Removal notice to “Social welfare expansion and political support during economic slowdown: A panel data analysis of China, 2010–2018” [Soc. Sci. Res. 125 (2025) 103112

From 2008 and 2025, a number of worldwide crises caused considerable fluctuations in the Indian share market. Investor behaviour, market volatility, and general financial stability have all been significantly impacted by events like the Global Financial Crisis (2008), the Eurozone Debt Crisis, the COVID-19 epidemic, the war between Russia and Ukraine, inflationary pressures, geopolitical conflicts, and global economic slowdowns. The goal of the current study is to examine the organism of research on how severely international crises have affected the Indian stock market and to determine the opportunities and difficulties that regular investors encounter in these unpredictable times. This study is descriptive and analytical in nature, and it is solely based on secondary data gathered from books, journals, financial institution reports, regulatory bodies, research papers, and reliable web sources.

A policy analysis of the three-month waiting period for new and returning residents to access provincial health insurance in Ontario, Canada.

To evaluate the clinical and radiographic efficacy of the adjunctive use of hyaluronic acid (HA) in regenerative periodontal surgery for the treatment of intrabony defects. A systematic search identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving adult patients with intrabony defects who underwent regenerative periodontal surgery with adjunctive HA. The primary outcome was probing pocket depth (PPD) reduction; secondary outcomes included clinical attachment level (CAL) gain, gingival recession (REC), and radiographic defect depth (RDD) reduction. Meta-analysis according to the regenerative protocol was performed using random-effects models, with subgroup analyses. Fourteen RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Compared to controls, adjunctive HA resulted in an additional PPD reduction of approximately 0.7-1.2 mm and CAL gain of 0.7-1.1 mm, with more consistent effects at 12 months. Subgroup analyses indicated significant benefits when HA was applied alone or with membranes, whereas no added benefit was observed with bone substitute materials. Radiographic outcomes showed a favorable trend for HA, with an additional RDD reduction of about 0.7-1.0 mm, though heterogeneity was noted. Comparisons between HA and enamel matrix derivative (EMD) revealed comparable or slightly superior results for EMD. Adjunctive HA may enhance clinical and radiographic outcomes in intrabony defects when used in regenerative periodontal surgery, although heterogeneity and study quality warrant cautious interpretation of the findings.

ABSTRACT High-quality entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and economic resilience. Drawing on institutional complementarity theory, this study investigates how government, market, and societal institutions jointly shape entrepreneurial quality under different macroeconomic conditions. Using a panel fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 81 countries from 2007 to 2017, the study identifies six institutional configurations that lead to high-quality entrepreneurship. From these, it derives three distinct context-sensitive models of institutional complementarity. These models reflect how institutional domains interact functionally rather than additively, with different configurations prevailing under economic recession, moderate prosperity, and general growth. By integrating economic cycles into the logic of institutional complementarity, this study advances a temporally contingent, configurational understanding of institutional effectiveness. The findings contribute to institutional and entrepreneurship theory and provide actionable insights for policymakers seeking to foster entrepreneurship through adaptive institutional design.

Objectives: To compare the adjunctive efficacy of a MicroRepair® mouthwash containing an antibacterial complex (ABX), composed of cetylpyridinium chloride, magnolol, and honokiol, with 0.12% chlorhexidine (CHX) in the management of generalized plaque-induced gingivitis, assessing clinical periodontal parameters, salivary activated matrix metalloproteinase-8 (aMMP-8) levels, and patient-reported outcomes over 6 months. Methods: A randomized, controlled, parallel-group clinical trial included 40 systemically healthy adults with generalized gingivitis and was reported in accordance with CONSORT 2025 guidelines. Following professional oral hygiene according to the Guided Biofilm Therapy (GBT) protocol, participants were randomly allocated to ABX or 0.12% CHX, used twice daily for 14 days. Clinical parameters, including Full-Mouth Bleeding Score (FMBS, primary outcome), Full-Mouth Plaque Score (FMPS), Probing Pocket Depth (PPD), Clinical Attachment Level (CAL), Gingival Recession (REC), and Modified Lobene Stain Index (MLSI), were recorded at baseline, 2 weeks, 1, 3, and 6 months. Salivary aMMP-8 levels were assessed at baseline and 2 weeks. Heavy smokers were excluded, and smoking status was evaluated as a potential covariate. Non-parametric tests were applied (p < 0.05). Results: Both groups showed significant reductions in FMBS and FMPS over time (p < 0.05), with no intergroup differences for the primary outcome at any follow-up at the patient level. Patient-level analyses did not reveal consistent differences across secondary parameters. At the tooth level, lower FMPS values were observed in the trial group at 2 weeks and 1 month (p < 0.05), with earlier PPD reduction. CAL, and REC remained stable. Salivary aMMP-8 levels decreased significantly in both groups without intergroup differences. Patient-reported outcomes were comparable. Smoking status was balanced between groups and was not significantly associated with treatment allocation or the main clinical outcomes. Conclusions: No significant differences were observed between ABX and CHX for the main clinical and molecular outcomes, supporting its potential use as an adjunct in gingivitis management.

