required overseas medical exam and the recommended US follow-up exam for 444,356 US-bound refugees aged ≥ 18 during 2009–2017, we ran Poisson regression to assess the prevalence of TB among refugees with and without CKD, controlling for sex, age, diabetes, tobacco use, body mass index (kg/m2), prior residence in camp or non-camp setting, and region of birth country. Of the 1117 (0.3%) with CKD, 21 (1.9%) had TB disease; of the 443,239 who did not have CKD, 3380 (0.8%) had TB. In adjusted analyses, TB was significantly higher among those with than without CKD (prevalence ratio 1.93, 95% CI: 1.26, 2.98, p < 0.01). Healthcare providers attending to refugees need to be aware of this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Depressive disorders are common in old age. Antipsychotics (APs) are often used as an adjunctive treatment with antidepressants (ADs) in this population but its patterns of use in Asia are not known. This study explored the rate of combination of APs and ADs in older adult psychiatric patients in Asia. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the database of a multicentre study which recorded participants' basic demographical and clinical data in standardised format in 10 Asian countries and territories. The data were analysed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: A total of 955 older adult psychiatric in‐ and outpatients were included in this study. The proportion of concurrent AP and AD use was 32.0%, ranging from 23.3% in Korea to 44.0% in Taiwan. Multivariate logistic regression analysis found that younger age, inpatient status and diagnosis of schizophrenia, anxiety and other mental disorders were significantly related to a higher proportion of concurrent use of APs and ADs. Conclusion: Around a third of older adult psychiatric patients had concurrent AP and AD use in the Asian countries/regions surveyed. Considering the uncertain effectiveness and questionable safety of the AP and AD combination in this patient population, such should be cautiously used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between internationally educated nurses’ (IENs’) performance in a registered nurse competency assessment process and the outcomes of their nursing registration applications. Assessments of nursing practice competencies, IEN applicant characteristics and registration outcomes were explored.Design/methodology/approach This is a secondary statistical analysis of a subset of IEN application data from a previous study in combination with assessment data from an additional database. Application data between 2008 and 2011 were analyzed using univariate/bivariate analyses and regression models to explore the relationship of performance in the assessment process and outcomes of the registration process.Findings Competency categories IEN applicants had difficulties with (from least to most) were Professional Responsibility and Accountability, Ethical Practice, Self-Regulation, Service to the Public, Knowledge-Based Practice: Specialized Body of Knowledge and Knowledge-Based Practice: Competent Application of Knowledge. IENs educated in the UK and USA had the highest scores and odds of meeting competencies. Applicants educated in India and Asia had lower scores and odds ratios. All national entry-to-practice examination and registration eligibility competencies were significantly related to registration outcomes. Applicants passing the exam had higher competency scores while applicants ineligible for registration had lower competency scores.Research limitations/implications Limitations include integrity of data extracted from active databases, IEN motivation to complete the RN registration process and conversion of assessment scales for research analysis.Originality/value Results inform regulation policies that improve IEN registration processes and may be informative to regulators, assessment centers, educational institutions and IENs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • LA-ICP-MS in-situ U-Pb age of garnet in pegmatite is 216.7 ± 5.9 Ma. • Potentially two pulses of pegmatitic melts were emplaced in Jiajika. • Garnet grains show decoupled major and trace element zonings. • Incipient pegmatitic melts had high Li contents as recorded by garnet cores. Granitic pegmatites can be extremely rich in Li, an important metal for modern industries. Being the Asia's largest hard-rock Li polymetallic deposit, the Jiajika Li deposit is associated with numerous pegmatite dikes in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The major Li resources in Jiajika are mainly hosted in fine-grained phases of pegmatite dikes. In this study, samples were collected from the typically zoned No. 9 dike, which inwardly consists of fine-grained albite phase, medium-grained albite phase, coarse-grained albite-microline phase, massive microline phase and massive quartz phase. Garnet is one of the common accessory minerals in the fine-grained albite phase. We report the first in-situ LA-ICP-MS U-Pb age of garnet from pegmatite dikes, yielding an age of 216.7 ± 5.9 Ma, which is consistent with the age of the associated granitic pluton. Combined with published isotopic dating results in Jiajika, two age groups can be identified: ∼210 to ∼ 220 Ma and ∼ 190 to ∼ 200 Ma, which are suspected to be resulted from two stages of thermal events, probably separate pulses of pegmatitic melts. The late pulse of melts might be responsible for the weak deformation of garnet grains and Fe-enriched rims along the deformed boundaries. The early pulse of melts derived from the Majingzi-Jiajijiami granitic pluton shows an indistinct time path from granite, to fine-grained phases, to medium- to coarse-grained phases, which resulted in the trace elemental core-rim textures within individual garnet grains. The garnet cores have typically higher trace element concentrations than the rims, and the boundaries between cores and rims are usually sharp and sinuous, which are proposed to record the amalgamation, dissolution and reprecipitation processes. The growth of cores was not in equilibrium with other phases by strong undercooling, and thus inherited the initial Li signature of the incipient pegmatitic melts, which can be up to 373 ppm. Accordingly, it implies that Li and other incompatible element contents of the incipient pegmatitic melts in Jiajiaka could be enriched in a significant amount at the early stage, which may, to some extent, explain why major Li resources are hosted in very-fine to fine-grained phases in Jiajika. