Substantive Differences Research Articles

Legal Certainty Principle in Judicial Activism Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia Case Number 143/PUU-XXI/2023

Judicial activism in the petition for Law Number 143/PUU-XXI/2023 concerning the term of office of regional heads / deputy regional heads can present the principles of legal certainty and substantive justice. The Petitioners in the case felt that they suffered constitutional losses due to a legal vacuum where the legislators failed to regulate the calculation of the term of office of regional heads elected in 2018 but inaugurated in 2019. As a result, the applicants experienced a cut in the term of office and could not run the full term of office for 5 (five) years. The type of research is normative, with a statutory approach, conceptual approach and comparative approach. The results showed that judicial activism carried out by the Constitutional Court could find substantive differences between Petition Number 143/PUU-XXI/2023 and Petition Number 62/PUU-XXI/2023, and the court could find a legal vacuum and restore the constitutional losses of the petitioners.

The Catholic Church in Hungary and Romania during the Communist Dictatorship: A Comparative Analysis

The structure and cultural characteristics of a society are, in the words of Joseph Schumpeter, “like metal” – they bend and melt but do not readily evaporate. My comparative analysis confirms the diagnosis that the everyday presence of dictatorship cannot be adequately described by the standard top-down models of ideologically driven communist power. The substantive differences in developments between Hungary and Romania suggest that external power is only part of the construct, however rigid the hegemonic structure. By looking at the reactions caused by similar effects in different contexts, it becomes clear what has an impact on what. The relationship of the churches to the state in the countries under study includes similarities and differences shaped by distinct historical trajectories that are partly structural and partly situational. In terms of circumstances, Romania’s Orthodox pattern regarding the relationship between the state and the church also determined the relationship with other denominations and sealed the fate of Greek Orthodox Catholics. The measures taken against Roman Catholics, although more or less the same as in Hungary, also tended more towards the state-church model. However, this feature was not the primary cause of the different impact in Romania compared to Hungary. This is because, just as the relationship between church and state differed from country to country, so did the relationship of the churches to their own “national” societies. Further, no matter how tempting it might be to consider the Catholic Church a closed entity, the comparison clarifies that neither the hierarchical division nor the same (Catholic) norm made behaviour uniform. The differences arising from local configurations of the single norm grew more and more evident in the 1950s. All this suggests that state and church strategies and actions were shaped more by the conflict of contexts and pressures to comply than by the tension between the scope of action and the constraints: the differences between Romania and Hungary are explained by the different contexts and the cross-generational ecclesiastical and social patterns A greater historical understanding explains how bishops in Hungary, in line with previous conditions and established practice, hoped for quasi-freedom in church operations through a “partnership” with the state while the Roman Catholic Church in Romania has been operating under exlex conditions for four decades. That does not mean that a rational-legal approach on its own is the key to understanding what has occurred. Under a dictatorship, we can identify deviance, excesses, abuses and arbitrary actions in relation to the law. However, these “models” can only be understood in the context of processes that transcend political history. The behaviour of the authorities in Bucharest towards the Catholic Church has been dramatic compared to other countries under Soviet influence. With the arrests of Áron Márton and Anton Durcovici, the public hierarchy appointed by the Holy See ceased to exist. The elimination of dioceses by the state was also a unique feature. The resistance organised by the Jesuits and Franciscans, with the support of the faithful, successfully paralysed the ecclesiastical administration, which had been put in place due to state intervention after the arrest of Áron Márton. This process was largely due to the church’s strengthened social embeddedness in previous years and its successful adaptation of strategies developed to cope with its minority status. Over the centuries, the Catholic Church in Transylvania has faced a series of challenges that have threatened its very existence. These pressures have also shaped the thinking of its clergy and its relationship with its faithful. The recoveries from crises have led to innovative and flexible adaptation strategies, making the local church “tough” and thus contributing to its management of the next crisis. The mentality of the church, which was minimally domesticated or determined by the secular power, showed fewer Josephine traits than in Hungary. The relationship between church and state tended towards the passive model, while the relationship between church and society tended towards the active model. The Catholic Church’s double minority status in Transylvania during the Communist years – minority as a Hungarian and minority as a Catholic – created an alternative society that did not allow it to abstain entirely from politics. Beyond individual choices, this also made its confrontational position more flexible and its submission more moderate.

