Boni In Chinese Sources From The Tenth To The Eighteenth Century

The present national history of the Sultanate of Brunei includes a fabricated history of official Brunei-China relations that extends as far back as the sixth century AD. The present paper treats the subject of Boni, a place well documented by pre-modern Chinese sources starting from the tenth century. It attempts to address some major issues in the use of these sources to establish Boni as a precursor of modern Brunei. Since the late 1970s writers within Brunei, foremost among them Robert Nicholl, have contributed to the project of a long history of pre-modern Brunei by interpreting the available Chinese sources very narrowly. Based on a close reading of the original texts, this essay argues that the majority of the texts until the Ming dynasty quote from the first extant source in the tenth century. Hence, official Chinese perception of Boni did not increase over time, but in fact did stagnate. Consequently, identification with a specific location in Borneo, as Nicholl and C. Brown suggested, is impossible. What the essay suggests is that with the extant official pre-modern Chinese texts Boni cannot be established as Brunei, but that more likely, Boni under different dynasties referred to various places on the north coast of Borne

Dashi 大食 reconsidered

This essay is a critical survey of relevant Song dynasty sources that are essential to an understanding of the term Dashi 大食. Scholars in the nineteenth century identified Dashi in Tang dynasty writings as a designation for Arab Muslims. This definition consequently has been and is being applied to all occurrences of Dashi in Song dynasty texts. However, Dashi in the Song no longer described Arab Muslims, but, as a multivalent term, referred to a variety of peoples and places in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Contrary to commonly held view, Dashi falls short of providing evidence for an Arab controlled maritime trade from South Asia to China that contemporary scholars suggest. The paper, therefore, calls for a re-evaluation of the alleged Arab influence in Asian maritime trade networks during the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and a closer reading of the Chinese source material

Making History In Borneo: Ong Sum Ping And His Others During The Late Yuan And Early Ming Dynasties

The Genealogy of the Sultans of Brunei (Silsilah Raja-raja Brunei) introduces an alleged Chinese ancestor whose name has been transcribed as Ong Sum Ping. Ong is said to have been related to the imperial family of China, to have ruled over Sabah in northern Borneo, and having provided his sister as spouse to one of the early sultans of Brunei. The current paper examines Ong Sum Ping and his various appearances under different names in especially Chinese texts from the twentieth century. These texts emphasise early Chinese influence on northern Borneo. Sometimes Ong Sum Ping is linked to Manarejiana, a Boni chieftain, who visited Nanjing, the capital of the Ming empire in 1408 to pay tribute and his respects to the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–1424). Through the association of the chieftain with the Ming empire, some writers suggest that Ong Sum Ping may have been an admiral of Zheng He’s fleet who came to Brunei and stayed there. At the core of the paper is an examination of modern assumptions about: (1) the identity of Ong Sum Ping; (2) the existence of a Chinese province in northern Borneo; and (3) the likelihood of an appearance of the Treasure Fleet of Zheng He in Brunei in the early ffteenth century. I argue that with the extant Chinese textual sources none of these claims can be verifed, and that therefore they are reflecting local oral traditions

Individual regional associations between Aβ-, tau- and neurodegeneration (ATN) with microglial activation in patients with primary and secondary tauopathies

& beta;-amyloid (A & beta;) and tau aggregation as well as neuronal injury and atrophy (ATN) are the major hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and biomarkers for these hallmarks have been linked to neuroinflammation. However, the detailed regional associations of these biomarkers with microglial activation in individual patients remain to be elucidated. We investigated a cohort of 55 patients with AD and primary tauopathies and 10 healthy controls that underwent TSPO-, A & beta;-, tau-, and perfusion-surrogate-PET, as well as structural MRI. Z-score deviations for 246 brain regions were calculated and biomarker contributions of A & beta;(A), tau (T), perfusion (N1), and gray matter atrophy (N2) to microglial activation (TSPO, I) were calculated for each individual subject. Individual ATN-related microglial activation was correlated with clinical performance and CSF soluble TREM2 (sTREM2) concentrations. In typical and atypical AD, regional tau was stronger and more frequently associated with microglial activation when compared to regional A & beta;(AD: & beta;(T) = 0.412 & PLUSMN;0.196 vs. & beta;(A) = 0.142 & PLUSMN;0.123, p < 0.001;AD-CBS: & beta;(T) = 0.385 & PLUSMN;0.176 vs. & beta;(A) = 0.131 & PLUSMN;0.186, p = 0.031). The strong association between regional tau and microglia reproduced well in primary tauopathies (& beta;(T) = 0.418 & PLUSMN;0.154). Stronger individual associations between tau and microglial activation were associated with poorer clinical performance. In patients with 4RT, sTREM2 levels showed a positive association with tau-related microglial activation. Tau pathology has strong regional associations with microglial activation in primary and secondary tauopathies. Tau and A & beta;related microglial response indices may serve as a two-dimensional in vivo assessment of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases

