Important Changes Research Articles

Key effects contributing to changes in energy imports in the EU-27 between 2000 and 2020: A decomposition analysis based on the Sankey diagram

The aim of this paper is to analyse the key effects contributing to changes in energy imports in the European Union (EU-27) in the period 2000–2020. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), the analysis examines the effect of changes in six factors—energy structure, energy dependence, energy transformation efficiency, energy yield after transformation, energy efficiency and activity—on imports of oil, natural gas and other sources of energy. The results of the analysis reveal that the decarbonisation process has fostered the abandonment of the most polluting fossil fuel sources; however, there has been an increase in energy dependence on less polluting sources that are not produced domestically. In contrast, there has been an opportunity for change through improved energy efficiency, which has made it possible to reduce energy requirements per unit produced. In short, in order to achieve a sustainable and secure energy future, it is crucial to implement policies and actions that promote both the diversification of the energy mix—particularly renewable energies—and efficiency in consumption. Doing so will enable countries to move towards true decarbonisation and minimise vulnerability in their energy supply.

The Effect of Coronavirus Pandemic on the Treatment of Gynecological and Breast Cancers

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, various groups, including women with cancer, were affected as a high-risk group in terms of disease diagnosis and treatment. Despite the importance of therapeutic changes in cancers, such as breast and gynecological cancer, there is no comprehensive study in this regard that also refers to the coronavirus. The need for a deep understanding of the impact of coronavirus on the treatment plan of this group of patients caused the researcher to design and implement this study that aims to investigate the treatment challenge among cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: To answer the study question, a comprehensive search was carried out in databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus, using keywords, including cancer, gynecologic cancer, breast cancer, treatment, delay, and modification. Full-texted, English language and original articles were included in this study. Results: In total, 27 articles were selected for the study. The findings of this study revealed that COVID-19 greatly affects the treatment of gynecology and breast cancer. These patients experience delay or modification of cancer treatment. Increased time between diagnosis and treatment, delay, change or cancellation of surgery and change in treatment plan are the most important changes in cancer treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on various aspects of gynecology and breast cancer care worldwide. In the current pandemic, there has been a significant delay in the diagnosis and treatment of gynecological and breast cancer, which, due to its higher morbidity and mortality, has made the condition more difficult for cancer patients and treatment teams.

A Singular Enlightenment: C. L. R. James, Anti-Colonialism, and Transatlantic Political Thought

This article formulates an original account of the Enlightenment through an interpretation of C. L. R. James’s The Black Jacobins, a landmark work of transatlantic anti-colonial thought. It defends a dialectical account of the Enlightenment as a singular transatlantic historical process whose content and critical import changes across space and time. In The Black Jacobins, James shows the Enlightenment’s revolutionary and emancipatory political legacy by staging the dialectic of the Enlightenment in a colonial situation defined by a slave-plantation economy. James illustrates the Enlightenment’s political legacy as a “concrete universal” that has particular and singular aspects, each with its own unique contours. In doing so, the article considers other themes at the center of both historical and contemporary political theory such as how to best conceptualize colonialism; the traveling and misplacement of Enlightened ideas; and the critical importance of the dialectical legacy and critical theory in these efforts.

Obesity and its Relationship with Covid-19: A Review of the Main Pharmaceutical Aspects.

Important physiological changes are observed in patients with obesity, such as intestinal permeability, gastric emptying, cardiac output, and hepatic and renal function. These differences can determine variations in the pharmacokinetics of different drugs and can generate different concentrations at the site of action, which can lead to sub therapeutic or toxic concentrations. Understanding the physiological and immunological processes that lead to the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 is essential to correlate obesity as a risk factor for increasing the prevalence, severity, and lethality of the disease. Several drugs have been suggested to control COVID- 19 like Lopinavir, Ritonavir, Ribavirin, Sofosbuvir, Remdesivir, Oseltamivir, Oseltamivir phosphate, Oseltamivir carboxylate, Hydroxychloroquine, Chloroquine, Azithromycin, Teicoplanin, Tocilizumab, Anakinra, Methylprednisolone, Prednisolone, Ciclesonide and Ivermectin. Similarly, these differences between healthy people and obese people can be correlated to mechanical factors, such as insufficient doses of the vaccine for high body mass, impairing the absorption and distribution of the vaccine that will be lower than desired or can be linked to the inflammatory state in obese patients, which can influence the humoral immune response. Additionally, different aspects make the obese population more prone to persistent symptoms of the disease (long COVID), which makes understanding these mechanisms fundamental to addressing the implications of the disease. Thus, this review provides an overview of the relationship between COVID-19 and obesity, considering aspects related to pharmacokinetics, immunosuppression, immunization, and possible implications of long COVID in these individuals.

