Poor States Research Articles

The urban poor and everyday states in an Indian metropolis

AbstractThis article examines an incident of fire in a squatter settlement in Delhi to understand the interaction between the urban poor and the state. Following the incident, the Delhi government undertook different welfare measures for the affected residents. These included immediate relief in the form of temporary tents for the families, a proposal to build proper houses for them, and compensation checks as direct monetary support. The empirical materials presented in this article show how state interventions tend to suffer from deficiencies of knowledge, trust, and bureaucratic effectiveness. Thus, they do not commensurate with the apparent intentions behind them. Each of these welfare measures engendered an entanglement of the urban poor in the state that affects their relationship to the law, urban space, the local economy, and bureaucratic structures. Analyzing the unfolding of the everyday state on the ground, I suggest that a squatter settlement's dynamic and entangled relationships with the state make it a unique site for analysis of the state from an urban perspective. Critical interpretations of their interactions and the discourses they engender are key ethnographic resources for understanding the dynamics of inequality in contemporary cities.

User Interface Design of an Interactive Story Application for Autistic Children and Parents

The prevalence of autism is increasing year by year. At the same time, the parents of autistic children often suffer from poor mental states, which brings heavy financial and emotional burdens to the family. With the popularization of electronic devices, its prospective to intervene autistic children with applications on electronic devices. It not only doesnt limit when and where we use it, but also enables parents to interact with autistic children while working outside, saving a lot of costs on the therapy. The application is designed to help autistic children solve the problems of stereotyped repetitive behaviors and communication difficulties. This article analyzes the visual, cognitive, and interactive habits of autistic children, and summarizes the preferences of autistic children. In order to encourage the participation of parents, the article also analyzes the ways that parents can get involved in the game, such as training and guidance. Through these analyses, the author summarizes the principles of UI design for autistic children. This article intends to design an application that can connect autistic children and parents through the internet and encourage autistic children to complete the tasks in the games under the guidance of parents voices and stories, which will intervene the autistic childrens therapy effectively. In this way, parents can grasp the learning process of their children, which will reduce parents anxiety and improve the relationship between parents and their children.

The impact of an improvement in the quality and reliability of rural residential electricity supply on clean cooking fuel adoption: Evidence from six energy poor Indian states

We present the first evidence of the causal effect of the quality and reliability of residential electricity supply on clean cooking fuel adoption and use in rural areas of six energy poor Indian states using household-level panel data from 2015 and 2018. Quality and reliability of electricity are measured using the number of hours of electricity supply in a day, the number of days of low voltage and the number of complete power outage days experienced in a month. We used the village-level variation in the coverage of a nationwide government program, (i.e., the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY)), that aimed to improve the quality and reliability of rural residential electricity supply, as an instrument. Our results show a positive effect of an improvement in the quality and reliability of electricity on liquefied petroleum gas adoption and use; and disadoption of traditional cooking fuel. The effects were significant for both poor and non-poor, and lower-caste households’ transition to clean cooking fuel. We find that the improvements in economic wellbeing, adoption of time-saving technologies, information access, and energy-efficient technology adoption played important mediating roles. These findings, for the first time, reveal the complementary role of electricity quality and reliability improvement with the adoption of clean energy sources, and thus supporting the achievement of important developmental outcomes. The findings thus underscore the need to invest in seamless and reliable electricity as a pathway to achieve the target of universal access to clean cooking fuels by 2030.

Sea clutter suppression algorithm in low SCR based on improved fractional Fourier transform

Sea clutter suppression and target detection under complex sea states in low signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR) is the key of current maritime detection research. The target extraction ability of most algorithms is mostly based on accurate modeling of sea clutter, but sea clutter is complex and unstable, which is difficult to accurately model, especially in poor sea states. According to the characteristics of the target echo signal, this paper introduces intrinsic time-scale decomposition (ITD) to preprocess the echo signal to improve the algorithm effect under low SCR. Secondly, the too much cycles in searching for optimal transformation in fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) is improved to reduce the calculation cost and extract the target signal accurately. The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method are verified by simulation and measured experiments under different SCR and different transform order interval Δp, and the sea clutter suppression ability and target extraction accuracy are measured by parameters such as the detection rate, the gain of SCR and the running time. Compared with FRFT-related algorithms, the results indicates that the proposed algorithm can effectively suppress sea clutter and accurately extract target signal even at SCR = −25 dB in less than half the running time of the comparison algorithms.

Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Framework for Evaluating Historic Sites in Huai’an Ancient Cities

The preservation and restoration of historic sites is of great significance to the continuation of a city’s historical heritage and high-quality development. However, the conservation management of historic sites is still in the stage of exploration and improvement. The current states of development and preservation have been facing many problems, such as fragmented and poor states of preservation. It is crucial to retain and revitalize the authenticity of historic sites. A multi-criteria decision-making approach to an innovative evaluation model is proposed. Based on the cultural, social, and economic characteristics of the historical sites, an evaluation index system is constructed and weighted to judge its importance. The results suggest that the statuses of the historic relics at the facet layer have the most significant effect on the preservation of the authenticity of historic sites. The completeness of historic relics ranks first in weight among the evaluation indexes, which suggests that emphasis should be not only on their protection, but also on the preservation of their overall styles. The results will enable urban decision makers to effectively set the priorities of preservation and restoration by regions and stages. Huai’an, a major ancient city along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal in China, was taken as an empirical case study to validate the feasibility of the evaluation index system and its ability to provide references for the preservation and restoration of historic sites.

A mixed-methods analysis of similarities and differences in animal shelter staff, dog behavior professionals, and the public in determining kenneled dog welfare

ABSTRACT The ability of animal shelter employees to identify poor welfare states in kenneled dogs is crucial for the mitigation of suffering. Animal shelter employees (n = 28), animal behavior professional (n = 49), and the general public (n = 41) watched 10 videos of kenneled dogs then rated the welfare of the dogs, stated the rationale for their score, indicated how they would improve the welfare, and rated the feasibility of improvements. Professionals gave slightly lower (poorer) welfare scores compared to the public (z = -1.998, p = 0.046). Shelter employees (z = -5.976, p < 0.001) and professionals (z = 9.047, p < 0.001) used body language and behavior to explain their welfare scores more than the public. All three populations mentioned the addition of enrichment to improve the welfare, however, shelter employees (z = -5.748, p < 0.001) and professionals (z = 6.046, p < 0.001) mentioned it significantly more. There were no significant differences in the perceived feasibility of changes. Future research should explore possible reasons for the lack of welfare improvements within animal shelters.

Polypharmacy and associated factors: a gender perspective in the elderly Spanish population (2011-2020).

Background: Few studies have examined the epidemiology of polypharmacy in non-institutionalized elderly adults with regard to sex differences. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of polypharmacy among people ≥65years old residing in Spain, analyze trends in that prevalence from 2011/12 to 2020, describe the use of the medicines involved and study the possible relationship between polypharmacy and certain sociodemographic, health-related variables, as well as the use of care services by sex. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional study with 21,841 non-institutionalized people ≥65years old from the Spanish National Health Survey (2011/2012 and 2017) and the European Health Survey in Spain (2014 and 2020) was performed. We used descriptive statistics, performing two binary logistic regressions to determine the factors related to polypharmacy. Results: The prevalence of polypharmacy was 23.2% (women: 28.1%, men: 17.2%; p < 0.001). The most commonly consumed medicines were analgesics and tranquillizers, relaxants or sleeping pills in elderly women, compared with antihypertensives, antacids and antiulcer drugs and statins for elderly men. In both sexs, the positive predictors of polypharmacy included average, poor and very poor self-perceived states of health, people with overweight and obesity, being severely/non-severely limited due to a health problem, having ≥ three chronic conditions, visits to the family doctor and hospitalization. Among elderly women, negative predictors were alcohol intake, whereas in elderly men positive predictors were being 75-84years old, being current smokers and having 1, 2 chronic conditions. Conclusion: Polypharmacy has a prevalence of 23.2%, with women accounting for 28.1% and men 17.2% of the total. Knowledge of positive and negative predictors of polypharmacy have important implications for public health efforts to develop or improve health guidelines and strategies for promoting the proper use of medication, particularly in the elderly population by sex.

