Local Restructuring Research Articles

The Construction of a Human Development Index at the Household Level and the Measurement of Human Development Disparities in Punjab (Pakistan)

ABSTRACT The key objectives of this research study are to construct a valid and reliable household-based Human Development Index (HDI) and to estimate human development disparities in 36 districts of Punjab (Pakistan) by analysing Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey microdata. The household-level HDI, a composite index, is constructed by applying the arithmetic mean of the household-level health, asset, and education indices. The district of Lahore, among all the 36 districts of Punjab, has the highest HDI score of 0.743, followed by districts Rawalpindi, Jhelum, and Gujrat. Four neighbouring districts from South Punjab: Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzzaffar Gar, and Rahim Yaar Khan, have the lowest HDI scores of 0.492, 0508, 0.531, and 0.566, respectively. This paper has used the Palma-ratio and Gini-coefficient to estimate human development disparities in Punjab. The highest human development disparities are observed in the Rajanpur district with a Gini-coefficient of 0.38 and a Palma Ratio of 1.55. Both the Gini and Palma Ratio methods produce similar district rank orderings of inequality. This research recommends that additional efforts be made to uplift the districts with the lowest human development in Southern Punjab through local government restructuring and devolution of relevant powers, including the formation of a separate province.

Multi-omics analysis reveals the dynamic interplay between Vero host chromatin structure and function during vaccinia virus infection

The genome folds into complex configurations and structures thought to profoundly impact its function. The intricacies of this dynamic structure-function relationship are not well understood particularly in the context of viral infection. To unravel this interplay, here we provide a comprehensive investigation of simultaneous host chromatin structural (via Hi-C and ATAC-seq) and functional changes (via RNA-seq) in response to vaccinia virus infection. Over time, infection significantly impacts global and local chromatin structure by increasing long-range intra-chromosomal interactions and B compartmentalization and by decreasing chromatin accessibility and inter-chromosomal interactions. Local accessibility changes are independent of broad-scale chromatin compartment exchange (~12% of the genome), underscoring potential independent mechanisms for global and local chromatin reorganization. While infection structurally condenses the host genome, there is nearly equal bidirectional differential gene expression. Despite global weakening of intra-TAD interactions, functional changes including downregulated immunity genes are associated with alterations in local accessibility and loop domain restructuring. Therefore, chromatin accessibility and local structure profiling provide impactful predictions for host responses and may improve development of efficacious anti-viral counter measures including the optimization of vaccine design.

Local government financing vehicle restructuring, implicit government guarantees and debt financing costs: Evidence from the Chinese municipal corporate bond market

We contend that implicit government guarantees are included in municipal corporate bonds (also known as “Chengtou” bonds) issued by restructured local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) to address implicit government debt concerns, which implies lower debt financing costs. Using a sample of publicly issued Chengtou bonds between 2017 and 2021, we demonstrate that bond-specific risk is substantially reduced after LGFV restructuring. Similarly, the yield spreads on Chengtou bonds are considerably smaller than those on bonds issued by unrestructured LGFVs. Our findings generally imply that LGFV restructuring can lower debt financing costs through implicit government guarantees. Moreover, LGFV restructuring has had a credit effect, an operation effect and a willingness effect on reducing debt financing costs. Furthermore, the impact of restructuring is more pronounced among enterprises that are smaller in scale and less profitable and in regions with poorer economies. Additional investigations into the mechanism reveal that restructuring into a group enterprise can lower debt financing costs and reduce the reliance on implicit government guarantees.

