In Taiwan over the past decades there has been enormous economic growth and rapid westernization of people's life style, as well as a concomitant rise in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and morbidity. Studying the effects of such a degree of socioeconomic development on the coronary risk factors of the Chinese population, an ethnic group long regarded as having a low incidence of CHD, ma...

The epidemiological features and management practices associated with amputation in low-income countries, generally synonymous with the tropics, are different from those observed in Western countries. Unlike developed countries, amputation most frequently involves traumatic injury in young active people. However, Westernization of the lifestyle is leading to an increasing number of cases involv...

This paper is about some misgivings I harbor over some recent linguistics publications on language endangerment, i.e., the process whereby a language loses grounds to another either because it is spoken by fewer and fewer speakers and/or because it is heavily influenced by the competitor, which its speakers seem to command or like better. The targets of my criticisms include Crystal (2000, 2004...

CEAS155 Fictional Japan: Introduction to Japanese Literature and Culture This course will explore the evolution of Japanese fictional narrative, from Japan's first encounter with "modern" literary forms in the late 19th century to postmodern digital discourses advanced through anime and gaming. In so doing, we will discuss the ways in which Japanese theories of literature intersect with notions...

BACKGROUND Very limited information is available regarding the incidence of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. We analyzed changes in cancer patterns from 1991 to 2008 in Maputo (Mozambique). METHODS We calculated the rates of incidence of different cancer sites by sex in the 5-year age-group of the population of Maputo city as well as age-standardized rates (ASRs) and average annual percentage ch...

In Japan, over the last 40 years, the change in lifestyle, particularly the westernization of the diet, has led to increased frequency of "lifestyle-related disorders" such as, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and atherosclerosis. Consequently, the morbidity and mortality due to coronary heart disease have increased, and the prevention of this disorder is now one of the major concerns when co...

The epidemiology of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has always been a source of fascination to researchers due to its heterogeneous characteristics of presentation. HL is an uncommon neoplasm of B-cell origin with an incidence that varies significantly by age, sex, ethnicity, geographic location and socioeconomic status. This complex pattern was also found to be replicated among Mediterranean basin popul...

Childhood overweight and obesity have increased in recent decades, reaching alarming proportions. Children with a migrant background seem to be particularly at risk of developing overweight and obesity. This article provides an overview of the prevalence of overweight or obesity among North African (NA) children living in their own countries or as immigrants in Europe. The aim is to show the ef...

BACKGROUND In Korea, hypertension has become more prevalent with the Westernization of Korean diets and lack of exercise. This study aimed at investigating the associations between physical fitness variables and hypertension status in Korean women. METHODS The subjects were 9,216 women aged >20 years who visited a public health promotion center for physical fitness tests. Cardiovascular respi...