Screen-based and non-screen-based sedentary behaviors are differentially associated with affective states in older adults

Excessive sedentary behavior (SB) contributes to poor affective and physical feeling states, which is particularly concerning for older adults who are the most sedentary sector of the population. Specific types of SB have been shown to differentially impact health in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, with screen-based SB more negatively impacting aspects of mental health. This study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), a real-time, intensive longitudinal data capture methodology, to examine the differential impact of screen-based behaviors on momentary affective responses during SB in naturalistic settings. A diverse sample of older adults (pooled across 2 studies) completed an EMA protocol for 8–10 days with six randomly delivered, smartphone assessments per day. At each EMA prompt, participants reported their current activity, whether they were sitting while doing that activity, and affective states. Multilevel models assessed whether screen-based (vs. non-screen-based) behavior moderated affective response during SB.At the within-person level, older adults experienced less positive affect during SB when engaged in a screen-based behavior compared to a non-screen-based SB (B = −0.10, p < 0.01). At the between-person level, positive associations between SB and negative affect (B = 0.79, p = 0.03) were stronger if participants reported engaging in screen-based behaviors for a greater proportion of prompts. Among older adults, screen-based SB may lead to poorer affective states compared to non-screen-based SB. Interventions aiming to reduce SB in this population should consider targeting reductions in screen-based SB as means to improve affective states.

Hybrid crops, income, and food security of smallholder families: Empirical evidence from poor states of India

This study investigates the impact of adopting hybrid crops (rice and maize) on smallholder farm households' income and food security in two of India's poorest states (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh). We use two-stage endogenous treatment regression and farm household data from a survey by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia during 2010–11. Findings suggest that adopting hybrid crops significantly increases smallholders' household income. Hybrid technology adoption also significantly increases smallholder households' food security. However, our findings indicate that the impact on income and food security is much higher for adopters of hybrid maize than for adopters of hybrid rice. These results show that hybrid crops enhance the welfare of smallholder farm families.

Heterogeneity of emotional distress in pregnancy during COVID-19 pandemic: a latent profile analysis

ABSTRACT Background Emotional distress, including depressive and anxiety symptoms, is a common concern among pregnant individuals and has negative impacts on maternal and offspring’s health. Previous studies indicated the heterogeneity of perinatal emotional distress. Moreover, during the pandemic of COVID-19, expectant mothers are faced with more tough challenges, which could exacerbate their emotional distress. Objective The aim of present study is to examine potential subgroups with distinct profiles on emotional distress and relationship resources during the pandemic. Methods A total of 187 pregnant people in China were recruited from April 22 to May 16 in 2020. Latent profile analysis was applied based on prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, COVID-19-related negative emotions, prenatal attachment, marital satisfaction and family sense of coherence. Results Four subgroups were identified. Group 1 and Group 2 shared with low levels of emotional distress and COVID-19-related negative emotions, among which Group 1 had plenty of relationship resources, while Group 2 had insufficient support. Group 3 had moderate levels of emotional distress but above-average prenatal attachment. Group 4 was a highly distressed subtype with severe emotional distress and poor states across all domains. Conclusion Our findings support that emotion distress among expecting mothers is heterogeneous, highlighting the need for tailed interventions to address the specific needs of subgroups during pregnancy.

Attentional fluctuations and the temporal organization of memory

Event boundaries and temporal context shape the organization of episodic memories. We hypothesized that attentional fluctuations during encoding serve as “events” that affect temporal context representations and recall organization. Individuals encoded trial-unique objects during a modified sustained attention task. Memory was tested with free recall. Response time variability during the encoding tasks was used to characterize “in the zone” and “out of the zone” attentional states. We predicted that: 1) “in the zone”, vs. “out of the zone”, attentional states should be more conducive to maintaining temporal context representations that can cue temporally organized recall; and 2) temporally distant “in the zone” states may enable more recall “leaps” across intervening items. We replicated several important findings in the sustained attention and memory fields, including more online errors during “out of the zone” vs. “in the zone” attentional states and recall that was temporally structured. Yet, across four studies, we found no evidence for either of our main hypotheses. Recall was robustly temporally organized, and there was no difference in recall organization for items encoded “in the zone” vs. “out of the zone”. We conclude that temporal context serves as a strong scaffold for episodic memory, one that can support organized recall even for items encoded during relatively poor attentional states. We also highlight the numerous challenges in striking a balance between sustained attention tasks (long blocks of a repetitive task) and memory recall tasks (short lists of unique items) and describe strategies for researchers interested in uniting these two fields.