Designing a New Civic Economy? On the Emergence and Contradictions of Participatory Experimental Urbanism

AbstractCan we remake local economies from scratch – not through political struggle but by design – to solve wicked problems and transform urban governance? Such questions are raised by an emergent trend within urban experimentation that emphasises participation and commoning in designing peer‐to‐peer provisioning systems through a platform logic. This article deconstructs the discourses animating what we term “participatory experimental urbanism” and reflects on what this might mean for local state restructuring in times of neoliberal austerity. By following its policies and prototypes as they move and mutate across the London Boroughs of Lambeth and Barking & Dagenham, we examine two exemplary initiatives, Open Works and Participatory City, tracing their beginnings in Lambeth's “cooperative council” model and their ongoing assembling into novel public‐common‐philanthropic partnerships. Foregrounding the contradictions within this latest turn towards urban governance‐beyond‐the‐state, we draw out the implications for the future of social innovation, design‐thinking, and the experimental city.

Distinguishing the impact of tourism development on ecosystem service trade-offs in ecological functional zone

Tourism in ecological functional zones (EFZs) is rapidly becoming an increasing trend; however, its impact on ecosystem services remains poorly understood owing to the absence of a consistent quantification framework. This study uses the Taihang Mountains (THM), an EFZ in China, as an example to develop a framework for evaluating the direct and indirect impact pathways of scenic spots on the trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services by identifying the linkages between scenic spot development, socioeconomic change, land use transitions, and ecosystem services. The results show that the continued conversion of agricultural land, grassland, and forest to constructed land around scenic spots in 2000–2020 was accompanied by a decline in water yield (WY) and habitat quality (HQ); while food production (FP), carbon storage (CS), and soil retention (SR) increased. Land use and ecosystem service changes around scenic spots in the THM also exhibited significant spatial gradient effects. In particular, a 10-km buffer area was identified as a distinct “influence zone” where the ecosystem services trade-offs and land use changes were the most pronounced. In 2010, scenic spot revenue was the dominant factor that increased the trade-offs between SR with FP and CS via direct pathways. However, in 2020, the dominant factor was scenic spot level, which shifted the impact toward the relationship between CS and WY and HQ by intensifying the trade-offs to facilitating synergies. This was accomplished in an indirect manner, such as the facilitation of local population growth, industrial restructuring, and infrastructure development. This study reveals the varying effects of scenic spot development via different pathways, thereby providing useful insights for global EFZs to more precisely design policies that can adequately balance human activities with ecosystem services.

Small and large oscillatory shear behaviors of gelatin/starch system regulated by amylose/amylopectin ratio

This work explores the influence of starch amylose/amylopectin ratio on the gel-related features of gelatin/starch system using small and large amplitude oscillation shear methods. The higher self-aggregation and self-entanglement ability of amylose reduced the miscibility of gelatin and starch, and increases zero-shear viscosity (ŋ0) and reduces sol-gel transition temperature (Tgel) by enhancing the difficulty of molecule movement and thus the difficulty of gel formation. The gelatin/amylopectin-rich system has higher gel hardness and wider linear viscoelastic region, which are related to the higher integrity and uniformity of network structure. The gelatin/amylose-rich system shows enhanced ability to resist deformation against external shear forces (suggested by higher storage and complex modulus) under small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS), which is ascribed to the larger rigidity and entanglement degree of amylose. At strain amplitude up to 50% (middle amplitude oscillatory shear, MAOS), gelatin/amylose-rich system exhibits reduced structure recovery ability (reflected by larger semi-minor axis of ellipse, and lower strain amplitude for inflexion of elastic stress) under MAOS, but enhances restructuring capacity at strains of 500% and 1000% (large amplitude oscillatory shear, LAOS) (indicated by occurrence of secondary loop) than gelatin/amylopectin-rich system. Those seemingly contradictory phenomena are correlated with the preference of hydrogen bond forming ability among amylose rather than with gelatin. This weakens interactions between amylose and gelatin and thus inhibits recovery of bulk structure under MAOS, but is favor for the formation of amylose aggregations, which is helpful for the local structure restructuring and thus enhances structure restructuring capacity under LAOS. The results help us comprehensively understand the gel-related properties of gelatin/starch system and are valuable for rational design of gelatin/starch systems with improved gel-related features.

