Different Degrees Of Accessibility Research Articles

Intermittent food deserts. Exploring the spatiotemporal dimension of the urban fresh food access in Chilean cities

Food deserts in Chile present a singularity in the context of the Global South. Unlike other countries where food security is mainly achieved through informal trade, in Chile, weekly streets markets is the structural system providing fresh food. Supermarkets complement spatially and functionally street markets. Both systems and their temporal operation makes that the Chilean food deserts main characteristic is their intermittency. The purpose of this research is to analyze the Chilean food deserts to contrast them with the predominant North and Global South discourses and position the Chilean case internationally. Specifically, this article looks to analyze the importance of the spatiotemporal dimension in food access studies where a healthy diet depends on systems other than supermarkets characterized by intermittent operation over week. For this purpose, this article takes the Metropolitan Area of Concepcion as case. First, the research identifies the location and the socioeconomic groups associated with the different degrees of access from a static perspective based on the spatial distribution of supermarkets and street markets. Then, the dynamic analysis introduces the time dimension to reveal the variability of access patterns and the impact on vulnerable groups.The intermittency of the food deserts positions Chile as halfway between the Global South and North models. The particularity of this model is that intermittently and regularly provides a healthy food environment within food deserts. Additionaly, it has the potential to be planned for overcoming structural inequalities in spatial fresh food access.

Relative improvements between roads and railways and economic performance: A panel data analysis

Prior studies indicate that expanding the length of roadways and railways has a beneficial effect on economic performance. Nevertheless, the requirement for land transport infrastructure, which offers different degrees of accessibility and mobility, to facilitate economic expansion differs based on a country's stage of development. The present study has two objectives. Firstly, it is essential to ascertain the required investment for different types of land transport infrastructure to facilitate different stages of economic performance. Secondly, the objective is to examine the impact of different forms of land transportation infrastructure on economic performance by means of urbanization and exports. To highlight these concerns, a fixed-effects panel linear regression analysis was conducted on a panel consisting of 50 countries spanning the years 1980–2018. In countries with lower levels of urbanization and exports, improvements to road infrastructure, especially roads with high accessibility, are of greater importance for economic performance compared to the improvement of railways. Nevertheless, as urbanization and exports rise, the comparative impact of improvements in road infrastructure on economic performance in relation to improvements in railway infrastructure diminishes. Railway improvements have a more significant effect on economic performance compared to road improvements, owing to increased urbanization and export rates. During these stages of development, high-mobility roads are more crucial for economic performance compared to high-accessibility roads. The conclusion of the research examined a variety of policy recommendations derived from our findings, which are applicable to different levels of urbanization and exports.

Memory wars: A solution to the conflict

The validity of dissociative memory in forensic contexts and the causes of the so-called "memory wars" are discussed. Misconceptions between clinical and forensic psychology, a deficient definition of amnesia, and the difficulties inherent in studying traumatic memories contribute to the persistence of this controversy. Particularly in the field of forensic psychology, the debate could be attributed to the lack of consensus on scientific evidence. Psychologists need to establish an empirical foundation to understand better the mechanisms of memory involved in remembering and forgetting traumatic memories. The Continuous Accessibility Model of Memory is outlined to explain the retrieval of the different degrees of accessibility to autobiographical memories based on different factors.

Are preschool children sensitive to the function of accessibility markers? A visual world study with German-speaking three- to four-year-olds

Abstract Little is known about when children understand the function of anaphoric referring expressions to signal different degrees of accessibility of discourse referents. This visual world study investigates German-speaking three- to four-year-olds’ online processing and offline interpretation of repeated names and personal pronouns in a context where reference is made to highly accessible discourse referents. Repeated names are markers of low accessibility, whereas personal pronouns are preferentially used to refer to highly accessible referents. For online processing, results showed a significant effect of referring expression: children looked at the target picture more often after hearing a personal pronoun than after hearing repeated names. Offline results revealed no significant differences between the two conditions. We conclude that German-speaking preschool children are sensitive to the function of accessibility markers during online processing, and suggest that the difference between online and offline results may be due to the different task demands.