Психологические характеристики проявления оптимизма и пессимизма у студентов

This article is devoted to the study of the phenomena of optimism and pessimism, which represent diametrically opposed worldviews. Optimism and pessimism are considered as significant psychological constructs that have a close relationship with such phenomena as stress, distress, depression, achievement motivation and coping behavior, which has a significant impact on various spheres of an individual's life.
 
 Each personality has a certain degree of optimism and pessimism, which, being relatively stable personal characteristics, coexist in unity and are in constant interaction. The formation of these characteristics occurs in childhood and adolescence, and later they undergo transformation.
 
 The study showed that the psychological components of the worldview of optimistic and pessimistic students have significant substantive differences. These differences have an impact on purposefulness, emotional saturation of life and satisfaction with self-realization among representatives of these groups.
 
 The results of the study demonstrate gender differences in the tendency to optimism: among girls, the tendency to optimism is higher than this indicator among boys. There is only a slight difference in indicators depending on the year of study, and at senior courses the ratio of optimists and pessimists is equalized (51% and 49%, respectively).

No Matter Your Age, "It's Your Life, It's Your Choice": Compulsory Persuasion and Informal Rehabilitative Support in Youth and Adult Intensive Supervision Programs.

Although existing literature identifies that public protection and risk reduction are the primary goals of intensive supervision programs (ISP), little is known about how or whether rehabilitation of high-risk offenders is prioritized outside of enforcing court-mandated conditions. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and focus groups within two Canadian metropolitan ISPs, our study explores how rehabilitative support is offered to youth and adult high-risk offenders in the absence of formal conditions. Using the framework of late-modern rehabilitation and compulsory persuasion, we draw on themes of offender responsibilization and coercion to interrogate the provision of informal rehabilitative support. Our findings indicate that officers negotiate "voluntary agreements" with select high-risk offenders, which hierarchicalizes them into two groups: those worthy of informal support and those who "choose" not to want to rehabilitate. We also find that youth and adults are treated similarly despite substantive differences between the types of crimes committed.

Theme‐Driven Social Analysis: Three Approaches

In this article, I present three strategies for building cultural and historical analyses that are driven by broadly relevant social themes rather than particular cases. Each of these strategies represents a different way to approach “concept‐driven sociology,” focusing the researcher on robust and deep‐seated social and cultural forces that underly and shape various actions, events, and experiences occurring at different times and places. Such a thematic analysis requires bringing together multiple cases that illustrate a common social phenomenon despite their substantive differences, while also highlighting those differences and interpreting each case to reinforce the analysis of the general theme at hand. After discussing the relevance of form, process, and culture to thematic analysis, I draw on previous and ongoing research to outline three strategies: (1) formal analytic abstraction, (2) the configuration of analytic subtypes from a master theme, and (3) transcendent historical analysis. While thematic analysis involves illustrating how several otherwise different cases cohere around a common theme, and thus highlighting important similarities among them, I conclude by discussing why we must also take deep analytic dives into the cases we study in order to enhance our understanding of the theme that ties them together.

The Probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Preferentially Synthesizes Kynurenic Acid from Kynurenine.

The gut-brain axis is increasingly understood to play a role in neuropsychiatric disorders. The probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus (L.) reuteri and products of tryptophan degradation, specifically the neuroactive kynurenine pathway (KP) metabolite kynurenic acid (KYNA), have received special attention in this context. We, therefore, assessed relevant features of KP metabolism, namely, the cellular uptake of the pivotal metabolite kynurenine and its conversion to its primary products KYNA, 3-hydroxykynurenine and anthranilic acid in L. reuteri by incubating the bacteria in Hank's Balanced Salt solution in vitro. Kynurenine readily entered the bacterial cells and was preferentially converted to KYNA, which was promptly released into the extracellular milieu. De novo production of KYNA increased linearly with increasing concentrations of kynurenine (up to 1 mM) and bacteria (107 to 109 CFU/mL) and with incubation time (1-3 h). KYNA neosynthesis was blocked by two selective inhibitors of mammalian kynurenine aminotransferase II (PF-048559989 and BFF-122). In contrast to mammals, however, kynurenine uptake was not influenced by other substrates of the mammalian large neutral amino acid transporter, and KYNA production was not affected by the presumed competitive enzyme substrates (glutamine and α-aminoadipate). Taken together, these results reveal substantive qualitative differences between bacterial and mammalian KP metabolism.

