National Comparative Study Research Articles

Outcomes in infective endocarditis among adults with CHD: a comparative national study.

Given increased survival for adults with CHD, we aim to determine outcome differences of infective endocarditis compared to patients with structurally normal hearts in the general population. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study identifying infective endocarditis hospitalisations in patients 18 years and older from the National Inpatient Sample database between 2001 and 2016 using International Classification of Disease diagnosis and procedure codes. Weighting was used to create national annual estimates indexed to the United States population, and multivariable logistic regression analysis determined variable associations. Outcome variables were mortality and surgery. The primary predictor variable was the presence or absence of CHD. We identified 1,096,858 estimated infective endocarditis hospitalisations, of which 17,729 (1.6%) were adults with CHD. A 125% increase in infective endocarditis hospitalisations occurred for adult CHD patients during the studied time period (p < 0.001). Adults with CHD were significantly less likely to experience mortality (5.4% vs. 9.5%, OR 0.54, CI 0.47-0.63, p < 0.001) and more likely to undergo in-hospital surgery (31.6% vs. 6.7%, OR 6.49, CI 6.03-6.98, p < 0.001) compared to the general population. CHD severity was not associated with increased mortality (p = 0.53). Microbiologic aetiology of infective endocarditis varied between groups (p < 0.001) with Streptococcus identified more commonly in adults with CHD compared to patients with structurally normal hearts (36.2% vs. 14.4%). Adults with CHD hospitalised for infective endocarditis are less likely to experience mortality and more likely to undergo surgery than the general population.

Ethnic Return Migrants in Korea and Japan: A Comparative Study of Nationalism and Citizenship

Abstract: This study explores the complicated nature of the citizenship of ethnic return migrants from Japan and Korea, Nikkeijin and Joseonjok. It aims to contribute to the scholarship by demonstrating that racism and nationalism are layered concepts by examining the reasons why Nikkeijin and Joseonjok enjoy preferential treatment to some extent but at the same time become targets of discrimination in Korea and Japan. I draw on Christian Joppke's position that citizenship is composed not only of legal status but also of social and identity elements and utilize two relatively novel concepts that shed new light on the complex nature of Nikkeijin and Joseonjok citizenship. One is Takeyuki Tsuda's concept of ethnoracism, which helps capture the type of racism aimed at groups that are not racially distinct but whose ostensible background differences are essentialized as inferior. The other is Gil-Soo Han's nouveau-riche nationalism, which argues that migrants are evaluated according to the global and developmental status of their country of origin. This comparative analysis helps demonstrate how the lives of Joseonjok and Nikkeijin are shaped by multiple layers of nationalism, racism, and status perceptions in their respective countries of residence.

EE483 Health Care Expenditures for Substance Use Disorders: A Comparative National Study

Substance use disorders (SUD) are major public health problems with a high healthcare burden in the US. However, national-level healthcare expenditures for the SUD are limited. This study examined healthcare expenditures for SUD using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data from 2011 to 2020.

Comparative Study of Nationalism and National Identity Paradigms between India and Pakistan

Whether viewed from theoretical hypothesis or historical experience, nationalism and national identity are the two pillars during the process of nation-state building. After the “partition of India”, the nationalist forces of India and Pakistan have also grown stronger. At the same time, it has greatly influenced the national identity of the people of India and Pakistan and has had a profound impact on the process of nation-state building in India and Pakistan.

The social and cultural shaping of cybersecurity capacity building: a comparative study of nations and regions

This paper presents an empirical study of the social and cultural aspects of cybersecurity capacity building in 78 nations. While nations within geographically defined regions might be expected to share similar attitudes, values, and practices around cybersecurity, this analysis finds that regional differences can be explained largely by cross-national differences in development and the scale of Internet use. These results question the centrality of regions in shaping social and cultural attributes directly tied to cybersecurity capacity. However, the analysis identifies some countries with greater and some with lesser levels of maturity in capacity building than expected only on the basis of their development and scale of Internet use. Further research focused on the dynamics of under- and over-performance of different nations might illuminate where regional contexts could place a brake on, or provide an impetus for, under- or over-performance in cybersecurity capacity building. That said, national development and the scale of Internet use are the most explanatory of cultural attitudes, values, and practices of societies tied to cybersecurity, such as trust on the Internet.