Cancer burden in adolescents and young adults in Europe

Cancer epidemiology is unique in adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15-39 years). The European Society for Medical Oncology/European Society for Paediatric Oncology (ESMO/SIOPE) AYA Working Group aims to describe the burden of cancers in AYAs in Europe and across European Union (EU) countries. We used data available on the Global Cancer Observatory. We retrieved crude and age-standardised (World Standard Population) incidence and mortality rates. We reported about AYA cancer burden in Europe and between 28 EU member states. We described incidence and mortality for all cancers and for the 13 cancers most relevant to the AYA population. Incidence and mortality varied widely between countries with the highest mortality observed in Eastern EU countries. Cancers of the female breast, thyroid and male testis were the most common cancers across countries followed by melanoma of skin and cancers of the cervix. Variations in cancer incidence rates across different populations may reflect different distribution of risk factors, variations in the implementation or uptake of screening as well as overdiagnosis. AYA cancer mortality disparities may be due to variation in early-stage diagnoses, different public education and awareness of cancer symptoms, different degrees of access or availability of treatment. Our results highlight the future health care needs and requirements for AYA-specialised services to ensure a homogeneous treatment across different countries as well as the urgency for preventive initiatives that can mitigate the increasing burden.

Unraveling the reversible formation of defective Ce3+ sites in the UiO-66(Ce) material: a multi-technique study

Ce3+ presence and formation in Ce-based UiO-66 Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) still presents a debated evaluation between the employed characterization techniques. In this work, we have prepared a defective UiO-66(Ce) and investigated the nature of Ce3+ sites on the CeOx clusters. Laboratory techniques (EPR, XPS, UV–Vis and FTIR spectroscopy) were compared with operando Ce M5-edge NEXAFS to study Ce3+ accessibility. All the employed techniques presented different degrees of accessibility or reliability (e.g., sample damage or not sufficient sensitivity). Among the obtained results, EPR, UV–Vis and NEXAFS spectroscopies unraveled Ce4+→Ce3+ conversion during the sample dehydration. The MOF structure was not damaged by neither water loss nor the beam, directly relating Ce oxidation state to the water content, opening a new route to both synthesis of stable and active MOFs and non-invasive characterization strategies. Finally, laboratory measurements considerations were exploited for studying Ce3+ formation in Zr-doped UiO-66(Ce) samples.

Constructions of speech and thought representation.

A lot of what humans communicate about concerns cognitive contents of various kinds produced by others or themselves: speech, thought, writing, emotional states, attitudes, hopes, and the like. Languages have developed specialized ways to structure the representation of such contents, especially in various dedicated forms of speech and thought representation. Represented content can also include embodied behavior, such as gesture, whether in cospeech gesture or in sign language. What is represented need not actually have been previously produced: represented contents can be future, hypothetical or nonexistent, and forms of so-called fictive interaction can be used in which the model of face-to-face interaction is used to talk about a variety of other meaning types. Speech and thought representation presupposes the existence of two speech events-a current and a represented one-and each comes with a speaker, defined linguistically in terms of their central deictic coordinates, I-here-now. The interplay of deictic features and different forms of structural integration can define specific types of construction, showing different degrees of access to the embedded mental space of the represented speaker's speech or thought, such as direct, indirect, and free indirect speech or thought. Social media forms of direct speech or thought merit separate investigation, as do subjective uses of reporting clauses such as I think, which form a distinct construction type, using a subset of the grammar of speech and thought representation for different purposes. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Cognitive Linguistics > Linguistic Theory Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain.

The role of radio and television in the dissemination of agricultural technologies among farmers of Bangladesh

Radio and television are the most influential mass media to stimulate farming community to proper direction of their farming works. These two powerful media have proved to be most useful ICT tools in the field of agricultural information source. Different studies reveal that farmers obtained right and time bound information from radio and television channels. This study was carried out to assess the role of radio and television in the dissemination of agricultural technologies among farmers in some regions of Bangladesh. It was conducted to assess how radio and television are contributing to the growth of agriculture sector. The study also reveals some problems faced by the farmers in using radio and television. A random sampling technique was used on 1170 respondents to collect the data through a well structure questionnaire. The study results point out that the radio and television had an effective role in improving awareness and increasing the modern technological knowledge of farmers. The television and radio programs also helped farmers’ access marketing information. The study showed that the respondents have different degree of accessibility to different radio and television channels on agricultural programs. Bangladesh J. Agri. 2019-2021, 44-46: 55-64

ОЦЕНКА ДОСТУПНОСТИ ОБЪЕКТОВ НАУЧНОГО МОНИТОРИНГА НА ПРИМЕРЕ ОЗЕР И ЛЕДНИКОВ ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОГО АЛТАЯ