Long-term HIV care outcomes under universal HIV treatment guidelines: A retrospective cohort study in 25 countries.

While national adoption of universal HIV treatment guidelines has led to improved, timely uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART), longer-term care outcomes are understudied. There is little data from real-world service delivery settings on patient attrition, viral load (VL) monitoring, and viral suppression (VS) at 24 and 36 months after HIV treatment initiation. For this retrospective cohort analysis, we used observational data from 25 countries in the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) consortium's Asia-Pacific, Central Africa, East Africa, Central/South America, and North America regions for patients who were ART naïve and aged ≥15 years at care enrollment between 24 months before and 12 months after national adoption of universal treatment guidelines, occurring 2012 to 2018. We estimated crude cumulative incidence of loss-to-clinic (CI-LTC) at 12, 24, and 36 months after enrollment among patients enrolling in care before and after guideline adoption using competing risks regression. Guideline change-associated hazard ratios of LTC at each time point after enrollment were estimated via cause-specific Cox proportional hazards regression models. Modified Poisson regression was used to estimate relative risks of retention, VL monitoring, and VS at 12, 24, and 36 months after ART initiation. There were 66,963 patients enrolling in HIV care at 109 clinics with ≥12 months of follow-up time after enrollment (46,484 [69.4%] enrolling before guideline adoption and 20,479 [30.6%] enrolling afterwards). More than half (54.9%) were females, and median age was 34 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 27 to 43). Mean follow-up time was 51 months (standard deviation: 17 months; range: 12, 110 months). Among patients enrolling before guideline adoption, crude CI-LTC was 23.8% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 23.4, 24.2) at 12 months, 31.0% (95% CI [30.6, 31.5]) at 24 months, and 37.2% (95% [CI 36.8, 37.7]) at 36 months after enrollment. Adjusting for sex, age group, enrollment CD4, clinic location and type, and country income level, enrolling in care and initiating ART after guideline adoption was associated with increased hazard of LTC at 12 months (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.25 [95% CI 1.08, 1.44]; p = 0.003); 24 months (aHR 1.38 [95% CI 1.19, 1.59]; p < .001); and 36 months (aHR 1.34 [95% CI 1.18, 1.53], p < .001) compared with enrollment before guideline adoption, with no before-after differences among patients with no record of ART initiation by end of follow-up. Among patients retained after ART initiation, VL monitoring was low, with marginal improvements associated with guideline adoption only at 12 months after ART initiation. Among those with VL monitoring, VS was high at each time point among patients enrolling before guideline adoption (86.0% to 88.8%) and afterwards (86.2% to 90.3%), with no substantive difference associated with guideline adoption. Study limitations include lags in and potential underascertainment of care outcomes in real-world service delivery data and potential lack of generalizability beyond IeDEA sites and regions included in this analysis. In this study, adoption of universal HIV treatment guidelines was associated with lower retention after ART initiation out to 36 months of follow-up, with little change in VL monitoring or VS among retained patients. Monitoring long-term HIV care outcomes remains critical to identify and address causes of attrition and gaps in HIV care quality.

The “boy problem” in public policy

AbstractThe article investigates how gender differences in school performance are conceptualized in recent Swedish and Norwegian public commission reports against the backdrop of an increasing public focus on “problem boys” and boys' underachievement in school as a policy challenge. We found substantive country differences, despite regime similarities and the considerable level of gender equality norms and policy diffusion within the Nordic region. Whereas Swedish reports address gender differences in school performance and behavior equipped with radical feminist perspectives and theories of patriarchal oppression, Norwegian reports largely avoid explicit references to feminist theory and include analyses of the unfair burdens of boys in school and society. It is argued that the diverging approaches are connected to features of the commissions and of the wider knowledge regimes of the two gender equality forerunners, but also to historical differences in the ideological underpinnings of Swedish and Norwegian gender equality policy making.Related ArticlesIreni‐Saban, Liza. 2013. “Give Me Children or Else I Die: The Politics and Policy of Cross‐Border Reproductive Care.” Politics &amp; Policy 41(1): 5–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12004.Svallfors, Stefan, Erica Falkenström, Corrie Hammar, and Anna T. Höglund. 2022. “Networked Reports: Commissioning and Production of Expert Reports on Swedish Health Care Governance.” Politics &amp; Policy 50(3): 580–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12462.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. “Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World.” Politics &amp; Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.

