Search Results (192)

Body temperature regulation in ectotherms is influenced by numerous environmental, morphological, and physiological factors, some of which operate in population-specific ways. Understanding how these factors shape thermal biology is important for species conservation. The nose-horned viper, an ecologically significant yet understudied mesopredator of southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, occupies diverse ecosystems facing ongoing degradation. Over five years, we investigated how 12 environmental, behavioral, morphological, and physiological variables influenced field body temperature across three climatically distinct populations of nose-horned vipers. Using an information-theoretic approach with model averaging, we identified important predictors and assessed population-specific effects. Air temperature at 5 cm above the snake’s position, humidity, and wind were highly important predictors across all populations, whereas physiological states (shedding and digestion) exerted weaker effects. Microhabitat type and time of day emerged as highly important population-specific predictors, while body size showed weaker, population-dependent effects. Neither sex, cloud cover, nor behavioral state contributed meaningfully to model fit. Mean body temperatures were similar across populations and sexes. By integrating environmental, behavioral, physiological, and morphological variables, this study comprehensively identifies predictors of body temperature in nose-horned vipers. Site-tailored maintenance of structurally diverse habitats is essential for preserving thermoregulatory opportunities and ensuring long-term persistence of nose-horned vipers. Full article

The present study undertakes a comparative investigation of the dialects of Thassos and Lesbos, systematically examining both shared and distinctive linguistic features across phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, and the lexicon. Based on primary ethnographic data and contemporary linguistic methodologies, the analysis demonstrates that, although the two varieties belong to the Northeastern Aegean dialectal continuum, they display both substantial similarities and significant divergences shaped by historical and sociolinguistic factors. These differences reflect the geopolitical position of each island: Thassos emerges as a more conservative enclave due to relative isolation, whereas Lesbos functions as a site of linguistic fusion shaped by sustained contact with Asia Minor populations. The study thus underscores the importance of comparative dialectology for understanding the dynamics of insular linguistic systems within the Northeastern Greek-speaking territory. Full article

Modern Greek was spoken along the northwestern coast of Asia Minor until the early 20th century, yet neither its precise geographical extent nor its dialectal classification is well established. This paper seeks to clarify both issues by focusing on the variety of Adramytti (Edremit). The available evidence suggests that Adramyttian, despite its close relationship to and partial origin in Modern Lesbian, was essentially a mixed variety that leveled out many characteristic Modern Lesbian features, such as the raising of unstressed mid vowels and certain morphological phenomena. Such differences can be attributed to the diverse character of the speech community that led to contact between speakers of Modern Lesbian origin and speakers of other Greek dialects. In addition to providing a grammatical description of Adramyttian, which demonstrates its mixed profile, the paper offers a tentative classification of this variety in relation to Modern Lesbian and the other insular varieties of northeastern Aegean, as well as in relation to other neighboring varieties of northwestern Asia Minor (Aeolis, Mysia, northern Ionia). Full article

This study examines the marble resources of the Mani peninsula, southern Greece, a region that has long been known for its white, gray-black (bigio antico), green (cipollino verde Tenario), and particularly red (rosso antico or lapis Taenarium) and dark (nero antico) marbles. Based on extensive fieldwork, more than 90 quarrying sites were documented, several of which were recorded for the first time. This study provides a systematic characterization of these stones through combined mineralogical, petrographic, and stable isotopic (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C) analyses of 27 representative samples. The results confirm the presence of calcitic marbles, which vary in color due to hematite in the red varieties, graphite and organic matter in the gray-black and black types, and chlorite in the green marbles. The isotopic results demonstrate a generally high degree of homogeneity, although the red marbles display greater variability, complicating their distinction from analogous stones in Asia Minor, such as those from Iasos and Milas. Quarrying of Mani marbles began in the Bronze Age and reached its peak during Roman times. It continued into the Byzantine period, with renewed exploitation in the 19th and 20th centuries. This study highlights the significant role of Mani in the ancient marble trade and contributes to ongoing debates about the provenance of famous red, white, and black marbles across the Mediterranean. Furthermore, it establishes a strong reference framework, integrating new analytical results with the existing literature, providing an updated mineralogical, petrographic, and isotopic database for provenance studies of marble artifacts. Full article