The Thatcherite 1980s saw in Britain the reversal of many taken-for-granted social compacts regarding community and care. Amidst a broader economic downturn and stagnating state funding, few institutions felt this apparent decline in welfare standards quite as much as the National Health Service. A prelude to the more substantial neoliberal reorganisation of the system that would occur under the Major government, the period nonetheless saw a newfound reliance on the private sector and charitable outreach as a means of supplementing increasingly meagre resources. Drawing upon extensive archival research, contemporary press coverage and publicity materials, I look at the first large-scale healthcare fundraiser in the history of the service: Great Ormond Street Hospital's 1987-1989 Wishing Well campaign. Developed by the struggling children's hospital, I argue that Wishing Well served to legitimise, both rhetorically and economically, a highly contingent form of fundraising-the charitable appeal-via a resource for which it did not lack: children. Through the lens of Lauren Berlant's theory of 'cruel optimism', I investigate the use of a figure that made countless demands of futurity, care and the overcoming of impairment as they specifically related to childhood. By positioning these poster children as the naive, compromised dependents of a giving public, the sympathetic response was individualised, each act of compassion sustaining an idea of futurity that is itself highly precarious. Their childishness was critical to the venture. Lee Edelman argues that the child has been used throughout modernity to enforce compulsory, future-tense narrative stability; in turn, I note that the ideological requirement for children to 'grow up' he highlights has itself been similarly conflated with their need to 'grow out' of ill health. Though hitched to the presumption of an able-normative future, these poster children nonetheless exist in tension with their own precarious present-if not to overcome, then endure.

ABSTRACT While China’s path to modernity has been marked by an extraordinarily condensed timeframe, the lived experiences of time among Chinese individuals have been underexplored. Based on netnographic findings, this article explores how members of the ‘Anti-Social Clock’ online group attempt to assert control over their biographical time and carve out personalized life rhythms through strategies like ‘levelling up’, ‘going abroad’ and ‘slowing down’. Illustrating the pivotal role of time in the pursuit of autonomy in China’s hybrid socialist-neoliberal context, this study enriches the understanding of the temporal dimensions of individualization. Situating its exploration within China’s economic slowdown, this study positions individuals’ temporal experiences within broader discussions of acceleration and precarization, highlighting the challenges faced by individuals in a rapidly transforming China.