Another global history of science: making space for India and China

AbstractDrawing from recent theoretical insights on the circulation of knowledge, this article, grounded in real-world examples, illustrates the importance of ‘the site’ as an analytical heuristic for revealing processes, movements and connections illegible within either nation-centred histories or comparative national studies. By investigating place instead of project, the study reframes the birth of modern rocket developments in both China and India as fundamentally intertwined within common global networks of science. I investigate four seemingly disconnected sites in the US, India, China and Ukraine, each separated by politics but connected and embedded in conduits that enabled the flow of expertise during (and in some cases despite) the Cold War. By doing so, it is possible to reconstruct an exemplar of a kind of global history of science, some of which takes place in China, some in India, and some elsewhere, but all of it connected. There are no discrete beginnings or endings here, merely points of intervention to take stock of processes in action. Each site produces objects and knowledge that contribute to our understanding of the other sites, furthering the overall narrative on Chinese and Indian efforts to formalize a ‘national’ space programme. The focus on these four sites reveals a global network of science in motion, linked by the common goals of building powerful rockets to explore space.

Everyday Nationalism: Constructivism for the Masses*

ObjectiveWe argue that the “everyday nationalism” approach is both useful and necessary for improving existing constructivist approaches in the comparative study of nationalism and ethnic politics.MethodsA meta‐analysis of existing studies reveals pervasive conceptual and methodological problems of contemporary constructivist approaches. We consider the implications of replacing individuals or groups with ethnic or nationalist practices as units of analysis.ResultsEveryday nationalism promises to address the gap between constructivist theory and the methodological individualism of existing studies. This approach proceeds from ethnographic observation and utilizes methods reliant on observing societal interaction or relational meaning making for verification. We illustrate such a research strategy using examples of nationalist legitimation in authoritarian regimes and the ethnicization of economic development.ConclusionThe everyday nationalism approach promises to overcome the shortcomings in much contemporary constructivist work. The potential for developing qualitative data sets of nationalist or ethnic practices further promises to complement constructivist insights.

Transparency, participation, and accountability practices in open government: A comparative study

In a comparative national study addressing the fiscal domain, we explored relationships between socio-cultural, political, economic, and government conditions and concepts critical to open government, defined as (a) budget transparency (b) participation in budget processes, and (c) accountability information. We found that democracy, human capital, and budget document disclosures are consistently related to transparency, accountability, and the involvement of the Supreme Audit Authority with the public. E-participation and commitment to the Open Government Partnership are each related to particular measures of transparency and accountability. Gross domestic product was negatively related to particular measures of transparency and accountability. Only democracy was related to public participation in budget discussions with the executive, and that was a minimal effect.

The Saliency of Second Level Agenda-setting Theory Effects on the Corporate Reputation of Business Organizations in Nigeria

Purpose: This paper examines how business news reports on the activities of business organizations in Nigeria set agenda for the opinions, attitudes and perceptions of their stakeholders.Design/method/approach: Content analysis of business newspapers and semi-structured interviews were employed to test the validity of four theoretical propositions on the second level agenda-setting effects.Findings: Our findings confirm existing theories that the amount of news coverage received by a corporation connects positively to public awareness and perception of the corporation; that the amount of news coverage dedicated to specific attributes of some business organizations in Nigeria connects to the proportion of the stakeholders who define the corporation by these attributes; that the more media cover specific corporate attributes from a positive perspective, the more positively will the general public perceive these attributes; and that the more negative that the media coverage is for some specific corporate attributes, the more negative will the general public perceive those attributes.Theoretical implication: One can reasonably argue that based on the outcomes of this study, corporate reputation theories as propounded in international marketing studies bear significant corollary to reputation studies in Nigeria.Practical implication: The study suggests the need for reputation managers in Nigeria and in the western world to learn from one another by forming strategic alliances.Limitation of study: This study is devoted to the Nigerian business environment. Whilst this may prevent the generation of a theory, it offers an opportunity to examine the subject on comparative national study.

Ethnic and civic dealings with newcomers: naturalization policies and practices in twenty-six immigration countries

Over the last decade or so, the comparative study of nationalism has produced a large number of cogent critiques of classifying nations according to how ethnic or civic they are. In fact, these critiques have been so convincing that many scholars today seem to agree that any mention of the words ‘ethnic’ and ‘civic’ is unwarranted. This is unfortunate, because the distinction still offers a useful heuristic device to compare and classify different nation-building practices. This article analyses naturalization policies in twenty-six Western immigrant-receiving democracies in order to show that the distinction constitutes a valuable analytical tool to explore how different countries deal with newcomers. The naturalization policy index developed in this article proves to have a high degree of face validity, to be a good predictor of actual naturalization practices, and to match up well with previous classifications of ethnic and civic nation-building practices.