Individual regional associations between Aβ-, tau- and neurodegeneration (ATN) with microglial activation in patients with primary and secondary tauopathies.

β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau aggregation as well as neuronal injury and atrophy (ATN) are the major hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and biomarkers for these hallmarks have been linked to neuroinflammation. However, the detailed regional associations of these biomarkers with microglial activation in individual patients remain to be elucidated. We investigated a cohort of 55 patients with AD and primary tauopathies and 10 healthy controls that underwent TSPO-, Aβ-, tau-, and perfusion-surrogate-PET, as well as structural MRI. Z-score deviations for 246 brain regions were calculated and biomarker contributions of Aβ (A), tau (T), perfusion (N1), and gray matter atrophy (N2) to microglial activation (TSPO, I) were calculated for each individual subject. Individual ATN-related microglial activation was correlated with clinical performance and CSF soluble TREM2 (sTREM2) concentrations. In typical and atypical AD, regional tau was stronger and more frequently associated with microglial activation when compared to regional Aβ (AD: βT = 0.412 ± 0.196 vs. βA = 0.142 ± 0.123, p < 0.001; AD-CBS: βT = 0.385 ± 0.176 vs. βA = 0.131 ± 0.186, p = 0.031). The strong association between regional tau and microglia reproduced well in primary tauopathies (βT = 0.418 ± 0.154). Stronger individual associations between tau and microglial activation were associated with poorer clinical performance. In patients with 4RT, sTREM2 levels showed a positive association with tau-related microglial activation. Tau pathology has strong regional associations with microglial activation in primary and secondary tauopathies. Tau and Aβ related microglial response indices may serve as a two-dimensional in vivo assessment of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases

Associations between sex, body mass index and the individual microglial response in Alzheimer's disease

Background and objectives18-kDa translocator protein position-emission-tomography (TSPO-PET) imaging emerged for in vivo assessment of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. Sex and obesity effects on TSPO-PET binding have been reported for cognitively normal humans (CN), but such effects have not yet been systematically evaluated in patients with AD. Thus, we aimed to investigate the impact of sex and obesity on the relationship between beta-amyloid-accumulation and microglial activation in AD.Methods49 patients with AD (29 females, all A beta-positive) and 15 A beta-negative CN (8 female) underwent TSPO-PET ([18F]GE-180) and beta-amyloid-PET ([18F]flutemetamol) imaging. In 24 patients with AD (14 females), tau-PET ([18F]PI-2620) was additionally available. The brain was parcellated into 218 cortical regions and standardized-uptake-value-ratios (SUVr, cerebellar reference) were calculated. Per region and tracer, the regional increase of PET SUVr (z-score) was calculated for AD against CN. The regression derived linear effect of regional A beta-PET on TSPO-PET was used to determine the A beta-plaque-dependent microglial response (slope) and the A beta-plaque-independent microglial response (intercept) at the individual patient level. All read-outs were compared between sexes and tested for a moderation effect of sex on associations with body mass index (BMI).ResultsIn AD, females showed higher mean cortical TSPO-PET z-scores (0.91 +/- 0.49;males 0.30 +/- 0.75;p = 0.002), while A beta-PET z-scores were similar. The A beta-plaque-independent microglial response was stronger in females with AD (+ 0.37 +/- 0.38;males with AD - 0.33 +/- 0.87;p = 0.006), pronounced at the prodromal stage. On the contrary, the A beta-plaque-dependent microglial response was not different between sexes. The A beta-plaque-independent microglial response was significantly associated with tau-PET in females (Braak-II regions: r = 0.757, p = 0.003), but not in males. BMI and the A beta-plaque-independent microglial response were significantly associated in females (r = 0.44, p = 0.018) but not in males (BMI*sex interaction: F(3,52) = 3.077, p = 0.005).ConclusionWhile microglia response to fibrillar A beta is similar between sexes, women with AD show a stronger A beta-plaque-independent microglia response. This sex difference in A beta-independent microglial activation may be associated with tau accumulation. BMI is positively associated with the A beta-plaque-independent microglia response in females with AD but not in males, indicating that sex and obesity need to be considered when studying neuroinflammation in AD

