Regional-level Effects Research Articles

The interactive effects of extreme temperatures and PM2.5 pollution on mortalities in Jiangsu Province, China

Exposure to extreme temperatures or fine particles is associated with adverse health outcomes but their interactive effects remain unclear. We aimed to explore the interactions of extreme temperatures and PM2.5 pollution on mortalities. Based on the daily mortality data collected during 2015–2019 in Jiangsu Province, China, we conducted generalized linear models with distributed lag non-linear model to estimate the regional-level effects of cold/hot extremes and PM2.5 pollution. The relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) was evaluated to represent the interaction. The relative risks (RRs) and cumulative relative risks (CRRs) of total and cause-specific mortalities associated with hot extremes were significantly stronger (p < 0.05) than those related to cold extremes across Jiangsu. We identified significantly higher interactions between hot extremes and PM2.5 pollution, with the RERI range of 0.00–1.15. The interactions peaked on ischaemic heart disease (RERI = 1.13 [95%CI: 0.85, 1.41]) in middle Jiangsu. For respiratory mortality, RERIs were higher in females and the less educated. The interaction pattern remained consistent when defining the extremes/pollution with different thresholds. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the interactions between extreme temperatures and PM2.5 pollution on total and cause-specific mortalities. The projected interactions call for public health actions to face the twin challenges, especially the co-appearance of hot extremes and PM pollution.

Use of guideline-recommended drug therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention for stable coronary heart disease in Germany: a multilevel analysis of nationwide routine data

ObjectivesTo determine the prescription of guideline recommended drug therapy in patients with stable coronary heart disease (sCHD) prior to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in Germany and to examine the role...

Temporal relationships between climate variables and hand-foot-mouth disease: a multi-province study in the Mekong Delta Region, Vietnam.

Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is an emerging infectious disease that affects thousands of children every year in Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta Region (MDR). This study aims to analyse both provincial and regional level effects of climate factors on HFMD in multiple provinces of this high-risk region. Generalized linear models were used to analyse the daily effects of average temperature, humidity and rainfall on HFMD incidence in each province (provincial-level effects), and random-effect meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled effect size of these climate-HFMD associations (regional-level effects). Daily effects of the climate factors on HFMD were found at both provincial level and regional level. At provincial level, temperature and humidity had statistically significant positive associations with HFMD while rainfall had both positive and negative associations with HFMD at different lag days. At regional level, temperature and humidity were positively associated with HFMD at lag 0 days (1.7%; 95%CI 0.1%-3.3%) and at lag 3 days (0.3%; 95%CI 0.1%-0.5%), respectively. In contrast, rainfall was found to be negatively associated with HFMD at lag 5 days (- 0.3%; 95%CI - 0.4% to - 0.1%). Heterogeneities of the effects of rainfall on HFMD were found to be higher than those of temperature or humidity. This is the first study to address the climate-HFMD associations in multiple provinces of the MDR. These associations draw attention to climate-related health issues and will help in developing an environment-based early warning system for HFMD prevention and control.