THE ROLE OF IMPORTS AS THE FACTOR OF ENSURING ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ARMENIA։ CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Trade is an essential factor in ensuring the economic growth of every country. Therefore, we identified the role of real imports in explaining statistically significant changes in the real GDP, and the role of changes in the real household final consumption expenditures and real exports of goods and services in explaining statistically significant changes in the real imports in the short-run, based on the least square estimation technique and using quarterly data covering from the first quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2023 to indicate the respective priorities to face external shocks and challenges, based on the scenarios designed by us. The respective estimates allowed us to conclude that the real imports have started to have a statistically significant impact in explaining the changes in the real GDP of Armenia due to the increased role of imports in ensuring export growth in Armenia. The increased role of imports is substantiated by the increased role of exports of services and goods and household final consumption expenditure due to the small size of the domestic market of Armenia and the appreciated Armenian dram against the US dollar and the Russian ruble. We stress the role of export diversification of those goods that Armenia has a comparative advantage in producing thereof by export markets and increase in the share of value-added created in Armenia with respect to the exported goods.

How do imports drive the domestic value added of China? The roles of input imports and demand imports

AbstractA comprehensive exploration into the effects of imports on China's economic growth is crucial for coping with fluctuating import dependency shocks. This paper proposes an integrated domestic value added accounting framework incorporating the roles of imports, that is input imports and demand imports and then employs the chaining structural decomposition analysis (SDA), the international geographic decomposition method, and the domestic sectoral decomposition models to further evaluate how imports affected the formations and changes in domestic value added by final demand category. Using the input–output tables from the ADB database, we find that, at the aggregate level, the input import effect fluctuates more significantly than the demand import effect, and its changing trend shows an opposite relationship with that of import dependency. At the sectoral level, input import changes that impact domestic economic growth from the supply and demand side are mainly attributed to the transmission of critical downstream and upstream sectors along industry chains. The governments should thus focus their attention on industry linkages to guarantee the security and resilience of critical domestic supply chains. The sectoral demand import effect shows the importance of improving local supply for people's essential life requirements and upgrading the domestic industry chains of some knowledge‐intensive sectors.

A diagnostic approach to modeling watersheds with human interference

Most watersheds have human impacts that modify hydrological responses differently over a range of timescales. However, these impacts are not accounted for in most hydrological models. Human impacts in watersheds are diverse and case specific, unlike natural hydrologic processes. Incorporating all plausible human impacts comes at a high data acquisition and modeling cost. This raises the question, which human impacts do we need to incorporate to represent observed streamflow patterns at different timescales? To answer this question, we develop a diagnostic approach to modeling watersheds with human interference. This mixed methods approach is informed by the case history and builds on the top-down hydrological modeling approach where process complexity is incrementally added with changing timescales to identify and respond to changing dominant hydrological processes in a given watershed. Here we implement this modeling approach in the East Fork watershed in California, USA for which data on changes in water imports, withdrawals, irrigation and agriculture land cover is available from the early 1940′s, making it an ideal demonstration case. In the East Fork watershed, we find that incorporation of water imports and rights are sufficient to replicate annual patterns of runoff variability, and that adding crop water demand and irrigation enables replication of monthly and daily patterns, while incorporation of groundwater pumping results in negligible improvements. To demonstrate the capabilities of the diagnostic approach in and beyond this case we conducted two computational experiments: checking for needed model structural change and exploring a counterfactual scenario of intensified agriculture.

A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Import and Export Trade on the Economy Between China and the United States

Due to the continuous development of global trade globalization and the weakening of monopolistic policies by major powers, the current international trade pattern has undergone tremendous changes, which has also led to significant changes in the GDP development of various countries. So the impact of import and export trade on international economic growth is enormous. This paper takes the United States as a typical developed country and China as a typical developing country, and the economic growth changes of both countries are most representative of the changes in import and export trade. Therefore, it focuses on the impact of import and export trade on the Sino-US economy to explore the specific changes in recent years. This article mainly focuses on the impact that has changed the import and export trade between China and the United States, resulting in how their economy has changed.

A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Import and Export Trade on the Economy Between China and the United States

Due to the continuous development of global trade globalization and the weakening of monopolistic policies by major powers, the current international trade pattern has undergone tremendous changes, which has also led to significant changes in the GDP development of various countries. So the impact of import and export trade on international economic growth is enormous. This paper takes the United States as a typical developed country and China as a typical developing country, and the economic growth changes of both countries are most representative of the changes in import and export trade. Therefore, it focuses on the impact of import and export trade on the Sino-US economy to explore the specific changes in recent years. This article mainly focuses on the impact that has changed the import and export trade between China and the United States, resulting in how their economy has changed.

