It is reported on the casuistics of a 23-year-old Lebanese who since his eighth year suffered from joint swellings and occasional attacks of jaundice. By the proof of false forms of erythrocytes and by the haemoglobin electrophoresis a homozygous sickle cell disease could be ascertained. Peculiarities of the clinical picture were among others changes of the bones of high degree (osteolyses of vertebral bodies, of the head of the right humerus and the heads of the two femurs) was well as of the knee-joints in form of ankyloses.
This chapter explores the relationship between Japanese direct investment and national spatial development in selected Pacific Asian nations with a further view to the implications for urban and spatial distribution policies. The literature on the effects of foreign investment on developing countries' host economies has become extensive, ranging from the treatment of microeconomic effects to that of macrolevel impacts on aggregate savings, investment, and growth of real income, as well as income distribution effects. In considering the relationship between external economic forces and national spatial development, it seems logical first to view the impact of foreign capital inflows on economic growth and the effect of economic growth in turn on the developing country's spatial development. Japanese investments overseas before and during the Pacific war, heavily concentrated in Asia, especially in the then Japanese colonies of Manchukuo, Formosa, and Korea, were either destroyed or liquidated in the war and its aftermath.
Hereditary pyrimidine 5-nucleotidase (P5'N-1) deficiency is a very rare disorder. Here, we describe a new mutation in a Turkish family. Although functional tests have not been performed, our findings confirm that the homozygous mutational state leads to clinical manifest P5'N-1 deficiency, while heterozygosity does not lead to hemolysis or anemia.
Climate change will have profound impacts on Asia. Some rural and agricultural regions (e.g., the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the breadbasket of South Asia) face severe water shortages brought about by a drier climate and a diminished flow from the shrinking Himalayan glaciers, while others face the prospect of increased floods. Intensified waves will increase mortality, especially among the elderly and in large cities that are already affected by a significant rise in temperatures caused by the effects of urban heat islands. For example, in the case of Ho Chi Minh City, it is estimated that there is as much as 10°C difference between the city and vegetated surroundings. Climate change will also likely increase the occurrence of vector-borne and diarrheal diseases.1Most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are Asia's low-lying coastal regions and especially its large river deltas-including the Ganges-Brahmaputra, Yangtze, and Mekong deltas. Identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as hot spots of vulnerability,2 they are also the sites of some of the world's largest megacities (large urban regions variously defined as having more than 8 or 10 million people), significant not only from the standpoint of their large populations, but also their economic infrastructures and dominant roles in national and regional economies.Growing Risks from Climate Change, Sea Level Rise, and Land SubsidenceThe growing physical risks to Asian coastal regions result from a combination of factors related to climate change, including a rise in sea level and a likely increase in intensity of tropical cyclones, bringing higher winds and heavier precipitation, stronger storm surges, and increased coastal flooding. It should be noted that these hazards are largely anthropogenic in origin, related to climate change that is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, sea level rise resulting from climate change, and land subsidence caused by withdrawal of groundwater. (Urbanization also contributes to the rise in risk of flooding through the processes of building over natural waterways and creating impermeable surfaces.)Because of the built-in momentum in the climate system resulting from past emissions and the slow response of oceans, the physical risks posed by climate change and sea level rise will continue to grow into the next century, even if a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is achieved. However, as things stand, rather than slowing, climate change may be accelerating as emissions continue to grow: recent modeling results suggest a possible warming of 5.2°C by 2100, more than double the estimate the IPCC made several years ago.3 A growth in mean temperature is only part of the story. Climate change may also be causing a change in the paths of tropical cyclones, bringing destructive storms to places previously spared and perhaps even shifts in the Asian monsoon system, with potentially dire socioeconomic consequences.4Risks posed by cyclonic storms and storm surges will be compounded by a rising sea level resulting from the thermal expansion of ocean water and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. Sea level is projected to rise at an increasing rate during the twenty-first century and will continue to rise for centuries after global temperatures have stabilized. Earlier IPCC projections of an 18-59 cm rise in global sea level by 2055 omitted possible effects of Greenland's ice sheet melting and are now considered far too low. One study suggests sea level could rise between 0.75 to 1.9 m by 2100, two or three times the IPCC estimate.5Land subsidence further adds to the growing risk of coastal flooding. Many coastal megacities in Asia are built on deltas where significant sinking is occurring due to soil compaction or groundwater withdrawal for household or industrial purposes. (Adding to the problem, withdrawl of groundwater that flows out to the sea also contributes to rising sea levels. …