Additive value of [18F]PI-2620 perfusion imaging in progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome

Purpose: Early after [18F]PI-2620 PET tracer administration, perfusion imaging has potential for regional assessment of neuronal injury in neurodegenerative diseases. This is while standard late-phase [18F]PI-2620 tau-PET is able to discriminate the 4-repeat tauopathies progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal syndrome (4RTs) from disease controls and healthy controls. Here, we investigated whether early-phase [18F]PI-2620 PET has an additive value for biomarker based evaluation of 4RTs. Methods: Seventy-eight patients with 4RTs (71 ± 7 years, 39 female), 79 patients with other neurodegenerative diseases (67 ± 12 years, 35 female) and twelve age-matched controls (69 ± 8 years, 8 female) underwent dynamic (0-60 min) [18F]PI-2620 PET imaging. Regional perfusion (0.5-2.5 min p.i.) and tau load (20-40 min p.i.) were measured in 246 predefined brain regions [standardized-uptake-value ratios (SUVr), cerebellar reference]. Regional SUVr were compared between 4RTs and controls by an ANOVA including false-discovery-rate (FDR, p < 0.01) correction. Hypoperfusion in resulting 4RT target regions was evaluated at the patient level in all patients (mean value - 2SD threshold). Additionally, perfusion and tau pattern expression levels were explored regarding their potential discriminatory value of 4RTs against other neurodegenerative disorders, including validation in an independent external dataset (n = 37), and correlated with clinical severity in 4RTs (PSP rating scale, MoCA, activities of daily living). Results: Patients with 4RTs had significant hypoperfusion in 21/246 brain regions, most dominant in thalamus, caudate nucleus, and anterior cingulate cortex, fitting to the topology of the 4RT disease spectrum. However, single region hypoperfusion was not specific regarding the discrimination of patients with 4RTs against patients with other neurodegenerative diseases. In contrast, perfusion pattern expression showed promise for discrimination of patients with 4RTs from other neurodegenerative diseases (AUC: 0.850). Discrimination by the combined perfusion-tau pattern expression (AUC: 0.903) exceeded that of the sole tau pattern expression (AUC: 0.864) and the discriminatory power of the combined perfusion-tau pattern expression was replicated in the external dataset (AUC: 0.917). Perfusion but not tau pattern expression was associated with PSP rating scale (R = 0.402; p = 0.0012) and activities of daily living (R = - 0.431; p = 0.0005). Conclusion: [18F]PI-2620 perfusion imaging mirrors known topology of regional hypoperfusion in 4RTs. Single region hypoperfusion is not specific for 4RTs, but perfusion pattern expression may provide an additive value for the discrimination of 4RTs from other neurodegenerative diseases and correlates closer with clinical severity than tau pattern expression

Gender-Specific Effects of Unemployment on Family Formation: A Cross-National Perspective

This paper investigates the impact of unemployment on the propensity to start a family. Unemployment is accompanied by bad occupational prospects and impending economic deprivation, placing the well-being of a future family at risk. I analyze unemployment at the intersection of state-dependence and the reduced opportunity costs of parenthood, distinguishing between men and women across a set of welfare states. Using micro-data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), I apply event history methods to analyze longitudinal samples of first-birth transitions in France, Finland, Germany, and the UK (1994-2001). The results highlight spurious negative effects of unemployment on family formation among men, which can be attributed to the lack of breadwinner capabilities in the inability to financially support a family. Women, in contrast, show positive effects of unemployment on the propensity to have a first child in all countries except France. These effects prevail even after ontrolling for labour market and income-related factors. The findings are pronounced in Germany and the UK where work-family conflicts are the cause of high opportunity costs of motherhood, and the gender-specific division of labour is still highly traditional. Particularly among women with a moderate and low level of education, unemployment clearly increases the likelihood to have a first child