The China trade shock and the gender wage gap in India: A district-level analysis

This study provides new evidence on the debate surrounding international trade and the gender wage gap in a developing country context. It asks whether increased competition from trade has any causal effect on the district-level gender wage gap in India. Changes in competition from trade are measured using changes in imports from China, owing to the dramatic rise in Chinese imports into India in recent years. To isolate the supply-driven component of Chinese imports and establish causality, I use Chinese import growth in other low and lower-middle-income countries as an instrument for Chinese import growth in India. Results indicate a positive and statistically significant impact of an increase in Chinese imports on the gender wage gap over time. In addition to the economy-wide sample of workers, this effect holds true for the sub-samples of casual laborers and rural sector workers where the majority of women workers in India are concentrated. Unlike previous studies using industry-level data, the district-level focus of this study allows us to capture micro-level effects, as well as the net effects of trade in the surrounding district.

ГЛОБАЛЬНЫЙ ЭКСПОРТ И ИМПОРТ АПЕЛЬСИНОВ: ОБЪЕМЫ, СТРАНЫ, ТЕНДЕНЦИИ

In this scientific work, the authors analyzed changes in global exports and imports of oranges for 2016-2022, and compiled a ranking of countries that were leaders in the international turnover of this citrus fruit in 2022. During the indicated period, the volume of global exports of oranges decreased from 7431.647 thousand tons to 7415.296 thousand tons, and imports from 7082.773 thousand tons to 7029.937 thousand tons. In 2022, the top ten of their main suppliers Egypt, Spain, South Africa, USA, Netherlands, Turkey, Greece, Australia, Portugal and Morocco were present in international trade. Together, they accounted for 83.72% of the world's exports of this citrus fruit in 2022. The top ten major importers of oranges were the Netherlands, France, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, UK, Iraq, UAE and the USA. In total, they accounted for 50.43% of the corresponding global parameter in 2022. We found that during the study period, imports of oranges to Russia increased from 451.822 thousand tons to 464.641 thousand tons. As a result, our country is in the ranking of the largest importers of this citrus fruit moved from fourth place in 2016 to third place in 2022.

Home care service providers in Brussels: time adjustments during COVID-19 and the consequences for frontline home care workers

Home care service providers have been considerably affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Since the beginning of the pandemic, their internal organisation has undergone important changes, including in terms of time schedules, to adapt to the needs of the older population and those of workers. In most cases, they had to reduce the provision of services, either because care workers – the majority of whom are women – were no longer available to cover the shifts, or because families had cancelled the services. In other cases, they had to meet increased demand. The most dramatic consequences were borne by female care workers, who had to combine working time adjustments with family obligations. Drawing from the material collected before and after the impact of the pandemic in Belgium, which includes interviews with public and private home care providers, this article explores the consequences that time adjustments had on frontline care workers and on the organisations themselves.

Mental health in Chilean higher education students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required important changes in the lifestyles and quality of life of higher education students, generating emotional distress. This study sought to evaluate a predictive model of emotional distress and positive mental health through measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in Chilean higher education students during the pandemic. To this end, 502 students (67.8% female), aged 18-44 years, were surveyed at two time points during the pandemic, separated by 6 months. Potential predictors included emotional regulation strategies, perceived social support, sociodemographic characteristics, factors related to the pandemic, and students' experiences related to online classes. Findings indicated that PTSS levels were generally stable across the two time points, but PTG levels increased. In addition, emotional regulation strategies (suppression, cognitive reappraisal), perceived social support, and female gender predicted both PTSS and PTG 6 months later; students' number of hours of screen time for school also influenced PTG. Findings enhance understanding of the processes contributing to PTSS and PTG in higher education students. The need to improve quality of life and mental health in higher education students, including individual- and institutional-level strategies, is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Transition to a weaker Sun: Changes in the solar atmosphere during the decay of the Modern Maximum