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the venture capital industry and its development in Asia and Singapore. Venture capital plays an important role in innovation and economic growth. Indeed, the resurgence of the United States as a technology leader is intimately linked to the success of Silicon Valley. As Singapore enters the next phase of economic development, the creation of internal engines of growth is an urgent task. The Singapore government has done much to provide an environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. Its success at replicating the Silicon Valley culture will be important for Singapore's future economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the railway materials trade in the countries of Asia and South America. The Chinese railways have accordingly, under the necessary limitations of time and space, been chosen for investigation, together with the railways of Brazil, Argentina and Chile, which make up almost nine-tenths of the South American railway mileage. When the manufacturers of an investing nationality are able to supply needed material of good quality at low prices, the national prejudice may doubtless have an appreciable influence. Governments have at times attempted, with doubtful success, to give their manufacturers a preference. But current discussion refers to that great majority of investments which are shaped by the parties at interest free from government interference. The building of railways by a foreign corporation in Argentina or Brazil-it is apparently assumed that the administrators of such an enterprise will be led by motives of patriotism to prefer the products of their own countrymen. This is highly improbable. Many billions of goods are exchanged between nations because men have no marked preference for the goods of their competitors. Moreover, any chiefs of South American railways who might by some eccentricity be inclined to this sort of patriotism would in most instances find it impossible to gratify such sentiment.

This opening keynote argues that we cannot possibly hope to reform or transform the conditions which threaten and degrade all humans and the environments in which they live, without re-forming the self, the we-self, the inter-being. It also argues, implicitly, that Asia does not any longer have to be pre-occupied with defending itself against imputed identities, such as those linked to the old "Asiatic" label, and can now proudly, through the fruits of its own productivity, use the same term to counter-penetrate, culturally, the terrains where the formerly constructed deformations of its identities had taken place. As well, it says, that victims do not have to be controlled by bitterness--something the historical presence of Mahatma Gandhi unmistakably demonstrated, but can be leaders in the process of collective healing; and that, as Thich Nhat Hanh has taught us, in the pursuit of "deep ecology," neither victim nor wrong-doer can ever have the chance for self-realization by excluding the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Diabetes is increasing globally and Asia is the epicenter. Among those with young-onset diabetes (<45years), the prevalence of monogenic diabetes is estimated to be non-trivial (∼5%). An accurate diagnosis of monogenic diabetes is important to inform treatment, prognosis and genetic counseling. Therefore, a robust clinical algorithm to identify probands for testing is needed. Our aims are (1) to select probands for genetic testing and variant identification based on their clinical phenotype and (2) to evaluate the MODY probability calculator in our multi-ethnic Asian population.Methods: Eighty-four potential probands, identified in accordance with clinical practice guidelines, were subjected to re-sequencing of 16 monogenic diabetes genes and targeted genotyping for mitochondrial 3243A>G point-mutation. Variants, confirmed by bi-directional Sanger sequencing, were classified as pathogenic if they fulfilled the criteria adapted from American College of Medical Genetics. Performance of MODY calculator (with positive-predictive threshold set at >62.4%) for those with diabetes-onset ⩽35years (data input-limit) (n=71) was also evaluated.Results: Thirteen subjects (15.5%) harbored likely pathogenic/pathogenic variants: 6 (2 novel) in HNF1A (1 subject concomitantly had another HNF4A variant), 1 in HNF4A, 2 in mt3243A>G and 1 each in GCK, KCNJ11 (novel), ABCC8 (novel) and PAX4 (novel). Performance of the MODY calculator was: sensitivity 0.769, specificity 0.603 and negative predictive value 0.921. When analysis was restricted to MODY1-3, the performance was: 0.875, 0.587 and 0.974, respectively.Conclusions: The prevalence of MODY is non-trivial (∼15%) among Asians with young-onset diabetes. MODY calculator performs well in our population in nominating probands for genetic testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]