This article discusses the rise of archaeology in Asia Minor and the related development of heritage tourism in Turkey. It focuses particularly on the branch termed archaeobiblical tourism. It first discusses the demographics of its clientele and then looks at publications related to biblical archaeology that have created interest in these sites. The article next discusses five areas of interest to archaeobiblical tourists: two are related to the Old Testament and three to the New Testament. Since sites related to Paul number the most in Asia Minor, special attention is given to visiting them by land and sea. A list of archaeological realia that archaeobiblical tourists encounter at various sites is presented. The article closes with an extended discussion of how archaeobiblical tourism developed and how it is currently marketed globally. It concludes that Christian visitors are motivated primarily to see the cities where biblical events took place and where the apostles ministered. Along the way they learn about archaeology and Greco-Roman history and culture, and therefore begin to integrate this new knowledge with the biblical texts they are reading. Full article

This study presents a systematic bibliometric evaluation of artificial intelligence methodologies applied to the preservation and interpretation of Asia Minor’s cultural heritage. Publication trends demonstrate notable continuity, with foundational works sustaining their citation impact over a span of twenty-five years, thereby underscoring enduring scholarly engagement. Network analyses of keyword co-occurrence delineate a conceptual core organized around immersive visualization, exemplified by terms such as cultural heritages, virtual reality, and photogrammetry, while temporal mappings reveal the recent integration of machine learning and deep learning paradigms. Collectively, these findings chart an intellectual landscape in which three-dimensional reconstruction constitutes the foundational axis of research, now progressively enriched by data-driven algorithmic approaches. This synthesis offers a concise yet comprehensive portrait of evolving methodological trajectories and emerging computational frontiers in AI-driven heritage scholarship. Full article

Background: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and lower-extremity amputations (LEAs) complicating diabetes mellitus are significant contributors to morbidity, mortality, and disease burden. There is insufficient evidence, however, linking podiatric care to mortality and healthcare resource use. There is, concurrently, inadequate access to podiatric care, particularly in Asia. This study evaluated the clinical and healthcare use outcomes of patients with DFUs who received podiatric care. Methods: A longitudinal study involving patients in Diabetic Foot in Primary and Tertiary (DEFINITE) Care followed over a period of 2 years reviewed the effectiveness of podiatric care with regard to 1-year outcomes using multiple logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regressions, adjusting for covariates. Clinical outcomes were minor and major LEA, mortality, and LEA-free survival rates; healthcare use outcomes were the number of admissions, number of visits to clinics and emergency departments, and length of stay. Results: Eligible patients (n = 2798 [65.5%]) completed at least 12 months of follow-up. Comparisons were made with patients without access to podiatric care. The overall mean ± SD patient age was 65.7 ± 12.7 years. Most patients receiving podiatric follow-up were of Malay or Indian ethnicities and had poor diabetic control and chronic kidney disease. There were more admissions (p < 0.01) and visits to the emergency department (p < 0.01) and hospital outpatient clinics (p < 0.01), but a shorter length of stay (incidence rate ratio, 0.833; p < 0.01), without any reported differences regarding visits to public primary care clinics (p = 0.68). There were more minor LEAs (p < 0.01) but fewer deaths (p < 0.01) and greater LEA-free survival (odds ratio, 1.26; p = 0.02). Conclusions: Podiatric care improved clinical outcomes for patients with DFU, particularly in terms of LEA-free survival, with a positive impact on healthcare utilization. This is a crucial contribution to the limited evidence on podiatric care in diabetic limb salvage in Asian populations. Full article