Context.The Sun experienced a period of unprecedented activity during the 20th century, now called the Modern Maximum (MM). The decay of the MM after its maximum in cycle 19 has changed the Sun, the heliosphere, and the planetary environments in many ways. However, studies disagree on whether this decay has proceeded synchronously in different solar parameters or not.Aims.One of the related key issues is if the relation between two long parameters of solar activity, the sunspot number and the solar 10.7 cm radio flux, has remained the same during this decay. A recent study argues that there is an inhomogeneity in the 10.7 cm radio flux in 1980, which leads to a step-like jump (“1980 jump”) in this relation. If true, this result would reduce the versatility of possible long-term studies of the Sun during the MM. Here we aim to show that the relation between sunspot number and 10.7 cm radio flux does indeed vary in time, not due to an inhomogeneous radio flux but due to physical changes in the solar atmosphere.Methods.We used radio flux measurements made in Japan at four different wavelengths, and studied their long-term relation with the sunspot number and the 10.7 cm radio flux during the decay of MM. We also used two other solar parameters, the MgII index and the number of solar active regions, in order to study the nature of the observed long-term changes in more detail.Results.We find that the 1980 jump is only the first of a series of 1–2-year “humps” that mainly occur during solar maxima. All five radio fluxes depict an increasing trend with respect to the sunspot number from the 1970s to 2010s. These results exclude the interpretation of the 1980 jump as an inhomogeneity in the 10.7 cm flux, and reestablish the 10.7 cm flux as a homogeneous measure of solar activity. The fluxes of the longer radio waves are found to increase with respect to the shorter waves, which suggests a long-term change in the solar radio spectrum. We also find that the MgII index of solar UV irradiance and the number of active regions also increased with respect to the sunspot number, further verifying the difference in the long-term evolution in chromospheric and photospheric parameters.Conclusions.Our results provide evidence for important structural changes in solar magnetic fields and the solar atmosphere during the decay of the MM, which have not been reliably documented so far. We also emphasize that the changing relation between the different (e.g., photospheric and chromospheric) solar parameters should be taken into account when using the sunspot number or any single parameter in long-term studies of solar activity.

International application of global forest product model and the reference to China

PurposeThis article summarizes the international scientific research output of global forest product models, infers future research trends and provides reference for quantitative analysis and mathematical modeling of Chinese forest product problems, with the aim of contributing to promoting domestic production of Chinese forest products and strengthening international trade competitiveness of forest products.Design/methodology/approachIn 1999, Joseph Buongiorno, a scholar at the University of Wisconsin in the United States of America, proposed the global forest products model (GFPM), which was first applied to research in the global forestry sector. GFPM is a recursive dynamic model based on five assumptions: macroeconomics, local equilibrium, dynamic equilibrium, forest product conversion flow and trade inertia. Using a certain year from 1992 to present as the base period, it simulates and predicts changes in prices, production and import and export trade indicators of 14 forest products in 180 countries (regions) through computer programs. Its advantages lie in covering a wide range of countries and a wide variety of forest products. The data mainly include forest resource data, forest product trade data, and other economic data required by the model, sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Bank, respectively.FindingsCompared to international quantitative and modeling research in the field of forest product production and trade, China's related research is not comprehensive and in-depth, and there is not much quantitative and mathematical modeling research, resulting in a significant gap. This article summarizes the international scientific research output of global forest product models, infers future research trends, and provides reference for quantitative analysis and mathematical modeling of Chinese forest product problems, with the aim of contributing to promoting domestic production of Chinese forest products and strengthening international trade competitiveness of forest products.Originality/valueOn the basis of summarizing and analyzing the international scientific research output of GFPM, sorting out the current research status and progress at home and abroad, this article discusses potential research expansion directions in 10 aspects, including the types, yield and quality of domestic forest product production, international trade of forest products, and external impacts on the forestry system, in order to provide new ideas for global forest product model research in China.

First characterization of the emission behavior of Mrk 421 from radio to very high-energy gamma rays with simultaneous X-ray polarization measurements

Aims. We have performed the first broadband study of Mrk 421 from radio to TeV gamma rays with simultaneous measurements of the X-ray polarization from IXPE. Methods. The data were collected as part of an extensive multiwavelength campaign carried out between May and June 2022 using MAGIC, Fermi-LAT, NuSTAR, XMM-Newton, Swift, and several optical and radio telescopes to complement IXPE data. Results. During the IXPE exposures, the measured 0.2–1 TeV flux was close to the quiescent state and ranged from 25% to 50% of the Crab Nebula without intra-night variability. Throughout the campaign, the very high-energy (VHE) and X-ray emission are positively correlated at a 4σ significance level. The IXPE measurements reveal an X-ray polarization degree that is a factor of 2–5 higher than in the optical/radio bands; that implies an energy-stratified jet in which the VHE photons are emitted co-spatially with the X-rays, in the vicinity of a shock front. The June 2022 observations exhibit a rotation of the X-ray polarization angle. Despite no simultaneous VHE coverage being available during a large fraction of the swing, the Swift-XRT monitoring reveals an X-ray flux increase with a clear spectral hardening. This suggests that flares in high synchrotron peaked blazars can be accompanied by a polarization angle rotation, as observed in some flat spectrum radio quasars. Finally, during the polarization angle rotation, NuSTAR data reveal two contiguous spectral hysteresis loops in opposite directions (clockwise and counterclockwise), implying important changes in the particle acceleration efficiency on approximately hour timescales.

