Underdeveloped Area Research Articles

Investigation of 3-year inpatient TB cases in Zunyi, China: Increased TB burden but improved bacteriological diagnosis.

BackgroundAs one of the top three high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries, China is a country where the overall TB incidence continues to decline. However, due to its large population and area, the increased TB burden exists in regional areas.MethodsThis retrospective study analyzed local inpatient pulmonary TB cases in the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (AHZMU) from January 2016 to December 2018 in a high TB incidence and economically-less-developed area of China. Four methods, acid-fast bacilli stain, culture, Xpert and LAMP, were used to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), while proportional method and Xpert were used to identify rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB). Case number, treatment history, M.tb confirmed TB and rifampicin resistant proportion were analyzed to investigate the local TB epidemic.ResultsTotal 3,910 local inpatient cases with pulmonary TB were admitted to AHZMU during this study period. The annual numbers of total TB cases increased 26.4% (from 1,173 to 1,483), while new cases increased 29.6% (from 936 to 1,213) and RR-TB cases increased 2.7 times (from 31 to 84). Meanwhile, the percentage of previously treated cases declined from 20.2 to 18.2% and the M.tb confirmed TB proportion increased from 34.7 to 49.7%.ConclusionThe elevated M.tb confirmed TB proportion and the declined percentage of previously treated cases indicated the improved TB diagnosis and treatment of AHZMU. However, the increasing number of total TB cases, new and RR-TB cases showed an upward trend and increased TB burden in a relatively underdeveloped area of China.

Ureterovaginal Fistula: An Audit of Treatment Options in an Underdeveloped Area of Pakistan

Throughout 2021, we were requested to assess and treat 10 women who had suffered ureterovaginal fistulas after caesarean sections at separate remote hospitals. We describe our experiences diagnosing and treating uninsured patients at a hospital with minimal resources. A three-swab test was conducted on each of the 10 patients, and an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound was utilised to help locate the afflicted ureter. The patient had transvesical ureteral stent insertion. The stent was removed after two weeks. No wetness in the 10 patients.In the middle of today's complicated health care system, we must continuously remind ourselves of the common develops after a caesarean section and a well-known and simple diagnostic technique management in resource-poor communities

Potensi Sektor Pertanian dalam Pembangunan Ekonomi di Kabupaten Jembrana

The Potential of the Agricultural Sector in the Economic Development of Jembrana Regency. The agricultural sector in Jembrana Regency is the sector that provides the largest contribution to the regional domestic product of the Province of Bali, amounting to Rp 1,810,266.32 million. Based on the available resources, Jembrana Regency has an agricultural land area of 38.5% and most of the population work as farmers (28.01%). However, the agricultural sector has not been able to become a driving force to develop the potential of the agricultural sector in Jembrana Regency to the fullest. This study aims to analyze: (1) the position of Jembrana Regency in the regional economy in Bali Province, (2) the position of the agricultural sector in the regional economy in Jembrana Regency and (3) the types of agricultural commodities which are the leading commodities in Jembrana Regency. The results show that the position of Jembrana Regency in the regional economy in Bali Province is within quadrant IV, meaning that it is a relatively underdeveloped area. The position of the agricultural sector in Jembrana Regency is within quadrant I, meaning that the sector is progressing and growing rapidly. The results of the Location Quotient analysis show that the leading commodities in Jembrana Regency for the food crop sub sector are rice, soybeans and green beans, while in the horticultural crop sub sector are long beans, large chilies, cucumbers, eggplants, watermelons, melons, bananas, rambutan, pineapple, duku and soursop. This research is expected to help the local government in determining priorities and policies in developing the agricultural sector in the Jembrana Regency so that it could transform Jembrana Regency into a developed and growing region.

Exploring the embodied carbon flow interactive relationships in China from an ecological network perspective: a model framework and application at provincial level.