This ethnographic study examines the jety ata (seven generations) tradition in the Goyibi lineage of the Jookesek tribe, a Kyrgyz community from southern Kyrgyzstan now living in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley. Based on 18 months of fieldwork (2022–2024), we document how this diaspora-in-place community sustains genealogical knowledge despite displacement, minority status, and political pressures. The core finding is “layered transmission”: a preservation strategy combining formal oral recitation, digital documentation (e.g., WhatsApp family trees), and adapted narrative pedagogy by grandmothers. These overlapping methods create redundancy and resilience, enabling adaptation to modernization while maintaining spiritual (eskeruu and ata-baba ruhu) and identity functions. Younger members engage selectively through gamified stories but resist rigid memorization. The case highlights women’s underrecognized role in transmission, ongoing epistemological negotiations, and identity anchoring in diaspora contexts. Findings are specific to this community and contribute to understandings of cultural reproduction and indigenous knowledge adaptation in Central Asia. Full article

The noctuid moth Dioszeghyana schmidtii (Dioszeghy, 1935) is a geographically restricted and poorly known species associated with xerothermic oak ecosystems of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. Despite its inclusion in European conservation frameworks, information on its distribution, biology, and ecological requirements remains fragmented, regionally uneven, and scattered across the faunistic literature in multiple languages. This review synthesizes published records, taxonomic sources, ecological observations, and curated occurrence data to provide an updated and critically assessed overview of the species’ biology, habitat associations, and biogeographic pattern. Distributional information was compiled exclusively from the literature and vetted public databases, with mapped occurrences representing confirmed regional presence rather than fine-scale occupancy. The species exhibits a patchy but ecologically coherent distribution closely linked to open, thermophilous Quercus woodlands, particularly those dominated by Q. cerris and related oak species. Major threats include habitat loss, forest densification, fragmentation, and phenological mismatches associated with climate change. By identifying persistent knowledge gaps and sources of uncertainty, this review highlights priorities for future research, monitoring, and habitat-based conservation of D. schmidtii and similar early-spring, oak-associated Lepidoptera. Full article

Local governance has been found to be an important determinant of individuals’ subjective well-being (SWB) in cross-municipality studies in Europe and Asia. In addition, previous literature suggests that increasing access to determinants of SWB provides lesser SWB benefit to racial minorities compared to white people in the United States (U.S.). Given this context, we ask the following: (1) does good local governance improve SWB in the U.S.? and (2) does good local governance improve SWB for Black and Hispanic people equally compared to white people? To answer these questions, we examine Chicago, Illinois, the third-largest city in the U.S. with substantial Black and Hispanic populations. We model local governance, our independent variable, as the number of weeks for the municipality to respond to pothole service requests reported to the city’s non-emergency services system. Our dependent variable was life satisfaction, measured by the Cantril Ladder. Covariates included self-reported health problems, lack of money for food, sex, age, age-squared, and marital status. Neighborhood race/ethnicity was tested as a moderator of the primary relationships. We estimated linear regression models with and without race × governance interactions. Our findings demonstrate that local governance is an important determinant of SWB, but that it benefits SWB in white neighborhoods more than in Black/Hispanic neighborhoods. Full article