Concept‐Driven Sociology

Excerpted from my book Generally Speaking, this paper introduces “concept‐driven sociology,” a special way of theorizing designed to reveal abstract social patterns. As such, it examines the methodological process by which we can “distill” generic patterns from the culturally, historically, and situationally specific contexts in which we encounter them. It thus champions a “generic sociology” that is pronouncedly transcontextual (transcultural, transhistorical, transsituational, and translevel) in its scope. In order to uncover generic, transcontextual social patterns, we need to collect our data in a wide range of social contexts. Such contextual diversity is manifested multi‐culturally, multihistorically, multisituationally, as well as at multiple levels of social aggregation. True to its message, the book illustrates generic social patterns by drawing on numerous examples from diverse cultural contexts and historical periods and a wide range of diverse social domains, as well as by disregarding scale. Emphasizing cross‐contextual commonality, concept‐driven sociology tries to reveal formal “parallels” across seemingly disparate contexts. The paper features the four main types of cross‐contextual analogies concept‐driven sociologists tend to use—cross‐cultural, cross‐historical, cross‐domain, as well as cross‐level—disregarding conventionally noted substantive differences in order to note conventionally disregarded formal equivalences.

«Путешествие на край советской ночи»: к истории публикации дебютного романа Л.-Ф. Селина в СССР

The article focuses on the translation and publication of L.-F. Céline’s debut novel Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932) as an example from the history of Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1930s. So far, the specialized literature has not given unambiguous answers to several questions related to the appearance of the incomplete Russian-language version of the text. The analysis of primary sources and book statistics, materials from central periodicals, and archival documents allows us to restore this unclear episode in the history of Stalin’s cultural diplomacy. The present study aims not only to restore the international context of the reception of Journey in the 1930s and to point out the probable motives behind the hastily realized translation but also to clarify the formal aspects of this enterprise — the number of editions, the dates of signing for printing and the actual print runs, their quantitative values, and formal and substantive differences. The article examines all three Russian-language editions (two editions by GIKhL and Goslitizdat and one another by Zhurgaz, which appeared from February 1934 to July 1935) and reveals structural and content differences in the introductory articles to the first two editions. In addition, the article traces the non-linear trajectory of Céline’s literary reputation in the pre-war USSR. It shows what factors influenced the attitude of the Soviet party and literary figures toward the French writer.

Mortality, morbidity and educational outcomes in children of consanguineous parents in the Born in Bradford cohort.

Children of consanguineous parents have a higher risk of infant and childhood mortality, morbidity and intellectual and developmental disability. Using a UK based longitudinal cohort study we quantify differences according to the consanguinity status of children from birth to 10 in mortality, health care usage, two health and three educational outcomes. The cohort comprises 13727 children; 35.7% White British, 43.7% Pakistani heritage, and 20.8% are from other ethnic groups. Compared to children whose parents were not related children whose parents were first cousins were more likely to die by age 10 (odds ratio 2.81, 95% CI 1.82-4.35) to have higher rates of primary care appointments (incident rate ratio 1.39, 95% CI 1.34-1.45) and more prescriptions (incident rate ratio 1.61, 95% CI 1.50-1.73). Rates of hospital accident and emergency attendance (incident rate ratio 1.21,95% CI 1.12-1.30) and hospital outpatients' appointments (incident rate ratio 2.21,95% CI 1.90-2.56) are higher. Children of first cousins have higher rates of speech/ language development difficulties (odds ratio 1.63, 95% CI 1.36-1.96) and learning difficulties (odds ratio 1.89, 95% CI 1.28-2.81). When they begin school they are less likely to reach phonics standards (odds ratio 0.73, 95% CI 0.63-0.84) and less likely to show a good level of development (odds ratio 0.61, 95% CI 0.54-0.68). At age 10 there are higher numbers with special educational needs from first cousin unions compared to all children whose parents are not blood relations (odds ratio 1.38, 95% CI 1.20-1.58). Effect sizes for consanguinity status are similar in univariable and multivariable models where a range of control variables are added. There is higher childhood mortality and greater use of health care as well as higher rates of learning difficulties, speech and language development challenges and substantive differences in education outcomes in children whose parents are first cousins.