To systematically compare the clinical efficacy of various biomaterial-based regenerative strategies for periodontal intrabony defects and to provide clinically meaningful evidence for optimizing treatment selection. This study followed the PRISMA-NMA guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases were systematically searched from January 2010 to February 2026. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving regenerative treatment of periodontal intrabony defects were included. Interventions consisted of different biomaterial-based regenerative therapies. The primary outcomes were changes from baseline in probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), bone gain (mm), and gingival recession (REC). Two reviewers independently performed study selection and data extraction, and the risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2.0 tool. Bayesian network meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 16, Review Manager 5.4, and R 4.4.2 with the BUGSnet and gemtc packages. Effect sizes were expressed as weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% credible intervals (CrI). Treatment rankings were estimated using the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). A total of 32 RCTs and 14 treatment strategies were included. According to SUCRA rankings, bone graft combined with platelet-rich fibrin (BoneGraft + PRF) showed the highest probability of achieving PD reduction (93.6%) and bone gain (94.9%). FGF-2 combined with bone graft (FGF2 + BoneGraft) ranked first for CAL gain (91.9%), followed by BoneGraft + PRF (82.6%) and FGF-2 alone (82.4%). For bone gain, FGF2 + BoneGraft (91.2%) and stem cell therapy (82.8%) also showed favorable rankings. For gingival recession reduction (REC), where lower values indicate better outcomes, PRF combined with ascorbic acid (PRF_AA) demonstrated the best ranking (4.3%), followed by FGF2 + BoneGraft (9.6%) and PRF (19.6%). Selected pairwise estimates showed that, compared with OFD, BoneGraft + PRF produced greater PD reduction (MD = 2.09mm, 95% CrI: 0.45 to 3.75) and bone gain (MD = 2.76mm, 95% CrI: 0.94 to 4.59), whereas FGF2 + BoneGraft produced greater CAL gain (MD = 1.88mm, 95% CrI: 0.32 to 3.45). For REC, PRF_AA showed a lower recession estimate than OFD (MD = -2.57mm, 95% CrI: -6.62 to 1.47), although the CrI crossed zero. This study provides a comprehensive comparative evaluation of multiple biomaterial-based regenerative strategies using a network meta-analytic approach. The findings suggest that combined regenerative approaches integrating structural scaffolds and bioactive factors may provide greater clinical benefit, although the certainty of evidence should be interpreted cautiously in periodontal regeneration compared with single-material therapies. These results highlight the importance of synergistic treatment strategies and may assist clinicians in selecting more effective, evidence-based regenerative protocols tailored to specific clinical outcomes. However, given the limited evidence for certain interventions, further high-quality multicenter RCTs are required to confirm these findings.

Exogenous shocks experienced by the population like armed conflicts, natural disasters and economic downturns have all been suggested to correlate with variation in human sex ratio at birth, either through sex-specific embryonic mortality and/or primary sex adjustment. Recently experienced COVID-19 pandemic has also been related to changes in birth sex ratio in some countries but the results have been mixed. In the aftermath of the pandemic, Russia's attack on Ukraine caused further emotional anxiety and economic hardship in Europe. This was also true in Finland, which has had a decade-long close trading history with its neighboring state, Russia. Here, we examined the influence of this "double trouble" on variation in proportion of males born alive as well as male proportion of stillbirths in Finland during 2000-2024, using high-quality monthly census panel data covering the entire Finnish population (a total of 1,355,037 live births and 4,096 stillbirths). The results from Bayesian aggregated binomial time-series regressions showed no evidence for COVID-19-related associations on either the proportion of male live births or stillbirths. We did find an increased proportion of males born alive after 4 months of Russia's offensive but this finding should be considered as exploratory rather than confirmatory. If proportion of male live births or stillbirths can be regarded as a health indicator of the population, our results suggest that Finland as a society showed marked resilience in terms of non-responsive sex ratios when facing these two adverse exogenous shocks.

The threat of a global recession due to the global economic slowdown, rising energy prices, and geopolitical instability has prompted Indonesia to strengthen its economic resilience through energy diversification. One alternative being developed is wood-chip-based biomass as a co-firing fuel in coal-fired power plants to reduce dependence on coal. This study aims to analyze the role of Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation in accelerating the development of biomass-fired power plants and its contribution to national economic resilience. The research method used is normative legal analysis with a legislative and conceptual approach. The results of the study indicate that the Job Creation Law accelerates biomass development through risk-based licensing reforms, simplified environmental approvals, and streamlined forestry permits, thereby enhancing legal certainty for renewable energy investments. These policies also support the acceleration of the biomass supply chain and the implementation of co-firing programs in coal-fired power plants. However, their implementation still faces technical challenges, infrastructure limitations, and the need for policy harmonization across sectors. This study concludes that wood-chip-based biomass power plants have the potential to serve as a strategic instrument in strengthening energy security and national economic stability amid the threat of a global recession.