Most objects of scientific monitoring in mountainous and remote areas have a low degree of accessibility. This explains the complexity of organizing and conducting large-scale field studies that require thorough preparation. One aspect of ensuring successful work in scientific expeditions is spatially valid logistics of the routes. Field study of scientific objects located in mountainous regions is difficult to organize due to their inaccessibility. The purpose of this paper is to develop methodological approaches to assessing the accessibility of scientific monitoring objects in mountain areas on the basis of a comprehensive system of selected criteria. The criteria are indicators that characterize both the remoteness of objects, the complexity of geomorphological conditions, the development and quality of the road network and infrastructure, and the features of the natural and climatic conditions in the highlands. The methodology was applied to scientifically significant lakes and glaciers of the Central Altai. The ongoing processes of transformation of high-altitude landscape structures there arouse scientific and practical interest and require a systematic monitoring. As a result of the analysis, several groups of lakes and glaciers with different degrees of accessibility have been identified, and the contribution of the most significant factors affecting the complex component for each object of monitoring is shown. In general, a multi-factor assessment of the accessibility of natural objects in mountain areas makes it possible to optimize the organization of field research, take into account infrastructural and climatic factors when determining the route complexity and duration, and plan the sequence of research activities in order of priority.

Chemical Approaches for Studying the Biology and Pharmacology of Membrane Transporters: The Histidine/Large Amino Acid Transporter SLC7A5 as a Benchmark.

The localization of membrane transporters at the forefront of natural barriers makes these proteins very interesting due to their involvement in the absorption and distribution of nutrients and xenobiotics, including drugs. Over the years, structure/function relationship studies have been performed employing several strategies, including chemical modification of exposed amino acid residues. These approaches are very meaningful when applied to membrane transporters, given that these proteins are characterized by both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains with a different degree of accessibility to employed chemicals. Besides basic features, the chemical targeting approaches can disclose information useful for pharmacological applications as well. An eminent example of this picture is the histidine/large amino acid transporter SLC7A5, known as LAT1 (Large Amino Acid Transporter 1). This protein is crucial in cell life because it is responsible for mediating the absorption and distribution of essential amino acids in peculiar body districts, such as the blood brain barrier and placenta. Furthermore, LAT1 can recognize a large variety of molecules of pharmacological interest and is also considered a hot target for drugs due to its over-expression in virtually all human cancers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the chemical targeting approach, coupled with bioinformatics, site-directed mutagenesis and transport assays, proved fundamental in describing features of LAT1 such as the substrate binding site, regulatory domains and interactions with drugs that will be discussed in this review. The results on LAT1 can be considered to have general applicability to other transporters linked with human diseases.

Recovery, conservation status, and environmental effects on arapaima populations in Guyana

Abstract Using population estimates that were made regularly between 2001 and 2013, the state of recovery of arapaima populations and their IUCN conservation status were assessed after they were almost extirpated from the upper Essequibo basin, Guyana. Recovery rates were compared across multiple areas with different degrees of access by fishers to evaluate effectiveness of conservation efforts. Population estimates were also used to investigate the influence of environmental factors on arapaima abundance in lakes with different morphometries, vegetation, and water types and to determine the relationship between the numbers of spawning individuals and subsequent recruits (at about age 2 years). The most recent census conducted in November–December of 2013 indicated a 5.6‐fold increase in overall abundance compared with 2001, with 4,591 individuals, of which 1,932 were juveniles (1.0–1.5 m total length) and 2,659 adults. Assessment of conservation status following IUCN criteria indicated that arapaima populations in the upper Essequibo basin in 2001 would have been considered borderline Critically Endangered, but in 2013 after conservation interventions, status would be categorized as Near Threatened. Arapaima in the Essequibo basin appear to favour larger but shallow lakes with low conductivity, clear water, and abundant aquatic macrophytes. Stock–recruitment relationships suggest that the entire upper Essequibo basin population may still be growing and that there is approximately a 1:1 juvenile to adult ratio. This ratio of juveniles to adults across all areas suggests a paucity of young fishes to sustain overall population growth, which might reflect widespread illegal removals of young fishes in the basin. Comparisons of arapaima densities in the upper Essequibo basin with those at four localities across the Amazon Basin, suggest that with enhanced conservation efforts in the Essequibo, populations could potentially increase two‐fold or more.