Release of frustration drives corneal amyloid disaggregation by brain chaperone

TGFBI-related corneal dystrophy (CD) is characterized by the accumulation of insoluble protein deposits in the corneal tissues, eventually leading to progressive corneal opacity. Here we show that ATP-independent amyloid-β chaperone L-PGDS can effectively disaggregate corneal amyloids in surgically excised human cornea of TGFBI-CD patients and release trapped amyloid hallmark proteins. Since the mechanism of amyloid disassembly by ATP-independent chaperones is unknown, we reconstructed atomic models of the amyloids self-assembled from TGFBIp-derived peptides and their complex with L-PGDS using cryo-EM and NMR. We show that L-PGDS specifically recognizes structurally frustrated regions in the amyloids and releases those frustrations. The released free energy increases the chaperone’s binding affinity to amyloids, resulting in local restructuring and breakage of amyloids to protofibrils. Our mechanistic model provides insights into the alternative source of energy utilized by ATP-independent disaggregases and highlights the possibility of using these chaperones as treatment strategies for different types of amyloid-related diseases.

Whatever happened to municipal radicalism?

AbstractWhat can the municipal state do to radically transform urban economies? Local government in countries such as the UK has been historically tasked with delivering public services; rarely extending its remit to economic development, let alone community‐led forms promoting economic democracy, at least not since 1980s municipal socialism. But times are changing, and the UK case provides some telling examples of what is now possible. Community wealth building, cooperative development and foundational economy approaches are fast gaining traction in municipalities across the UK, through emergent public‐common‐philanthropic partnerships with progressive think tanks, cooperative development agencies, community enterprises, foundations and charitable trusts. This article explores complexifying relations between the state, the cooperative movement and the non‐profit industrial complex in the pursuit of sustainable and generative economic development as playing out differently in urban policy experiments in the English cities of Preston and Plymouth. The article contributes to current debates on local state restructuring, municipal statecraft and urban entrepreneurialism by critically comparing these place‐based variegations of municipal‐cooperative development with previous waves, and with more financialised and extractivist forms of statecraft, drawing out implications for praxis.

Visualization of Swift Ion Tracks in Suspended Local Diamondized Few-Layer Graphene.

In the present study we investigated the nanostructuring processes in locally suspended few-layer graphene (FLG) films by irradiation with high energy ions (Xe, 26-167 MeV). For such an energy range, the main channel of energy transfer to FLG is local, short-term excitation of the electronic subsystem. The irradiation doses used in this study are 1 × 1011-5 × 1012 ion/cm2. The structural transformations in the films were identified by Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Two types of nanostructures formed in the FLG films as a result of irradiation were revealed. At low irradiation doses the nanostructures were formed preferably at a certain distance from the ion track and had the form of 15-35 nm "bunches". We assumed that the internal mechanical stress that arises due to the excited atoms ejection from the central track part creates conditions for the nanodiamond formation near the track periphery. Depending on the energy of the irradiating ions, the local restructuring of films at the periphery of the ion tracks can lead either to the formation of nanodiamonds (ND) or to the formation of AA' (or ABC) stacking. The compressive strain value and pressure at the periphery of the ion track were estimated as ~0.15-0.22% and ~0.8-1.2 GPa, respectively. The main novel results are the first visualization of ion tracks in graphene in the form of diamond or diamond-like rings, the determination of the main condition for the diamond formation (the absence of a substrate in combination with high ion energy), and estimates of the local strain at the track periphery. Generally, we have developed a novel material and have found how to control the film properties by introducing regions similar to quantum dots with the diamond interface in FLG films.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ovarian tissue cryopreservation planning in the Bologna clinical center.

