of the Dissertation .......................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... vii Biographical Sketch ..............................................................................................................

In the Asia region, foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks are predominantly caused by FMD virus (FMDV) serotype O. The two main topotypes involved are ‘South-East Asia’ (SEA) and ‘Middle East – South Asia’ (ME-SA). FMDV of the SEA topotype (Mya-98 lineage) is widespread in South-East Asia and East Asia. FMD outbreaks due to serotype A have been sporadically observed in recent years. Serotype A...

A new species of army ant from the Aenictus wroughtonii group is described and illustrated based on the worker caste. Aenictus gutianshanensis Staab, sp. n. is known form a single colony collected in the subtropical mixed evergreen broad-leaved forest of the Gutianshan National Nature Reserve, South-East China. The new species is probably most closely related to A. vieti Jaitrong & Yamane, 2010...

This study describes the geochemical distribution of lead (Pb) and identifies the critical factors that significantly control Pb distribution and speciation in coastal and estuarine sediments around India by using published data from the literature. Crustal sources influence the abundance of Pb in coastal sediment from the south-east and central-west coast of India. Parts of north-east, north-w...

One of the most important problems of the prehistory of Europe, is the issues concerning the chronology, spatial relations, connections, contacts, communications, exchange networks, and interactions between Neolithic and Eneolithic people within a large area of the central, south-east and south Europe, first of all between thus from the Ukraine, south-east central Europe and east Balkan, and on...

BACKGROUND Stroke has emerged as a significant and escalating health problem for Asian populations. We compared risk factors, quality of care and risk of death or recurrent stroke in South Asian, East Asian and White patients with acute ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. METHODS Retrospective analysis was performed on consecutive patients with ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage admitte...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the ethnicity-specific association between body mass index (BMI) and diabetes in pregnancy, with a focus on the appropriateness of using BMI cut-offs to identify pregnant women at risk of diabetes. STUDY DESIGN Analysis of routinely-collected data from a maternity unit in London, UK. Data were available on 53 264 women delivering between 2004 and 2012. Logistic regres...

To gain deeper insight into the epidemiology of HIV-1 transmission in South-East Austria we performed a retrospective analysis of 259 HIV-1 partial pol sequences obtained from unique individuals newly diagnosed with HIV infection in South-East Austria from 2008 through 2014. After quality filtering, putative transmission linkages were inferred when two sequences were ≤1.5% genetically different...

AIMS To compare and contrast oral health related data related to Simplified Oral hygiene index (OHI-S) in Dubai school-aged students as a function of the population demographics gender and ethnicity. METHODS A total of 20,880 subjects were screened in 66 public and private school located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The study sample was grouped according to seven geographic regions. The to...

OBJECTIVE To test the appropriateness of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) cutoff points derived in largely white populations (ie, those of European descent) for detecting obesity-related metabolic abnormalities among East Asian and South Asian Canadians. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Primary care and community settings in Ontario. PARTICIPANTS Canadians of East ...