Energy-related carbon emissions take a large proportion in China, and the interregional trade caused by provincial disparities has led to significant differences in carbon footprint (CF) and embodied carbon flows among provinces that make great bottlenecks for the balance of economic development and carbon mitigation. In this study, we developed an embodied carbon flow-based ecological network (ECFEN) model with economic trade and emission data through combining the multi-regional input-output model and ecological network analysis approach. The developed ECFEN model was applied to 30 provinces in China to quantify the interprovincial flow of carbon embodied in final goods and services and identify the ecological utility (competitive, exploitative, and exploited) and control/dependence relationships between different regions. The main findings can be summarized as follows: Firstly, Jiangsu had the highest total CF with amount of 906 Mt, which was approximately 24.5 times than that of Hainan (37 Mt). Especially, the local CF in Shandong was the largest among all of the provinces with an amount of 683 Mt. Secondly, 13 pairs of embodied carbon flow paths exceeded 20 Mt, and the remarkable embodied carbon flowed from resource-oriented regions (e.g., Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei) to economically developed eastern coastal provinces and municipalities (e.g., Jiangsu, Guangdong, Beijing, Chongqing). Metallurgy and electricity, water, and gas contributed 30-80% of the total embodied carbon import and export for each province. Thirdly, the exploitative and exploited relationship dominated the ecological relationship between provinces. Meanwhile, the resource-oriented regions played the role of controllers while economically developed provinces were dependents. On the one hand, the central government could take vertical compensation measures such as financial subsidies for major exporter and controllers. On the other hand, it is necessary to take horizontal technical transfer especially from economically developed southeast coastal provinces to western underdeveloped inland area. The obtained results and policy implications are expected to provide reasonable insights for decision-makers to formulate carbon mitigation strategies under the domestic circulation strategy.

Phthalocyanines with Non-Traditional Early Transition-Metals

The synthesis, spectroscopic and redox properties of new metallophthalocyanines (PcM) are active areas of research. The rings of PcM complexes can be successively reduced using chemical, electrochemical, or photochemical methods to give rise to species containing ring-reduced Pc(3-), Pc(4-) or Pc(5-) ligands ; in the other direction, both ring-oxidized Pc(-1) and Pc(0)-containing systems can be accessed. These species are usually generated and characterized in situ and have only recently begun to be isolated and structurally characterized. In particular, there are few examples of phthalocyanines with early-transition and f-block metals - despite the rich organometallic-type reactivity of these metals - and thus we targeted new PcM complexes in this underdeveloped area of the periodic table. Given their larger ionic size, the unusual structural feature of the metal centre protruding far out of the Pc cavity is observed. Hence, the exposure of the coordination sphere of these Lewis-acidic (often d0) metals makes these PcM complexes attractive catalysts; this cis-oriented axial ligation also drastically improves the solubility, despite the Pc-ring remaining unsubstituted.In this presentation the isolation and structural characterization of new PcM materials with M = scandium, zirconium, niobium and (time-permitting) molybdenum will be described, along with rare structurally characterized examples of their reduced Pc(4-) and Pc(3-)complexes. Their electronic structure and electrochemical behaviour will be discussed using a combination of spectroscopic and structural techniques. A series of moisture-sensitive, soluble PcZr(IV) and PcNb(V) alkoxides were prepared, characterized, and their catalytic activity towards the ring-opening polymerization of rac-lactide was studied and will be detailed. Reaction of PcScCl with LiO i Pr and NaO t Bu yielded two hydroxide complexes containing the PcScOH unit, obtained from the hydrolysis of the putative PcSc-alkoxide intermediate. The two structurally characterized systems have a tilted “butterfly” shape structure, reminiscent of bent metallocenes. The solubility of these early transition-metal based complexes present new opportunities for the advancement of this underdeveloped area of PcM chemistry. Time permitting, our related work on organometallic PcLnX complexes will also be described.ReferencesZhou, D.B. Leznoff, Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 1829-1832. W. Zhou, J.R. Thompson, C.C. Leznoff, D.B. Leznoff, Chem. Eur. J., 2017, 23, 2323-2331; R. Platel, W. Zhou, T.T. Tasso, T. Furuyama, N. Kobayashi, D.B. Leznoff, Chem. Commun., 2015, 5986-89; D. McKearney, W. Zhou, V.E. Williams, D.B. Leznoff, Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 6696-6699; Y. Ganga-Sah, E. Tajbakhsh, R.H. Platel, W. Zhou, D.B. Leznoff, J. Porph. Phthalocyanines, 2019, 23, 1592-1602; W. Zhou, D. McKearney, D.B. Leznoff, Chem. Eur. J., 2020, 26, 1027-31.