Non-Competes, Human Capital Policy &amp;amp; Regional Competition

In the past few years, human capital law has become one of the most dynamic policy fields in the country. Multiple states have reformed their noncompete policies, passing new legislation that limits their use. New bills that would similarly limit the enforcement of noncompetes are currently before Congress. Both the use of noncompetes and litigation over their enforcement, are on the rise nationwide, and several state attorney generals have taken up the issue by launching investigations into employers who require their workforce to sign unenforceable noncompetes. An equally dazzling wealth of studies, analysis, intellectual debates, and exchanges have emerged on the research side. In particular, the past few years brought a significant number of empirical, experimental, and theoretical studies offering more evidence and explanations about the key role that human capital policy, including noncompete contracts, plays in industries and regions. This article, written for a symposium honoring the scholarship of Professor Ronald Gilson, I present the state of the scholarly field on human capital and economic competition and develop three arguments about the future of noncompete research. First, in Part I, I unpack the multiple dynamic effects that job mobility and noncompetes have on regions. Beyond knowledge spillovers, it is important to recognize a range of distinct, though interrelated effects. These include at least ten important aspects that are supported by job mobility: behavioral, dynamic, firm-level, and regional-level effects. In particular, a neglected aspect in the literature of noncompetes is the disproportionate harmful effect noncompete clauses may have on women. Recent economic research on labor market monopsonies and the relationship between mobility and wage growth allows us to see connections between innovation policy and distributive justice. Second, I argue that while the study of noncompetes has been invaluable to understanding talent flows, mobility restrictions are far broader than merely formal covenants not to compete. Covenants that restrict employee mobility appear in many shapes and forms. I introduce the range of contractual restrictions that employers require in standard agreements and I argue that these restrictions too, should be understood and researched through the lens of labor market competition and mobility. Third, I argue that the prevalence of practices that subvert policy requirements, such as including unenforceable restrictions in employment contracts underscores how we as scholars need to encompass market practices in the empirical research, as well as recognize comparative advantages of proactive solutions including antitrust and regulatory tools over contract doctrine.

PS-047 Tradeoffs Between Mortality And Morbidity For Very Preterm Infants: Results From The Epice Cohort

<h3>Background and aims</h3> There is concern that declines in mortality after very preterm birth are accompanied by higher morbidity as more fragile babies survive. We investigated whether rates of severe neonatal morbidity were higher in regions with low versus high mortality. <h3>Methods</h3> The EPICE cohort included all births between 22+0 and 31+6 weeks of gestation in 19 European regions in 2011–2012 (N = 7878 live births). We divided the cohort into tertiles based on regional in-hospital mortality rates excluding deaths due to congenital anomalies: low (&lt;12.0%), medium (12.0 to 14.9%) and high (≥15.0%). Severe neonatal morbidity was defined as intraventricular haemorrhage grades III-IV, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, surgery/peritoneal drainage for necrotizing enterocolitis or retinopathy of prematurity (grades ≥3). Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) was analysed separately. Multilevel logistic regressions were used to model regional-level effects. <h3>Results</h3> 6770 infants were discharged home. 12.2% had at least one severe morbidity (regional range: 3.8% to 24.4%) and 15.3% had BPD (regional range: 6.7% to 34.9%). Rates of severe morbidity were 11.7%, 12.1% and 12.9% in low, medium and high mortality regions, respectively (p = 0.45). BPD was higher in low mortality regions (18.7%,16.7% and 10.2%, respectively (p &lt; 0.001). The odds ratio for severe morbidity associated with birth in a low versus high mortality region was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.55–1.25) and for BPD was 1.81 (95% CI: 1.08–3.0). <h3>Conclusion</h3> Rates of severe neonatal morbidity and BPD vary greatly between regions in Europe. BPD rates were higher in lower mortality regions, but this was not true for other morbidities.

Regional- and district-level drivers of timber harvesting in European Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the forestry sector in Russia underwent substantial changes: the state forestry sector was decentralized, the timber industry was privatized, and timber use rights were allocated through short- and long-term leases. To date, there has been no quantitative assessment of the drivers of timber harvesting in European Russia following these changes. In this paper we estimate an econometric model of timber harvesting using remote sensing estimations of forest disturbance from 1990–2000 to 2000–2005 as our dependent variable. We aggregate forest disturbance to administrative districts – equivalent to counties in the United States – and test the impact of several biophysical and economic factors on timber harvesting. Additionally, we examine the impact that regions – equivalent to states in the United States and the main level of decentralized governance in Russia – have on timber harvesting by estimating the influence of regional-level effects on forest disturbance in our econometric model. Russian regions diverged considerably in political and economic conditions after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the question is if these variations impacted timber harvesting after controlling for district-level biophysical and economic drivers. We find that the most important drivers of timber harvesting at the district level are road density, the percent of evergreen forest, and the total area of forest. The influence of these variables on timber harvesting changed over time and there was more harvesting closer to urban areas in 2000–2005. Even though district-level variables explain more than 70 percent of the variation in forest disturbance in our econometric model, we find that regional-level effects remain statistically significant. While we cannot identify the exact mechanism through which regional-level effects impact timber harvesting, our results suggest that sub-national differences can have a large and statistically significant impact on land-use outcomes and should be considered in policy design and evaluation.