The influence of sugar\u2013protein complexes on the thermostability of C-reactive protein (CRP)

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate de influence of protein–sugar complexation on the stability and functionality of C-reactive protein, after exposure to constant high temperatures, in order to develop highly stable positive controls for in-vitro diagnostic tests. C-reactive protein is a plasmatic protein used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of a series of health problems such as ulcerative colitis, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, due to its essential role in the evolution of chronic inflammation. The sugar–protein interaction was investigated using steady state and time resolved fluorescence. The results revealed that there are more than two classes of tryptophan, with different degree of accessibility for the quencher molecule. Our study also revealed that sugar–protein complexes have superior thermostability, especially after gamma irradiation at 2 kGy, the protein being stable and functional even after 22 days exposure to 40 °C.

Mountain isolation and the retention of traditional knowledge in the High Atlas of Morocco

ABSTRACT Most literature on Amazigh (Berber) in Morocco and in the Journal of North African Studies revolve around historical, social and political issues. Literature also covers issues of Berber cultural recognition, linguistic identity, and colonization. However, little is known of the ethnobotanical knowledge associated with the traditional way of life that maintains the livelihood and health of Berber communities in isolated regions of the High Atlas. In this paper, we aim to identify whether ethnobotanical knowledge is eroding and whether geographical isolation shapes its transmission in the context of globalization. This paper focuses on the differences between men's and women's medicinal plant knowledge. We conducted ethnographic and ethnobotanical fieldwork over 33 months interviewing 51 men and 146 women in ten villages with different degrees of access to urban areas and modern commodities and services. We used and analyzed quantitative data drawn from plants’ free listing to assess whether ethnobotanical knowledge is eroding. Our results show that gendered differences in ethnobotanical knowledge are concomitant of integration to market economies, revealing significant knowledge retention differences in the most isolated study sites. We conclude that despite strong forces at work to integrate remote communities into globalized markets, there are important risks to TEK which supports local environmental and community health.

A corridors and power-oriented perspective on energy-service demand and needs satisfaction

In this article, we explore the concept of consumption corridors as it might apply to energy use, with specific attention to both wellbeing and power relations. We employ the distinction between energy provisioning and human-need satisfaction to explore different configurations of energy use, as well as their possible dynamics. Specifically, we draw on past research documenting the benefits of decoupling our thinking about energy services and needs satisfaction and use it as a basis to identify scenarios characterized by different degrees of access to energy services and levels of resource demand. We then translate this perspective to the logic of sustainable consumption corridors. We delineate how minimum and maximum consumption standards would relate to combinations of energy-service demand and needs-satisfier access. Finally, we explore how power dynamics, specifically exercises of discursive power, might move societal trajectories toward sustainable combinations of energy provisioning and needs satisfaction or away from them.

Evidencialidad, conocimientos compartidos y atenuación: El caso de ‘[o] eso dicen’

This paper focuses on analyzing the meaning and pragmatic functions of construction [o] eso dicen (‘[or] so they say’), as well as observing the discursive patterns in which it appears. The departure point is the consideration that this construction conveys indirect evidential meanings of different degrees of accessibility or intersubjectivity (reportative and folklore), and therefore its use could be related to the function of pragmatic attenuation activated by the displacement of the origin of the enunciation. In the empirical part of this work, we analyze 65 examples recovered in the analysis of five oral and one written corpus. The results of the study indicate that most of the uses of this construction fulfill strategic mitigating purposes related to the protection of images. One of the key parameters to describe the discursive behavior of this construction is the level on which it performs: it behaves differently in monological contexts than in dialogical ones.

Towards a phygital heritage approach for museum collection

The paper presents different experiences developed at the Department of Architecture and Design of Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizie in Turin, Italy. These research offered interesting suggestions for working on the crucial relationship between content (collection) and container (museum) through shared and interoperable digital workflows. In the B.A.C.K. TO T.H.E. F.U.T.U.RE. project the research emphatise the role of artworks, that are characterized by intangible and historical values. Artworks are also connected with eterogeneous documentary heritage that enlighted the need of creating new narratives avoiding the descriptive and analytical ones. The project offers a workflow that using different vocabularies (database and open data) is able to structure data and use visual media (3d web publishing) to create different degree of accessibility to cultural heritage content. The recently launched SMART MUSEUM research, works on automated procedures to show, through graphics, the complex phenomena triggered by the attractive weight of the collections. In this case, the artwork assumes artistic, social and media values that contribute to create novel attributes able to identify an attractive weight of the artwork. These value affects the attractiveness of an artwork within the exhibition project and can be an interesting subject for a correct foreshadowing of visitor flows. The involved elements are the exhibition area (the graphic field), the collection (the attractive elements) and the users. The conceived procedure, once automated, becomes a prototype to support the curators to control and improve the efficiency of the exhibition layout.