Treatment of patients with COVID-19 has been a priority by competing with the treatment of any other disease due to limited hospital resources. The current pandemic situation has focused the attention of healthcare providers around the world away from all other non-emergency health problems, including oncofertility. The aim of the study was to evaluate the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activity levels of ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) in the our center. The study analyzed the number of patients treated for OTC in our center during three periods: pre-pandemic period: March 2019-February 2020, pandemic period: March 2020-February 2021 and post-pandemic period: March 2021-February 2022. In our center routine hospital operation was completely reorganized, allowing only urgent interventions. Continuing to urgently preserve fertility during the pandemic required rapid changes to our standard practices for the care of these vulnerable patients. Despite the modifications, there was no difference in the number of OTC performed among the periods analyzed. Similarly, the number of patients who did not perform OTC was the same over the three years analyzed. Despite the local and national restructuring of care to conserve resources and protect the community, it is significant to continue offering fertility-sparing treatment to cancer patients. This emphasis on the importance of preserving fertility despite the pandemic further highlights the essential and urgent nature of this procedure.

Qiaoxiang 2.0: The People’s Republic of China and Diaspora Governance at the Local Level

The article examines recent transformations in diaspora governance at the local level, particularly the new, more integrated approach towards emigrated Chinese developed in places with longstanding and strong emigration movements. These places, known as “hometowns of Overseas Chinese” or qiaoxiang, have been actively reaching out to their expatriates for decades, but the initiatives and strategies for reaching out have changed recently due to central government policies, increased return migration, and the widespread use of information and communications technologies. Based on the case study of Qingtian County in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the paper examines different ways in which local government is reaching out to its members abroad, focusing on activities in the area of legal affairs and public administration, investments, digital transformation, public diplomacy, local urban restructuring, and response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings reveal innovation and experimentation at the local level rather than the passive implementation of central policies, and point to the need for further unpacking of the role of the state in diaspora engagement.

Injected Urbanism? Exploring India’s Urbanizing Periphery

Engaging with different literatures in economic geography, postcolonial urbanism, and planetary urbanization, this article seeks to develop a theoretical understanding of remote urban formations taking shape in India’s countryside. The analysis draws on extensive primary data collected at two study sites in Bihar and West Bengal, which rendered an uncommonly rich data set for such remote areas. We observe emergent urban formations that result from densification, expansion, and amalgamation of built-up environments and a massive shift of employment out of the agricultural sector. At the same time, alternative local economic opportunities are scarce, giving way to significant increases in circular labor migration. We introduce the concept of injected urbanism to denote a form of urbanization that is exogenously generated through remittances, in the absence of significant local agglomeration processes. The infusion of remittances drives local economic restructuring and the emergence of a consumption economy. Injected urbanism spurs local development, but its dependence on economic activity elsewhere raises important questions about its sustainability.

A Framework for the Relationships between Stability and Functional Properties of Electrochemical Energy Materials

The path toward a renewable energy future relies on the development of materials for electrochemical energy technologies that are not only highly functional but also stable. In this Perspective, we will discuss a framework for the relationships between function and stability, starting by revisiting how we measure stability that should focus on changes to the nature and number of active centers (materials stability) together with monitoring how current/potential change over time during operation (reaction durability). By shifting our focus to materials properties, we then discuss how subtractive and additive processes such as dissolution, deposition, and (de)intercalation contribute to changes in the local surface composition, coordination environment, and phase restructuring that accompany the degradation of electrochemical materials. Ultimately, gaining insights into the processes responsible for changes to active centers during operation will help us better predict and control the durability of materials for clean energy.

Preventing social isolation: Otsuchi town after the Great East Japan Earthquake

ABSTRACT On 11th March 2011, Japan was struck by an earthquake of tremendous force, the Great East Japan Earthquake. A social issue that emerged during the early stage of reconstruction after the disaster was social isolation. This study aims to explore a process by which community action of the affected people can be promoted to prevent them from experiencing social isolation. The process was applied in the temporary housing estates built in Otsuchi town, Iwate Prefecture, after the great tsunami. In this case study, we analysed the processes of local government restructuring and community development as well as intervention effects developed by us in this process. Consequently, the barriers to the development of community actions for preventing isolation were identified: inefficiency in the local management system; a lack of cohesion in stakeholder perceptions; and disconnectedness between the system and interventions. These findings have implications for reconstruction planning, which include (1) a reconstruction strategy that defines the goal and shares a prevention policy, while addressing the treatment needs of the rapidly emerging of stakeholders and communication training for the staff supporting the affected people and (2) the community interventions that build consideration of community readiness and linkage to the local system.