Modeling the spatial patterns of antenatal care utilization in Nigeria with inference based on Pólya-Gamma mixtures

Despite the vast advantages of making antenatal care visits, the service utilization among pregnant women in Nigeria is suboptimal. A five-year monitoring estimate indicated that about 24% of the women who had live births made no visit. The non-utilization induced excessive zeroes in the outcome of interest. Thus, this study adopted a zero-inflated negative binomial model within a Bayesian framework to identify the spatial pattern and the key factors hindering antenatal care utilization in Nigeria. We overcome the intractability associated with posterior inference by adopting a Pólya-Gamma data-augmentation technique to facilitate inference. The Gibbs sampling algorithm was used to draw samples from the joint posterior distribution. Results revealed that type of place of residence, maternal level of education, access to mass media, household work index, and woman's working status have significant effects on the use of antenatal care services. Findings identified substantial state-level spatial disparity in antenatal care utilization across the country. Cost-effective techniques to achieve an acceptable frequency of utilization include the creation of a community-specific awareness to emphasize the importance and benefits of the appropriate utilization. Special consideration should be given to older pregnant women, women in poor antenatal utilization states, and women residing in poor road network regions.

Realization of a minimal Kitaev chain in coupled quantum dots.

Majorana bound states constitute one of the simplest examples of emergent non-Abelian excitations in condensed matter physics. A toy model proposed by Kitaev shows that such states can arise at the ends of a spinless p-wave superconducting chain1. Practical proposals for its realization2,3 require coupling neighbouring quantum dots (QDs) in a chain through both electron tunnelling and crossed Andreev reflection4. Although both processes have been observed in semiconducting nanowires and carbon nanotubes5-8, crossed-Andreev interaction was neither easily tunable nor strong enough to induce coherent hybridization of dot states. Here we demonstrate the simultaneous presence of all necessary ingredients for an artificial Kitaev chain: two spin-polarized QDs in an InSb nanowire strongly coupled by both elastic co-tunnelling (ECT) and crossed Andreev reflection (CAR). We fine-tune this system to a sweet spot where a pair of poor man's Majorana states is predicted to appear. At this sweet spot, the transport characteristics satisfy the theoretical predictions for such a system, including pairwise correlation, zero charge and stability against local perturbations. Although the simple system presented here can be scaled to simulate a full Kitaev chain with an emergent topological order, it can also be used imminently to explore relevant physics related to non-Abelian anyons.

Job stress and work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic among Japanese workers: a prospective cohort study

ABSTRACT Objectives The work style reforms and the coronavirus disease pandemic in Japan have prompted efforts toward teleworking, mainly work from home (WFH). This study aimed to prospectively evaluate the impact of WFH on job stress among Japanese workers. Methods This online survey-based prospective cohort study was conducted from December 2020 (baseline) to December 2021 (1-year follow-up) using self-administered questionnaires. At baseline, 27,036 participants completed the questionnaires, whereas 18,560 (68.7%) participated in the 1-year follow-up. After excluding the 11,604 participants who left or changed workplaces within 1 year or who were physical laborers and hospitality workers, data from 6,956 participants were analyzed. We asked participants about WFH frequency at baseline and conducted a follow-up using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ). Participants were divided into four groups according to WFH frequency. The odds ratios of poor states of the association of the four subscales (job demand, job control, supervisor support, and coworker support) determined by the BJSQ with WFH frequency were estimated using a multilevel logistic model. Results In both the gender–age adjusted and multivariate models, compared to the non-WFH group, the medium and low WFH groups were less likely to have poor job control, whereas the high WFH group were likely to have similar levels as the non-WFH group. In both models, compared to non-WFH participants, the high WFH group were more likely to have poor supervisor and coworker support. Conclusions High-frequency WFH requires further attention, because it may increase job stress by exacerbating deficits of social support in the workplace. Medium- and low-frequency WFH workers were more likely to have satisfactory job control; therefore, limiting WFH to three or fewer days per week may lead to better job stress management.