Response to anxiety treatment before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic yielded a substantial increase in worldwide prevalence and severity of anxiety, but less is known about effects on anxiety treatment. We evaluated effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on responses to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety, in a clinically heterogeneous sample of patients. A sample of 764 outpatients were separated into four groups: (1) Pre-pandemic (start date on or prior to 12/31/2019), (2) Pandemic-Onset (start date from 01/01/2020 to 03/31/2020), (3) During-Pandemic (start date from 04/01/2020 through 12/31/2020), and (4) Post-Pandemic (start date on or after 01/01/2021). We subsequently compared treatment trajectories and effects within and between these groups over 5621 total time points (mean of 7.38 measurements per patient). Overall, patients presented with moderate levels of anxiety (M = 13.25, 95%CI: 12.87, 13.62), which rapidly decreased for 25 days (M = 9.46, 95%CI: 9.09, 9.83), and thereafter slowly declined into the mild symptom range over the remainder of the study period (M = 7.36, 95%CI: 6.81, 7.91), representing clinically as well as statistically significant change. A series of conditional multilevel regression models indicated that there were no substantive differences between groups, and no increase in anxiety during the acute pandemic phase. Our results suggest that responses to treatment for anxiety were equivalent before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Among patients who were in treatment prior to the pandemic, we failed to detect an increase in anxiety during the pandemic's acute phase (March 20th, 2020 through July 1st, 2020).

(Gun) Tag, Congress is it!

The current majority of the Supreme Court has significantly increased access to firearms. In last year’s New York State Rifle &amp; Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, the majority curtailed legislative options for protecting U.S. citizens from the danger presented by unfettered access to life-threatening weapons. The majority refused to acknowledge the danger inherent in firearms and the substantive difference in function between an antique flintlock and an AK-47. The Court’s refusal to consider the change that technology has brought to firearm capabilities has resulted in a dramatically reduced ability for any legislation to address the danger of firearms in a constructive manner. However, this reduction is not necessarily an elimination. Even with the historically inaccurate and logically flawed decision of the current majority, there are still measures that can be taken. Modern technology can be used to limit the harm posed by rampant gun possession even under the Court’s recent interpretation of the Second Amendment. The majority in Bruen embraced analyzing the purpose of the Second Amendment to hold that people should be allowed to carry a gun outside their home and on the streets of every city in America. The adoption of purpose analysis, however, can not only enlarge gun rights but also constrain gun harms, such as via technological means. This same purpose analysis can be used to establish meaningful safeguards to help reduce unnecessary deaths that even this majority will be hard-pressed to deem unconstitutional. Legislators should use purpose analysis to establish regulations that will help protect Americans from gun violence. This Article proposes the introduction of methods like gun tagging to promote greater safety in our country. The contributions of this work are thus two-fold: an analysis of the Bruen decision both from a historical and legal perspective, and the introduction of gun tagging as a mechanism to enhance public safety in the United States. This analysis shows the flaws in the majority opinion in Bruen but simultaneously highlights the fact that the proposal in this Article works under that regime until the members of the Court are changed and that law can be overturned. This solution balances the concerns of gun skeptics with the judicial embrace of gun rights, for better or for worse, in our nation’s history.

BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE OF THE BANKING SECTOR: CONTENT AND DETERMINING PARAMETERS OF FORMATION

Introduction. The banking sector is one of the most dynamic spheres of economic life. That is why the problem of forming an effective business architecture of the banking sector, which would ensure its financial stability and contribute to the economic development of the national economy, is important. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the content of business architecture, based on the specifics of the banking sector, and outline the fundamental factors of its formation. Results. The main markers determining the need to ensure the continuity of the banking sector are outlined. The components of the continuity management system of the banking sector are defined. The substantive difference between the concepts of "bank business model", "bank strategy" and "business architecture of the banking sector" is formulated according to the criterion approach. The scientific position on the classification of business models of banks is summarized. The author's vision of the two-level structuring of the bank's business model is presented. Conclusions. It is proven that the main requirements for the modern banking sector as a highly adaptive system are its openness and self-organization, purposefulness, emergency, integrity, reliability, flexibility and sustainability. The prerequisite for achieving the above is the optimal business architecture of the banking sector, which, in turn, is derived from the interaction of the business models of banks presented on the market. It is substantiated that in the conditions of the modern digital transformation of the economic space, it is important to comprehensively and multi-facetedly identify the business models of banks, which would take into account modern trends.