Changing livelihoods at India’s rural–urban transition

• India is experiencing a major employment shift out of agriculture, affecting the livelihoods of millions of people. • This shift parallels substantial urban growth in hitherto rural regions but with few new local livelihood opportunities. • Labor migration is an important alternative, with traditional seasonal migration replaced by permanent circular migration. • Domestic migration is disproportionately undertaken by poor households; those with international migrants do much better. • A strong pro-active policy stance is needed to simultaneously stimulate local livelihoods and facilitate labor migration. In India, the past couple of decades witnessed, simultaneously, a massive shift of employment out of agriculture, substantial urban growth in heretofore rural regions, and rapid increases in the rates of labor migration. But very little is known about new livelihoods being forged or the whereabouts of these livelihoods. We draw on extensive primary data collected at two sites in West Bengal and Bihar, along with a comprehensive analysis of population census and GIS data, to investigate livelihood transformations and household well-being. We observe large-scale change, exceeding common perceptions of academics and policy makers. While the shift out of agriculture is momentous, alternative local livelihoods are scarce and, more than ever, labor migration offers a way out for many households. Traditional seasonal migration has made way for more permanent forms of circular labor migration. Our comparative study shows that the timing and nature of this transformation varies to some extent across India as the decline in agricultural employment occurred at different times. We also observe significantly different impacts of domestic versus international labor migration. There is a pressing need for pro-active government policies that stimulate local economic restructuring and livelihood opportunities and , as long as these local economies are insufficiently developed, that facilitate circular labor migration.

Understanding European drinking water services remunicipalisation: A state of literature analysis

The article examines the state of literature on remunicipalisation of water services in Europe starting from three basic questions: how this phenomenon is framed, what evidence is available and how much the analytical perspectives most used in analysing such a phenomenon are fit for its understanding. Literature shows that water remunicipalisation remains an under-theorized issue and its knowledge results scarce. We therefore propose the concept of local service restructuring to emphasise the micro-scale peculiarities of the remunicipalised water regimes. After having framed the phenomenon at issue in the European historical-geographical context and have systematized the current evidence, we suggest to fill the knowledge gap on water remunicipalisation in Eurozone through the fulfilment of in depth case studies with a multilevel perspective of analysis.

New Trends in Improving Public Service Delivery in Ukraine

In the aspect of the European integration aspirations of Ukrainian society and the social development of the nation state, the issues of its service function formation in the form of public services are becoming more and more relevant in Ukraine. It is worth noting that the functioning of the service state model in Ukraine is only at its initial stage and requires improvement of the institutional arrangements for the public services delivery, which involves taking into account existing problems of their delivery by public authorities in the process of deepening the local government reform and long-term restructuring of the national economy. The purpose of the article is to state the areas of concern in the system for providing administrative, social, housing and public utility services, and to define and elaborate on long-term trends for improving their functioning, as well as their common features and characteristics. The modern general and specific scientific research methods have provided the methodological basis for the research. Their use is based on a systematic approach. The analytical method was used to identify the problematic area of the branched public service delivery system. The comparative-functional and analytical methods were used to identify modern trends in improving the provision of administrative, social, housing and public utility services, their functioning, as well as their common features and characteristics. The research process has provided a comprehensive grounding and articulation of promising trends in improving the system of providing administrative, social and housing and public utility services in Ukraine and identifying their functional features and common characteristics