Crises may bring people together or drive them apart. However, it is not clear whether crises undermine or enhance social cohesion or how such effects might develop over time. We compare four types of crises-natural hazards, pandemics, economic downturns, and wars-to explain their effects on social cohesion from an interdependence theoretical perspective. We argue that social cohesion depends on how much people depend on each other and the government, the (un)equality of these dependencies, and whether people's interests conflict or align. Based on our theory-guided review, we conclude that the four crises are likely to differ in how (and when) they might affect social cohesion within societies. These insights may help societies better prepare for future crises by clarifying when they may heighten cohesion or division.

Purpose This paper compares and discusses the leading economic roles of China and the USA from a different perspective, that is, in terms of herd spillover to 32 international stock markets. Design/methodology/approach We expand the herding spillover models of Gebka and Wohar (2013) and Lai and Zhang (2020) to encompass all types of herd spillovers, including severe, moderate and anti-herd effects. Findings Our research provides a more precise basis for understanding herd spillover effects in global equity markets. During tranquil periods, the trading patterns of Chinese stocks predominate over those of other regions, whereas the influence of the USA appears less significant. Nonetheless, more substantial evidence of the US market is observed during economic downturns. Throughout the financial crisis, investors in other countries tend to follow their respective trading behaviors in both nations as market uncertainty escalates. In addition, prior findings on herd spillover are underestimated because the model lacks an absolute foreign market return. A total of 76 cases of herd spillover is reported in this study. If severe herd spillover is neglected, we will underestimate it by 35.53%. Research limitations/implications Although beyond the scope of the present study, examining herd spillovers across different investor types as well as distinguishing between intentional and unintentional forms of herding spillover would be of considerable interest. Such analyses could further enhance our understanding of common trading behaviors across global financial markets. We leave these issues for future research. Practical implications These findings suggest that the advantages of international diversification through investments in the USA and China may sometimes be overstated. Additionally, regulators should maintain vigilance in supervising cross-border behavioral channels to ensure market stability. Originality/value We compare and discuss the foremost economic influences of the USA and China on trading behaviors across 32 countries worldwide. Our study is extensive in comparison to other research that concentrates on specific countries or regions. Individual stock data in this paper surpass the industrial index in capturing return dispersion, thereby enabling a more precise inference of herd behavior. In addition to moderate herd spillover, which has been the primary focus of previous research, we also examine severe and anti-herd spillovers to provide a comprehensive understanding of the overall effect.

The cost-of-living crisis directly affects eco-conscious tourists’ behaviors, leading to reduced consumption of green products and services. In response to these crises, tourists may have to prioritise more affordable, non-green alternatives. Economic crises are recurrent, disrupting the sustainability agenda for decision makers, businesses and tourists. To address this challenge, this study proposes a multicriteria decision-making framework for tourism service providers that balances business interests with tourists’ needs and preferences during economic downturns. This framework evaluates tourist-centric strategies, supply chain and production strategies and marketing and advertising strategies based on four criteria: cost, applicability, social acceptance and environmental benefits. Rich data from 152 experts in tourism management and sustainability from South Korea were collected using a survey to conduct the best–worst method (BWM). Results reveal that cost and applicability are the most influential factors in assessing sustainable tourism strategies during cost-of-living crises. This finding suggests that tourist-centric strategies should be prioritised over marketing, advertising and supply chain or production strategies.

Against this backdrop of a global economic downturn, the real estate market exhibits characteristics of both a consumer good and an investment asset, with housing prices displaying fluctuating nonlinear trends. Predicting these trends holds significant importance for governments, developers, and individuals. Addressing the vulnerability of BP neural networks (BPNN) to initial weights and biases in housing price forecasting, this study enhances the Artificial Lemming Algorithm (ALA) by incorporating pinhole imaging learning, evolutionary mutation perturbation, and golden sine development strategies. This improved ALA is applied to update the BPNN network structure, establishing the novel IALA-BPNN housing price prediction model. Experiments using four public datasets compare IALA-BPNN against eight comparable hybrid models, validating the model's success and the effectiveness of the three improvement strategies. Further comparisons with four machine learning models (RF, SVM, LSTM, CNN) demonstrate the model's strong competitiveness in housing price forecasting. Finally, a Shanghai housing price dataset is constructed. Comparing IALA-BPNN with the top-performing models from the previous experiments reveals that IALA-BPNN achieves significant improvements across evaluation metrics: MAE (13.63%), MAPE (14.18%), RMSE (14.99%), R2 (9.38%), SMAPE (19.15%), SD (8.46%), and Time (34.30%), demonstrating its practical application potential.