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Undergraduate MBBS and Nursing Students in Erode, Tamil Nadu

Background: The main psychological stress among medical students was associated with anxiety and depression. Fear of unforeseeable situations, using equipment, speaking with patients, etc., is a typical issue among students. The two factors that are most directly associated with poor emotional states are physical and mental health. Methodology: Students from the Erode district of Tamil Nadu were recruited for this cross-sectional study. The study involved 273 undergraduate students who were randomly selected. Participants were selected by a systematic, random sampling technique. To measure the study's outcomes, the depression, anxiety, and stress scale-42 with 42 items was employed. Statistical significance was shown using aP= 0.05. Results: Among the 273 respondents, 80 (29.30%) were male and 193 (70.70%) were female. Among undergraduate students in Tamil Nadu's Erode district, there was a 40.29% prevalence of depression, a 40.39% prevalence of anxiety, and a 31.04% prevalence of stress. Female students had a 10.25 depression score than male students' 7.75 score. Furthermore, female (11.76) students had more stress scores than male students (9.30). Nursing and MBBS students had more anxiety. Conclusions: Stress, anxiety, and depression all have disturbingly high prevalence rates. Therefore, it is strongly advised to implement stress reduction strategies and to set up a student counseling center.

СТРАНЫ ЮЖНОГО ТИХООКЕАНСКОГО РЕГИОНА ПОСЛЕ ГЛОБАЛЬНОЙ ПАНДЕМИИ: АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ ВОССТАНОВЛЕНИЯ НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ ЭКОНОМИК

The article describes the specifics of the urgent problems of the recovery of the economies of the countries of the South Pacific region after the global coronavirus pandemic. On the basis of the sources, the specifics of the individual and general problems of the developing States of Oceania are reflected. On the basis of authoritative sources of the latest period of time, a forecast is given of the prospects for the recovery of subregions in the conditions of a specific geostrategic conjuncture of the world economy, waves of the global economic crisis, issues of assistance from external players to developing countries of the South Pacific region, both from Australia and New Zealand-developed countries of the region, and with the participation of the USA, China, Russia, France and England.. The peculiarities of regional local conflicts that determine the problems for economic recovery in the shortest possible time are taken into account: the Bougainville referendum of 2019 and the consequences of the war of the same name in Papua New Guinea 1988-1997. An explanation is given why the Governments of Australia and New Zealand cannot solve the full range of problems facing the developing States of Oceania. An objective volume of factors has been formed that will allow each state of the South Pacific region to recover within the framework of existing incomplete solutions. The reason why an independent center of the multipolar world has not been formed in Oceania, both on the basis of developed and among developing countries and, or their associations. The specifics of the issues of assistance by developed countries are shown, which rather harms than helps the poor states of Oceania, as proved by the crisis during the influence of COVID-19 in the region. A sub-regional division of developing states has been made, which allows the reader to visually determine on the basis of materials and text which regional parts of the area are being discussed and how they are related to each other. A pessimistic forecast is given regarding the rapid recovery of the national economies of the poor countries of the South Pacific region to the pre-crisis level of 2019. The analysis of the source base confidently indicates that Oceania needs inflows of new volume and quality of foreign investments that would allow a new innovative industrial and financial center to develop on the basis of the region, not only on the basis of the Australian Union and New Zealand, but also in developing countries, including the experience of the Singapore prosperity model. Conclusions are drawn on the speed and foreseeable prospects for the recovery of the economies of the South Pacific region with the key open question of the lack of an independent line of foreign policy of all Oceania countries, regardless of the level of development of each particular state. The Vedomosti thesis allows us to define the South Pacific region as an object of the interests of the great powers with a foreseeable perspective redistribution of spheres of influence in this regional space, taking into account all the above-described material.

Censoring in the time trade-off valuation of worse-than-dead EQ-5D-5L health states: can a time-based willingness-to-accept question be the solution?