Inequalities in diet quality by socio-demographic characteristics, smoking, and weight status in a large UK-based cohort using a new UK diet quality questionnaire-UKDQQ.

The aim of this study was to explore the associations between diet quality, socio-demographic measures, smoking, and weight status in a large, cross-sectional cohort of adults living in Yorkshire and Humber, UK. Data from 43, 023 participants aged over 16 years in the Yorkshire Health Survey, 2nd wave (2013-2015) were collected on diet quality, socio-demographic measures, smoking, and weight status. Diet quality was assessed using a brief, validated tool. Associations between these variables were assessed using multiple regression methods. Split-sample cross-validation was utilised to establish model portability. Observed patterns in the sample showed that the greatest substantive differences in diet quality were between females and males (3.94 points; P < 0.001) and non-smokers vs smokers (4.24 points; P < 0.001), with higher diet quality scores observed in females and non-smokers. Deprivation, employment status, age, and weight status categories were also associated with diet quality. Greater diet quality scores were observed in those with lower levels of deprivation, those engaged in sedentary occupations, older people, and those in a healthy weight category. Cross-validation procedures revealed that the model exhibited good transferability properties. Inequalities in patterns of diet quality in the cohort were consistent with those indicated by the findings of other observational studies. The findings indicate population subgroups that are at higher risk of dietary-related ill health due to poor quality diet and provide evidence for the design of targeted national policy and interventions to prevent dietary-related ill health in these groups. The findings support further research exploring inequalities in diet quality in the population.

Дихотомии евразийства: общественно-географический анализ

Eurasianism is among the traditional and most significant intellectual-political currents for Russia and its geostrategy. The importance of the postulates and approaches cultivated within Eurasianism has notably increased in the context of the sharply manifested conflict in the “Russia-West“ system in recent years and the corresponding reorientation of the Russian Federation’s geoeconomic priorities towards the countries of the “Global Majority.“ The actualization of Eurasianism and its broad entrenchment in Russian academic discourse is combined with its contemporary conceptual “fuzziness,“ variability of interpretations, and the presence of deep contradictions and problematic areas inherent to Eurasian ideological concepts, which the author conceptualizes as “dichotomies of Eurasianism.“ The article emphasizes the essential duality of Eurasianism, combining elements of verifiable scientific knowledge with ideological principles, allowing it to be considered a unique form of geo-ideology. It identifies substantive differences between the positions of classical Eurasianism (works of N. S. Trubetskoy, P. N. Savitsky, G. V. Vernadsky, etc.) and the prevailing directions of Eurasianism in the 21st century (“neo-Eurasianism,“ concepts of “Greater Eurasia,“ “Northern Eurasia“). The simultaneous presence of universalism (on an all-Russian and continental scale) and pronounced “Russia-centricity,“ as well as the combination of geoeconomic and geocultural isolationism with a strong integrative message across nations and countries, inherent in Eurasianism, are demonstrated. The necessity for the further development of Eurasianism, including within the framework of social geography issues, is substantiated.

Homicide among Indigenous females in North Carolina: a comparison of publicly generated data and violent death reporting system.

Like other minoritized populations, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) females experience disparate morbidity and mortality outcomes to that of the general US population. This study identified discrepancies in reporting of AI/AN female decedents between the North Carolina Violent Death Reporting System (NC-VDRS) and an online, user-generated database. Female AI/AN decedent data of all ages were collected from the NC-VDRS and compared against that of the publicly available North Carolina Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW NC) database for the study period, 2004-2019. Twenty-four of the 72 cases matched between data systems (33.3%). Substantive differences between the NC-VDRS and the MMIW NC database were found. Future efforts should be directed towards supporting Indigenous communities with the comprehensive data the NC-VDRS can provide. This paper highlights statewide public health systems like the NC-VDRS supporting community efforts to understand, advocate for, and disseminate information on MMIW.

An Investigation of COVID-19 Outcomes and College Student Demographics: Results from a National Sample.