This study examined the long- and short-term relationships between remittance, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation and interest rates in Nepal. This study used time-series data from 2003 to 2024 from the world bank and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). The study applied econometric techniques including the Phillips-Perron unit root test, Johansen cointegration test, and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to analyse the dynamics among the variables. The Johansen cointegration test indicated three long-run cointegration relationships among the variables. The VECM shows that the GDP, inflation and interest rates in the long run adjust significantly to restore equilibrium when deviations occur. This might suggest a contractionary process of the economy where policies aimed at controlling inflation or excess money supply might restrain the GDP. Meanwhile, remittances tend to increase in response to economic downturns, acting as a buffer for the economy. Short-run analysis showed that past values of GDP, inflation and interest rates strongly influence their current behaviour. This might suggest structural rigidity or gradual policy transmission. Meanwhile, remittance inflow reacts positively to interest rate and negatively to inflation. This means maintaining a stable interest rate and low inflation can ensure sustained remittance flow. The study concludes that maintaining stable interest rates and low inflation ensures sustainable remittance inflows and overall macroeconomic stability in Nepal. It is recommended that policymakers channel remittance into productive sectors to enhance economic growth while minimising inflationary pressures.

Suicide remains a major public health concern in Japan. Age-period-cohort analysis can differentiate the effects of age, date, and birthyear on an outcome. This study used an age-period-cohort analysis to analyze suicide mortality in all of Japan and in the 47 prefectures. Suicide mortality data from 1980 to 2021 were from the Global Burden of Disease database. Trends in the crude and age-standardized mortality rate were analyzed using Joinpoint regression. Age-period-cohort analysis was conducted using a Poisson model. The suicide rate was consistently greater in men than in women. Analysis of different age groups indicated the highest rate was in men aged >80 years, although it decreased in this group over time. The suicide rate increased in the group aged 15 to 19 years, particularly in cohorts born after 1972. A strong period effect occurred from the late 1990s to early 2000s, particularly among working-age men in their 50s and 60s. There were some disparities among prefectures, in that Akita had the highest rate and Tokyo had the lowest. We identified key age-period-cohort effects of suicide in Japan. Economic downturns and generational differences affected suicide risk, and adolescents and middle-aged men had high risk.

Social welfare expansion and political support during economic slowdown: A panel data analysis of China, 2010-2018

Objective and subjective socioeconomic status affect subjective well-being through psychosomatic symptoms: A structural equation modeling analysis.

To retrospectively explore the effect of suprastructure removal prior to non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis on clinical parameters. The electronic patient health record (EHR) of a practice restricted to periodontology and implantology was searched to identify all subjects who had at least one implant with peri-implantitis and received non-surgical treatment after suprastructure removal. The implant was cleaned with both ultrasonic devices and metal manual instruments, and oral hygiene self-care instructions were given to the patient. The suprastructure was cleaned in the dental laboratory and temporarily replaced with a healing abutment. Clinical parameters at baseline and 3 months post-therapy were retrieved from the EHR. These included peri-implant pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on implant probing (BoIP), suppuration on probing (SUP), and recession (REC). Data at 3 months were compared to data from the baseline assessment. In addition, the photographs were evaluated with the gingival index (GI) and bone loss was estimated from the radiographs. Eleven patients with 15 implants were included in the study. After 3 months, a statistically significant reduction of mean PPD (from 6.1 mm to 3.3 mm) was observed (p = 0.001). The percentage of BoIP-positive sites was reduced from 94% to 28% (p = 0.001), and the percentage of SUP-positive sites was reduced from 29% to 2% (p = 0.011). REC did not show a statistically significant change (p = 0.398). The GI decreased from 0.93 to 0.40 (p = 0.005). Non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis, including removal and laboratory cleaning of implant suprastructures combined with temporary replacement by a healing abutment, showed improvement of clinical peri-implant health parameters.