TRANSFORMATION OF THE LOCAL BUDGETS’ ROLE: THE EXPERIENCE OF UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

The purpose of this study is to determine the peculiarities of the development of local budgets in Ukraine in the frame of decentralization reform in the context of established trends in local budgeting in other countries. The research methodology is based on the theory of financial globalization and involves methods of dialectics, methods and principles of scientific knowledge, tools of analysis and synthesis, expert evaluation, generalization and analogy. As a result of the research, the foreign experience of forming local budgets is highlighted and the peculiarities of this process in different countries of the world are determined; a review of existing publications and an analysis of the dynamics of the structure of local budgets and Ukraine are done; qualitative characteristic of the current situation and recommendations for further development of the local budgeting process in Ukraine in the current conditions of globalization are provided. Among the main recommendations for increasing the revenue part of local budgets there are the following: creation of additional conditions by the state and local governments to improve the business climate in communities; inventory and arrangement of community land funds; creation and arrangement of the real estate register; audit of the communal enterprises activities of the community in order to find additional opportunities to increase the efficiency of their activities; support and motivation of local business for further activity and development; intensification of the centers of administrative services and search for opportunities which will improve the provision of paid services of any complexity in the short term; promoting the development of domestic tourism. The practical value of the results of this research is that the proposed recommendations are general, relevant and can be used for all territorial communities of Ukraine with no exception. The analysis of trends in the context of local budgeting development processes in other countries and the current situation regarding decentralization reform allowed us to conclude that Ukraine has chosen the right direction, which has a positive impact on the financial capacity of local communities. Ukraine’s path towards transforming the role of local budgets, despite the similarity of the general features of local budget restructuring, should be unique. The implementation of the presented proposals will contribute to the successful completion of the decentralization reform and the full implementation of the role of local budgets – ensuring sustainable financial capacity and meeting all the needs of the inhabitants of a particular area.

Accelerated annealing of colloidal crystal monolayers by means of cyclically applied electric fields

External fields are commonly applied to accelerate colloidal crystallization; however, accelerated self-assembly kinetics can negatively impact the quality of crystal structures. We show that cyclically applied electric fields can produce high quality colloidal crystals by annealing local disorder. We find that the optimal off-duration for maximum annealing is approximately one-half of the characteristic melting half lifetime of the crystalline phase. Local six-fold bond orientational order grows more rapidly than global scattering peaks, indicating that local restructuring leads global annealing. Molecular dynamics simulations of cyclically activated systems show that the ratio of optimal off-duration for maximum annealing and crystal melting time is insensitive to particle interaction details. This research provides a quantitative relationship describing how the cyclic application of fields produces high quality colloidal crystals by cycling at the fundamental time scale for local defect rearrangements; such understanding of dynamics and kinetics can be applied for reconfigurable colloidal assembly.

Occurrence, spatiotemporal distribution, seasonal and annual variation, and source apportionment of poly– and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the northwest of Tai Lake Basin, China

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have attracted mounting attention due to their potential harmful effects and degradation-resistant property. This study continuously monitored the concentration of PFASs for four seasons in two years in the northwest of Tai Lake Basin. The occurrence, spatiotemporal distribution, seasonal and annual variation, and source apportionment of 13 PFASs were investigated in 60 surface water sampling sites and 33 emission sources. The average concentrations of the total PFASs were 205.6 ng L−1 and 171.9 ng L−1 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. This improvement could be mainly attributed to the local industrial restructuring. Furthermore, principal component analysis and heat map-hierarchical cluster analysis were employed to analyze distribution characteristics and the possible sources of PFASs pollution. It showed that perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOA) mainly originated from the effluents of chemical plants, while the potential source of perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) included all the three types of emission sources. Besides, two indicators were adopted to evaluate the impact of non-point sources and the result showed the effect of runoff was obvious while the effect of atmospheric deposition was weak. A systematic mass balance calculation showed that the total riverine input flux from Wujin District to Tai Lake was 126.5 kg/a.