To assess the effects of COVID-19 on college students and any differential outcomes across collegiate sub-populations towards the beginning of the pandemic. Cross-sectional survey. Fall 2020 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment. N = 13373 undergraduate/graduate/professional students; 22 colleges/universities. Six COVID-19 outcomes; 10 demographics. Campus-specific weights for student enrollment/sex distribution. Cross-tabulations/Pearson χ2 test; Cramer's V/effect size; Bonferroni multiple testing correction (P < .0009). 5.6% of students had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Compared to counterparts within each demographic category, rates were significantly higher among many BIPOC student groups (e.g., Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander: 15.0%); cisgender women (5.9%) and men (5.6%); heterosexuals (6.1%); undergraduates (6.3%); and sorority/fraternity members (13.7%). Due to COVID-19, 8.8% of students had lost a loved one; 14.6% had a loved one with long term effects from COVID; 38.6% had increased stress; 61.4% had more financial concerns; and 52.7% had more difficulty accessing mental healthcare. Students identifying as BIPOC; cisgender women and transgender/gender non-conforming (TGNC); queer-spectrum; undergraduate; first-generation; having a disability; and taking courses online were significantly more affected by most of these outcomes (all comparisons P < .0009). Students were widely impacted by COVID-19 with substantive differences across sub-populations. Future research should examine trends over time and explore ways to reduce health disparities.

Escaping the dry: Native and non‐native fish outmigration from a receding floodplain following managed inundation

Abstract Many fish rely on being able to move between rivers and floodplains to fulfil key life history events, but river regulation has reduced floodplain inundation compromising these connections and causing the loss of ecosystem function more generally. Managed inundations are being trialled in some systems as a solution, whereby engineered floods using built infrastructure, such as floodplain regulators, are used to deliver water to inundate floodplains. However, the use of managed inundations is still in early stages and their outcomes for native fish have been rarely assessed. We present the results from a series of investigations assessing the effectiveness of two managed inundations on the native fish community in a large floodplain in south‐eastern Australia. We firstly described changes in fish assemblages in wetlands before and after managed inundation (Aim 1). We then examined which potential exits are used by golden perch, a highly mobile species that regularly moves between rivers and floodplains (Aim 2), and then assessed outmigration patterns of native and non‐native species during receding phase from one of the major golden perch exits via a fishlock (Aim 3). Finally, we conducted two experiments to test if it was possible to modify operation of the fishlock to maximise fish movement by varying the length of the operating cycle, or whether operation occurs during the day or night (Aim 4). We found that native fish dominated the catch in wetlands before drawdown of the managed inundation, but that non‐native species, especially young‐of‐year carp, dominated after the drawdown (Aim 1). Outmigrating golden perch left the floodplain wetlands in a variety of locations but predominantly through a fishlock, which is a type of fishway (Aim 2). At this fishlock, native fish outmigrated before and during the early phase of the floodplain recession, moving to permanent riverine habitats, whereas non‐native fish (mostly carp) tended to migrate later in the recession especially as water levels dropped (Aim 3). There were no substantive differences in the numbers and size of fish moving through the fishlock at different operating cycle times (Aim 4). While there were no differences in numbers of non‐native carp migrating during the day or night, native species (carp gudgeon and Australian smelt) were more common during the day. Our study has provided knowledge of the eco‐hydraulic mechanisms of fish movement, in relation to managed inundaitons. This knowledge can be applied to help water managers plan floodplain watering regimes in the Murray‐Darling Basin to benefit native fish, while potentially restricting movement of undesirable non‐native species such as carp. More broadly, our results improve current understanding of fish movement in relation to managed floodplain recession, which is critical given the increased use of such managed inundations, and the need for information to help design and evaluate them.

Changing context, changing work? Comparing rural and urban contexts in social services provision in Italy

PurposeThe study compares the social services functioning in two local contexts, one urban and one rural, in the same Italian region, to understand how contextual features affect frontline workers' work.Design/methodology/approachBy applying the framework of the street-level bureaucracy theory (SLB) and proposing a framing of the spatial contexts under analysis, the present study adopts a qualitative approach. In particular, semi-structured interviews were conducted among street-level workers, decision-makers and privileged witnesses.FindingsThe study shows how the typical features of the rural and urban Italian contexts analyzed impact differently on the working conditions of frontline workers, leading to substantive differences in the possibility of exercise their role at the street-level.Originality/valueThe article contributes to a wider understanding of social services provision in a highly fragmented system like the Italian one by taking into consideration contexts that are usually little investigated in SLB and welfare studies in the Mediterranean Europe area: those rural and, in particular, those belonging to the so-called “inner areas”.