Perceptions of climate change worldwide

AbstractWe begin this review with a brief overview of the first published comparative national studies on public attitudes and climate change. We continue by exploring key findings from more recent surveys from three major studies conducted in late 2009. These results are organized into two major sections—the first in reviewing established ground or questions commonly asked of the general public regarding climate change. These questions include willingness to pay to protect the environment, global warming as a serious problem, and willingness to pay to address climate change. The second section continues the review by exploring questions that have been seldom asked or new ground. We look at such topics as—the perceived effects of climate change; when respondents think climate change will be felt; their view of what climate scientists think, and whether they feel their government is doing enough to address the issue. We end this section by reviewing two questions that focus on international relations and the global climate change negotiations—the public's perception of their government's efforts at international cooperation, and which country is most trusted by the public to lead the climate change negotiations. The review concludes with discussions on data limitations and some summary thoughts and future research needs. WIREs Clim Change 2011, 2:871–885. doi: 10.1002/wcc.146This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change &gt; Perceptions of Climate Change

Technology achievement index 2009: ranking and comparative study of nations

Ranking of 91 countries based on the Technology Achievement Index 2009 (TAI-09) (2009 refers to the year in which most of data collection was carried out.) is reported. Originally proposed in 2002, the TAI is a composite indicator which aggregates national technological capabilities and performance in terms of creation/diffusion of new technologies, diffusion of old technologies and development of human skills. In addition to the overall ranking of 91 countries, rankings in each sub-dimension of the Index are also reported. Comparative analysis of TAI ranking of 56 countries, common to the present and previous study of 2002 under similar conditions, is quite instructive and indicates shifts in technological scenario of these countries even over a relatively short period of 5---6 years. A simple concept based on Standard Deviation approach, as an indication of the technological spread or otherwise, is proposed for the first time. Application of this concept to 56 common countries is reported.

Obesity prevalence in Latin America

Obesity is a public health problem that affects both the developed and the developing countries. Its aetiology includes genetic factors and lifestyle (diet and physical activity). The studies of its prevalence in different strata and localisations of the Latin American countries varied between 22-26% in Brazil, 21% in Mexico, 10% in Ecuador, 3-22% in Peru, 22-35% in Paraguay and 24-27% in Argentina, although these data should not be extrapolated to the general population. The comparative national studies made it possible to establish that: 1.- The prevalence of preobesity plus obesity was above 20% in 17 of the 20 countries. 2.- There is a trend to increase in the prevalence of obesity. 3.- The relation of obesity between women/men is significantly higher in females in the majority of countries. In any case, although the validity of these rates must be examined with care, since the goals of evaluation and comparison with the corresponding patterns might differ, it can be observed that the epidemiological transition in these countries leads to a growing number of persons with obesity.

'Poisoned history': a comparative study of nationalism, propaganda and the treatment of war and peace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century school curriculum

(2000). 'Poisoned history': a comparative study of nationalism, propaganda and the treatment of war and peace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century school curriculum. History of Education: Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 29-47.

The comparative study of nationalism: Six pivotal themes from the Baltic states

(1992). The comparative study of nationalism: Six pivotal themes from the Baltic states. Journal of Baltic Studies: Vol. 23, Baltic Nationalisms in Comparative Perspective, pp. 95-104.

Challenges for Comparative Social Research

The comparative study of nations and countries has been built on the notion that causal inferences in the field should approximate the design of natural science expenments. It seems fair to say, however, that there is not a single social science comparative study which has succeeded many strict manner in complyingwith the rulesof scientific experiments and the canons of John Stuart Mill. The attempts to base comparative sociology on a quantitative tradition with roots in the rules forscientific expenments have nevertheless been fruitful in the sense that they have helped to raise and formulate many core problems of comparative research. Yet, the time is ripe for realizing that most comparative studies would greatly profit from a combined quantitative and qualitative approach It is generally assumed that the qualitative study is best at the explorative stage of a project and that it ought to be followed by a more strict quantitative study In the light of expenence from many comparative studies it is reasonable to argue that it is the other way around and that quantitative analysis usually is at its best at the explorative stage whereas a qualitative- oriented analysis provides the final insight and understandmg The need for a reversal of the order of the two kinds of approach is not a purely methodological issue. The call for quantitative, comparative research proliferated at a time when internationalization and the integration of single countnes into bigger units appeared to be not only politically salient but also humane goals. Today the preservation of the nationally and ethnically unique in the midst of hom ogenizing and uniformizing international tendencies has at least in small coun tries become not only politically but also humanely important.

National Development, Mother Tongue Diversity, and the Comparative Study of Nations

National Development, Mother Tongue Diversity, and the Comparative Study of Nations

National Development, Mother Tongue Diversity, and the Comparative Study of Nations

Using cross-sectional comparative data, a number of investigators report inverse correlations between mother tongue diversity and various measures of national development. Longitudinal analyses of mother tongue diversity in eight different nations over relatively long periods of time, along with a shorter longitudinal analysis of all European nations, indicate that such correlations are probably void of any causal implications. An analysis of covariance explains why cross-sectional correlations occur between variables that are not dynamically related. In addition to suggesting the need for an alternative perspective on the course of mother tongue diversity, the results have critical implications for some of the most common procedures used in the comparative study of nations.