FARS-ADL across Ataxias: Construct Validity, Sensitivity to Change, and Minimal Important Change.

Patient-focused outcomes present a central need for trial-readiness across all ataxias. The Activities of Daily Living part of the Friedreich Ataxia Rating Scale (FARS-ADL) captures functional impairment and longitudinal change but is only validated in Friedreich Ataxia. Validation of FARS-ADL regarding disease severity and patient-meaningful impairment, and its sensitivity to change across genetic ataxias. Real-world registry data of FARS-ADL in 298 ataxia patients across genotypes were analyzed, including (1) cross-correlation with FARS-stage, Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA), Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM)-ataxia, and European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions visual analogue scale (EQ5D-VAS); (2) sensitivity to change within a trial-relevant 1-year median follow-up, anchored in Patient Global Impression of Change (PGI-C); and (3) general linear modeling of factors age, sex, and depression (nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]). FARS-ADL correlated with overall disability (rhoFARS-stage = 0.79), clinical disease severity (rhoSARA = 0.80), and patient-reported impairment (rhoPROM-ataxia = 0.69, rhoEQ5D-VAS = -0.37), indicating comprehensive construct validity. Also at item level, and validated within genotype (SCA3, RFC1), FARS-ADL correlated with the corresponding SARA effector domains; and all items correlated to EQ5D-VAS quality of life. FARS-ADL was sensitive to change at a 1-year interval, progressing only in patients with worsening PGI-C. Minimal important change was 1.1. points based on intraindividual variability in patients with stable PGI-C. Depression was captured using FARS-ADL (+0.3 points/PHQ-9 count) and EQ5D-VAS, but not FARS-stage or SARA. FARS-ADL reflects both disease severity and patient-meaningful impairment across genetic ataxias, with sensitivity to change in trial-relevant timescales in patients perceiving change. It thus presents a promising patient-focused outcome for upcoming ataxia trials. © 2024 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Family-Leave Mandates and Female Labor at U.S. Firms: Evidence from a Trade Shock

Abstract We examine how the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) impacts the gender composition at U.S. firms experiencing a negative demand shock. Combining changes in Chinese imports across industries between 2000 and 2003 and a sharp regression discontinuity to identify FMLA status, we find that an increase in import competition decreases the share of female employment, earnings, and promotions at FMLA relative to non-FMLA firms. This effect is driven by women in prime childbearing ages and without college degrees; and is pronounced at firms with all male managers. These results suggest that job-protected leave mandates may exacerbate gender inequalities in response to adverse shocks.

Direct Oral Anticoagulants for Pulmonary Embolism.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cardiovascular disease. For most patients, the standard of treatment has long consisted on low-molecular-weight heparin followed by vitamin K antagonists, but a number of clinical trials and, subsequently, post-marketing studies have shown that direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) with or without lead-in heparin therapy are effective alternatives with fewer adverse effects. This evidence has led to important changes in the guidelines on the treatment of VTE, including pulmonary embolism (PE), with the DOACs being now recommended as the first therapeutic choice. Additional research has contributed to identifying low-risk PE patients who can benefit from outpatient management or from early discharge from the emergency department with DOAC treatment. There is evidence to support the use of DOACs in intermediate-risk PE patients as well as in high-risk patients receiving thrombolytic treatment. The use of DOACs has also been proven to be safe and effective in special populations of PE patients, such as patients with renal impairment, liver impairment, and cancer.

Early Warning Systems for World Energy Crises

Different severe energy crisis episodes have occurred in the world in the last five decades. Energy crises lead to the deterioration of international relations, economic crises, changes in monetary systems, and social problems in countries. This paper aims to show the essential determinants of energy crises by developing a binary logit model that estimates the predictive ability of thirteen indicators in a sample that covers the period from January 1973 to December 2022. The empirical results show that the energy crises are mainly due to energy supply–demand imbalances (petroleum stocks, fossil energy production–consumption imbalances, and changes in energy imports by countries), energy investments (oil and natural gas drilling activities), economic and financial disruptions (inflation, dollar indices, and indices of global real economic activity) and geopolitical risks. Additionally, the model is capable of accurately predicting world energy crisis events with a 99% probability.