The left censoring of values at -1 by design of the composite time trade-off (cTTO) tasks leads to excessive amount of -1 values in some EQ-5D-5L valuation studies. This study aimed to investigate whether a time-based willingness-to-accept (tWTA) question can be used to elicit values lower than -1 and improve the estimation of EQ-5D-5L values. At the end of each cTTO task in the Taiwanese EQ-5D-5L valuation study, if the value of the health state was indicated to be lower than -1, a tWTA question eliciting the indifference point between a hypothetical life (i.e. x number of years in full health followed by 10years in the health state) and immediate death was used to estimate its uncensored value. We compared the statistical characteristics of the censored and uncensored data. Four hundred and twenty-nine of 1,000 respondents were offered the tWTA question in a total of 1,071 cTTO tasks. In 79.55% of those tasks, indifference was not reached. Spearman's correlation with level summary score was -0.41 and -0.40 for negative uncensored and censored data, respectively. The logical inconsistency rates of the uncensored and censored data were 0.88% vs. 0.29%, respectively. Modelling of the uncensored data resulted in coefficients with greater uncertainty and much lower predictions. The elicitation of values lower than -1 using a tWTA question that grants more time for trading seems not a promising solution to the value censoring of the cTTO tasks. Other strategies for valuation of very poor health states should be explored.

MORTALITY RISK BY STATE-LEVEL POVERTY IN COLOMBIA AT DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

Abstract Residence in high poverty states has been associated with increased mortality risk in the United States, but less attention has been paid to the relationship between state-level poverty and mortality in younger to older adults in Latin America. Poorer states in Colombia, one of the most populous and rapidly aging countries in Latin America, tend to report less access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. We examine the relationship between mortality and state-level poverty in Colombia by age and gender. We use data from the 2018 Colombian Census and Vital Statistics to calculate mortality levels and male-female ratios in mortality separately for three broad age categories: young (ages 20-39), middle-aged (40-69), and older adults (70 or older). We find an association between high poverty and high mortality risk among younger men, no association for middle-aged men, and a negative association between mortality risk and poverty among older men. We did not find any evidence for an association between state-level poverty and mortality at any ages. Our results highlight that, for men at older ages, poverty had a counterintuitive association with mortality. These results may be due to selective survival older ages in Colombia or to older adults who are aging into a social safety net that includes healthcare and income benefits. Future research should investigate the impact that unequal access to economic resources and distribution of health care resources has on women and men across age groups in Colombia.

Binding Constitutional History

The Constitution requires that direct taxes be apportioned among the states by population. The original purpose of the rule was to apportion direct taxes upon the states, that is, requisitions, to ensure that tax rates on wealth were equal across the states. Population was the best available measure of the relative wealth of the state. The Articles of Confederation had required apportionment of direct taxes by the relative value of real estate and improvements, but the system had failed because Congress could not control the manipulation of appraisal of value submitted by the states. Under the assumption that population measured wealth, per capita wealth was therefore assumed to be equal among the states, and a tax apportioned by population would therefore mean that tax rates on wealth would be equal across the states. Apportionment by population was thought out and debated under the Articles of Confederation, which allowed Congress to tax revenue only by requisitions upon the states. Where apportionment did not lead to uniform rates, or could not be reasonably applied, the tax was therefore not direct. Apportionment was written to be a just rule leading to equal rates on wealth and not a prohibition on federal use of a tax. When a base is not equal per capita, apportionment if applied would lead to higher tax rates in poorer states, which is the opposite of what the requirement was intended to accomplish.

Regional divergence and house prices

We document a new fact: regional divergence, the rate at which rich states grow faster than poor states, explains most U.S. house price movements since 1939, including the post-2000 boom-bust-boom cycle. An industry-share instrument provides evidence the relationship is causal, implying the location of economic growth affects national house prices. We propose a model to learn why regional divergence and house prices are related. In the model, high interstate inequality raises rents on average because relative demand for living in a high-income state increases and housing supply in low-income states is elastic. Regional divergence leads to higher expected future interstate inequality, which implies higher expected future rents, and therefore, higher current house prices. The model accurately predicts rents since 1929, which are quite different than prices, as well as cross-sectional moments of prices, rents, construction, and migration.