Symplocos is an ecologically important genus that plays vital roles in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved mountain forests, including contributing to nutrient cycling, providing shelter and habitats for various organisms, and supporting overall plant diversity across East and Southeast Asia. Many species exhibit high levels of endemism and sensitivity to environmental change. China, with its wide range of ecosystems and climatic zones, is home to 18 endemic Symplocos species. Studies revealed that global warming is driving shifts in species diversity, particularly in mountains. Our study explores the current and projected richness patterns of endemic Symplocos species in China under climate change scenarios, emphasizing the implications for conservation planning. We applied stacked species distribution models (SSDMs), using key bioclimatic and environmental variables to predict current and future habitat suitability for endemic Symplocos species, evaluated model performance through multiple accuracy metrics, and generated ensemble projections to assess richness patterns under climate change scenarios. To assess the spatial configuration and fragmentation patterns of the endemic species richness under current and future climate scenarios, landscape metrics were calculated based on classified richness maps. The produced models demonstrated high accuracy with AUC > 0.9 and TSS > 0.75, highlighting the critical role of bioclimatic variables, particularly precipitation and temperature, in shaping endemic Symplocos distribution. Our analysis identifies the current hotspots of Symplocos endemism along southeastern China, particularly in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, southern Anhui, and northern Guangdong and Guangxi. These areas are at high risk, with up to 35% of endemic Symplocos species richness predicted to be lost over the next 60 years due to climate change. The study predicts a high decrease in endemic Symplocos species richness, especially in South China (e.g., Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Yunnan, southern Shaanxi), and mid-level decreases in East China (e.g., Heilongjiang, Jilin, eastern Inner Mongolia, Liaoning). Conversely, potential increases in endemic Symplocos species richness are projected in northern and western Xinjiang, western Tibet, and parts of eastern Sichuan, Guangxi, Hunan, Hebei, and Anhui, suggesting these regions may serve as future refugia for endemic Symplocos species. The analysis of the landscape structure and configuration revealed relatively minor but notable variations in the spatial structure of endemic Symplocos richness patterns under current and future climate scenarios. However, under the SSP585 scenario by 2080, the medium richness class showed a more pronounced decrease in aggregation index and increase in number of patches relative to other richness classes, suggesting that higher emissions may drive fragmentation of moderately rich areas, potentially isolating populations of Symplocos. These structural changes suggest a potential reduction in habitat quality and connectivity, posing significant risks to the persistence of endemic Symplocos populations, which underscores the urgent need for targeted smart-climate conservation strategies that prioritize both current hotspots and potential future refugia to enhance the resilience of endemic Symplocos forests and their ecosystems in the face of climate change. Full article

Butidae is a family of teleost fishes with diverse morphological and ecological adaptations, including the marbled goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata), a large species of high economic value in Southeast and East Asia. The previous mitogenomic studies on cultured populations of O. marmorata from non-native habitats have provided limited insights into genetic divergence, structural variation, and evolutionary relationships. Hence, this study presented the complete mitochondrial genome of O. marmorata from its native habitat in Indonesia, providing structural characterization, assessment of genetic diversity, and matrilineal phylogenetic analysis. The circular mitogenome was 16,525 bp, comprising 37 genes and a non-coding control region (CR). The gene organization and strand distribution were conserved among Oxyeleotris species, with 28 genes on the heavy strand and nine on the light strand, and a pronounced A+T compositional bias. The comparative analyses of O. marmorata (from both native and cultured habitats) and Oxyeleotris lineolata mitogenomes revealed minor variations in intergenic spacers, gene overlaps, protein-coding gene (PCGs) lengths, and codon usage patterns. Conversely, the nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution ratios observed in species of the family Butidae and its closest related family (Eleotridae) indicate strong purifying selection in the present dataset. Notably, the ATG was the predominant start codon, whereas the COI gene utilized GTG, and amino acid composition analysis demonstrated high frequencies of arginine, leucine, and serine. Most transfer RNAs retained the canonical cloverleaf secondary structure except for trnS1, which lacked a functional dihydrouridine arm, whereas the CR contained four conserved sequence blocks with variable nucleotide motifs and no detectable tandem repeats. The haplotype analysis of native (Indonesia) and introduced populations (China) highlighted three haplotypes with high diversity (Hd = 1.0000) and substantial nucleotide variation (π = 0.6667). The genetic divergence across 13 PCGs was gene-specific, with COI and ND5 showing the highest variation, while ND4L and ATP8 were highly conserved. The phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated 13 PCGs using both Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood methods revealed that Oxyeleotris forms a monophyletic clade and is closely related to Bostrychus sinensis. In addition, the broader phylogenetic framework inferred the matrilineal relationships within the family Butidae and its closest related family, Eleotridae. This study also recommends expanding analyses to include the mitogenomes of the remaining 17 Oxyeleotris species, together with comprehensive genomic data, to further elucidate their genetic architecture, evolutionary history, and ecological adaptability across diverse aquatic ecosystems. Full article

Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects approximately 2.9 million people in the world, exerting a significant economic and societal burden. The disease is increasingly identified among populations considered as uncommonly affected. MS is reported in all regions of the World Health Organization (WHO) member states in Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific, affecting all ethnicities while exhibiting substantially variable prevalences. Countries with high MS prevalence and some with moderate frequencies generally have economically better structured healthcare systems. Nevertheless, health disparities in these countries are accentuated by suboptimal accessibility of care for their minorities, immigrants and other underserved populations. Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) might have an impact on morbidity and higher rates of disability. Large segments of the world population (i.e., African, Latin American, people from the Middle East and Southeast Asia) do not have access to adequate MS diagnostic procedures, compounded by reduced availability of neurologists. Healthcare disparities exist practically in every country of the world. Active wars and a large number of refugees resulting from conflict augments the challenges to healthcare systems. These global factors constitute obstacles to the adequate management of MS. A collective international path is required to facilitate access to highly effective, albeit onerous treatments, some already approved and being utilized, i.e., monoclonal antibodies and B-lymphocyte depletory agents, and others foreseen in the future as advanced therapeutic molecules continue to develop. Full article

This study investigates the total carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from various types of passenger vehicles in five Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and Paraguay. The aim was to analyze to which degree CO₂ output can be reduced in Latin America by switching from petrol cars to electric cars. The vehicles analyzed include petrol-driven cars, short-, mid-, and long-range battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and hybrid electric vehicles. The study examines the total CO₂ emissions including battery production, vehicle manufacturing, and their operation, considering the energy grid mix of the selected countries for the year 2023. Using experimental data and considering production conditions yields more reliable results than previous studies. The results indicate that battery cars with the shortest cruising range using batteries produced in Europe and/or America generate the lowest levels of CO₂ emissions, regardless of the energy mix. However, the emission values vary across different countries. In countries with a predominant share of renewable energy for the electricity generation, such as Paraguay, Brazil, and Ecuador, battery cars are the most effective in reducing overall CO₂ emissions. Conversely, in countries like Argentina and Mexico, where renewable energy sources constitute a smaller share of the energy mix, the use of electric vehicles yields only a minor reduction in CO₂ output, while emissions of long-range vehicles with batteries produced in Asia even exceed those of internal combustion engine vehicles. Therefore, eco-friendly electricity generation is a prerequisite for eco-friendly use of electric cars and should therefore be the goal of every country. Full article

Background: Mycetia, a subshrub genus within the subfamily Rubioideae (Rubiaceae), is predominantly distributed in tropical Asia, lacking comprehensive plastid genomic resources. This study aimed to characterize the complete plastid genomes of two Mycetia species and explore their structural features and evolutionary relationships. Methods: The plastid genomes of Mycetia hirta and Mycetia sinensis were sequenced and assembled. We analyzed genome structure, simple sequence repeats (SSRs), long repeats, codon usage, nucleotide diversity (π), and Ka/Ks and conducted phylogenetic analysis. Results: Both genomes exhibited a typical quadripartite structure (153,989–154,588 bp; GC content 37.7–37.8%), encoding 126 genes (86 protein-coding, 8 rRNA, and 32 tRNA). Both chloroplast genomes contained 52–60 SSRs and three repeat types with minor interspecific differences. Junction regions and codon usage were highly conserved, with slight variations in RSCU values. The average π was 0.0096, and the non-coding trnE-trnT (π = 0.0817) emerged as a potential DNA barcode. The average Ka/Ks was 0.2900, indicating purifying selection. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the monophyly of Mycetia within Argostemmateae. Conclusions: This study provides the first comparative plastid genomic analysis for Mycetia, enhancing our understanding of its genetic diversity and supporting future phylogenetic and taxonomic research on the genus. Full article