Chemical Targeting of Membrane Transporters: Insights into Structure/Function Relationships.

Chemical modification of proteins is a vintage strategy that is still fashionable due to the information that can be obtained from this approach. An interesting application of chemical modification is linked with membrane transporters. These proteins have peculiar features such as the presence of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains, which show different degree of accessibility to chemicals. The presence of reactive residues in the membrane transporters is at the basis of the chemical targeting strategy devoted to investigating structure/function relationships; in particular, information on the substrate binding site, regulatory domains, dimerization domains, and the interface between hydrophilic loops and transmembrane domains has been obtained over the years by chemical targeting. Given the difficulty in handling membrane transporters, their study experienced a great delay, particularly concerning structural information. Chemical targeting has been applied with reasonable success to some membrane transporters belonging to the families SLC1, SLC6, SLC7, and SLC22. Furthermore, some data on the potential application of chemical targeting in pharmacology are also discussed.

How situational activation of values evokes positive and negative feelings: Theory and experimental findings

We propose a theory of how situational activation of values evokes positive and negative feelings. In conjunction we present a re-conceptualization of Schwartz’ et al. (J Personal Soc Psychol 103:663–688, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1037/a029393) value set including additional values. In our new value set, we posit contrastive values having opposite values and central values having no opposite values. As a consequence, balanced access to salient opposite contrastive values and maximal access to central values evoke the strongest positive and weakest negative feelings. Study 1 shows, as hypothesized, that contrastive values form a circumplex structure with central values located inside its periphery. Study 2 supports theoretically derived hypotheses of how positive and negative feelings are evoked by different degrees of access to values, salience of opposite values, and centrality of values.

DSM-5 Assessments of the Level of Personality Functioning: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Functioning

Objective: In DSM-5, Section III, the Level of Personality Functioning (LPF) was proposed as a severity index of personality disorders (PDs), but as it reflects both trait-like (availability) and state-like (accessibility) features, of which, moreover, the relationship with the experience of patients is unclear, we critically examined LPF in patients with general psychopathology. Method: This study compared the validity of the direct Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO), and the indirect Differentiation-Relatedness Scale (DRS) LPF-measure, in relation to measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. The sample consisted of 70 inpatients with general psychopathology and no primary PDs. Associations of both measures with DSM-PDs were examined, with and without controlling for clinical distress. Results: The IPO was significantly related to age and clinical distress. When controlling for clinical distress, the IPO was still associated with cluster A (odd) and B (erratic) PD features, high levels of self-criticism, conflict in relationships and low levels of adaptive coping strategies. The DRS was only related to the schizotypical PD. Conclusions: In patients with general psychopathology, both the IPO and the DRS, appear to have limitations in measuring LPF. The IPO seems to be prone to state effects, although correlations with PDs remained significant when controlling for clinical distress. The DRS seemed to be more independent from clinical distress but was unexpectedly unrelated to features of personality pathology. DRS reflects availability, while IPO also reflects different degrees of accessibility of LPF in PDs.

Social-Spatial Accessibility to Urban Educational Resources under the School District System: A Case Study of Public Primary Schools in Nanjing, China

Recent discussions on the spatial distribution of educational resources center on exploring the social-spatial equity of the allocation of educational resources in the city. Following the research about spatial accessibility of urban educational resources, and based on the data about public primary school districts and residential districts in Nanjing, China, we propose a social-spatial accessibility computing framework to measure different degrees of accessibility to different public primary schools across geographic, opportunity, and economic dimensions. Results show that: (1) the geographic accessibility to schools in the inner-city is superior to those in the outer-city, but the spatial differences are rapidly shrinking as schools are being incorporated in the inner-city and built in the outer-city; (2) the opportunity accessibility to schools in the inner-city is inferior to those in the outer-city, and the access to the educational resources in the inner-city, especially high-quality education resources, becomes more scarce, due to the demolition in the inner-city and the construction in the outer-city; (3) economic accessibility is associated with the grade of the school, which, in the top school district, is the minimum, while there is a large decline in economic accessibility, with the overall soaring housing price in Nanjing. In other words, family background differences appear to have a significant influence on accessibility to high-quality educational resources (HQER). As a result, misallocation of educational resources, especially HQER, restrict social mobility and further exacerbate urban socio-spatial differentiation.