Russian Language in Ukraine: Does it Concern Only Russians?

This paper examines the problem of current status of the Russian language in Ukraine. Based on the data of a monitoring “Ukrainian society” conducted by the Institute of Sociology (Kyiv) on the yearly basis since 1994, I define the factors that influence people’s attitudes toward the Russian lan-guage. The focus of the analysis is on the individual- and regional-level effects. The results show that there is a significant regional effect on the degree of support of the Russian language: the more Rus-sian-speaking people live in the oblast (administrative unit), the more likely people from this oblast are to support the official status of the Russian language. In the meantime, no nationality effect was re-vealed suggesting that Ukrainians and Russians do not differ in the level of support of the official status for the Russian language in Ukraine.

The regional dimension of MNEs' foreign subsidiary localization

This paper examines the regional effect of MNEs' foreign subsidiary localization. We hypothesize that the number of subsequent foreign subsidiaries in a country is in part determined by a firm's prior foreign subsidiary activity at the regional level. We test our hypotheses using data on 1076 Japanese MNEs that created 3466 foreign subsidiaries (1837 wholly owned FDIs and 1629 joint ventures) over the period 1996–2001. We use a multilevel negative binomial approach with three levels of analysis: localization decisions in a country (49 countries), in a region (six regions) and at the headquarters level. In this way, we test the regional effects controlling for country and corporate dimensions. We also run separate models to differentiate wholly owned and joint venture localization decisions. Our results strongly support the semi-globalization perspective in that the regional-level effects are significant and different from the country-level effects for all foreign subsidiaries, for wholly owned subsidiaries and for jointly owned subsidiaries. Japanese MNEs adopt a regional perspective that complements their decisions at the country and firm levels. They seek regional agglomeration benefits and make arbitrage decisions between countries in the same region.

Predicting the effects of climate change on water yield and forest production in the northeastern United States

CR Climate Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials CR 05:207-222 (1995) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr005207 Predicting the effects of climate change on water yield and forest production in the northeastern United States Aber JD, Ollinger SV, Federer CA, Reich PB, Goulden ML, Kicklighter DW, Melillo JM, Lathrop RG Jr Rapid and simultaneous changes in temperature, precipitation and the atmospheric concentration of CO2 are predicted to occur over the next century. Simple, well-validated models of ecosystem function are required to predict the effects of these changes. This paper describes an improved version of a forest carbon and water balance model (PnET-II) and the application of the model to predict stand- and regional-level effects of changes in temperature, precipitation and atmospheric CO2 concentration. PnET-II is a simple, generalized, monthly time-step model of water and carbon balances (gross and net) driven by nitrogen availability as expressed through foliar N concentration. Improvements from the original model include a complete carbon balance and improvements in the prediction of canopy phenology, as well as in the computation of canopy structure and photosynthesis. The model was parameterized and run for 4 forest/site combinations and validated against available data for water yield, gross and net carbon exchange and biomass production. The validation exercise suggests that the determination of actual water availability to stands and the occurrence or non-occurrence of soil-based water stress are critical to accurate modeling of forest net primary production (NPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP). The model was then run for the entire NewEngland/New York (USA) region using a 1 km resolution geographic information system. Predicted long-term NEP ranged from -85 to +275 g C m-2 yr-1 for the 4 forest/site combinations, and from -150 to 350 g C m-2 yr-1 for the region, with a regional average of 76 g C m-2 yr-1. A combination of increased temperature (+6*C), decreased precipitation (-15%) and increased water use efficiency (2x, due to doubling of CO2) resulted generally in increases in NPP and decreases in water yield over the region. Foliar nitrogen · Photosynthesis · Respiration · Allocation · GIS · Regional analysis · Validation · Transpiration · Water balance Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in CR Vol. 05, No. 3. Publication date: December 07, 1995 Print ISSN: 0936-577X; Online ISSN: 1616-1572 Copyright © 1995 Inter-Research.