Community Radio Initiation for Remote Learning Program in East Nusa Tenggara

This paper reports the initiation of community radio as a remote learning medium in Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Using qualitative method, this study examines a community radio establishment in Sumba, an underdeveloped area in East Indonesia during the global pandemic of Covid-19. The study found out that digital divide was the key factor when the Government decided to stop face-to-face learning into online learning in March 2020. Compounded by flash floods and landslides in April 2021 in the midst pandemic, a group of civil society initiated a community radio for remote learning located in Melolo, East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, providing educational services for the community.

Analysis of Strategic Variabel for Development of the Indonesia – Papua New Guinea Border Area

The Republic of Indonesia (RI) - Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the national borders on the island of Papua and is located very strategically from a cultural, social, economic and political perspective. This region is an underdeveloped area with various complexities of problems in it. Nevertheless, in the context of improving people's welfare and maintaining states overeignty. This study aims to analyze strategic variables in the development of the RI-PNG border area with a prospective analysis approach using the MICMAC (Matrix of Cross Impact Analysis) method. The results showed that the key variables that have a strong influence and little dependence on the development of the RI-PNG border area are customary leadership, regulation, border governance, budget support and public infrastructure. These variables are also the driving variables that affect the overall development system.

The Disease Spectrum and Influencing Factors of NICU in Xiangxi, Underdeveloped Area of China: A 9-Year Retrospective Study.

ObjectiveInvestigation of the basic conditions and disease spectrum in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) from 2012 to 2020, in the underdeveloped area of Xiangxi, China.MethodsAll newborns (N = 16,094) admitted to the NICU of a hospital in the Xiangxi area from 2012 to 2020 were selected for the retrospective study.ResultsThe average male/female ratio was 1.43:1, with 9,482 males and 6,612 females admitted to the NICU. The sample comprised 41.02% premature infants, and 56.52% had been delivered via cesarean delivery (CD). The most prevalent diseases diagnosed in the NICU were jaundice (22.01%), respiratory (18.45%) and neurological diseases (17.54%). Over the 9-year study window, the prevalence of jaundice and cardiovascular diseases increased, while respiratory and neurological diseases became less frequent. The prevalence of the remaining diseases remained unchanged. Prevalence of neonatal diseases is influenced by gender, patient sources, delivery methods, gestational age and birth weight (P < 0.05). The prevalence of neonatal diseases was significantly higher in males, infants born via CD, and in infants of lower gestational age and birth weight.ConclusionThe study contributes in-depth information about infant characteristics in an NICU in an undeveloped region of China. In the past 9 years, the average proportion of premature infants in the NICU decreased to 37.38% in 2020, but this figure remains higher than the Chinese national average of 26.2%. Similarly, the CD rate is higher than the Chinese average. The spectrum of neonatal diseases in the NICU in Xiangxi area is drawn, included jaundice, respiratory and neurological diseases, primarily. Through statistical analysis, it is found that the types and prevalence of neonatal diseases are closely related to different gender, gestational age, patient sources, delivery methods, and birth weight (P < 0.05). Newborns of specific gestational age, birth weight and delivery method should be considered “at-risk” and targeted in the formulation of preventive measures. There is a great need to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal diseases—and perinatal health care in general—to ensure improved outcomes for newborns admitted to NICUs in underdeveloped regions.

Neurosurgery in canine epilepsy

Epilepsy surgery is functional neurosurgery applied to drug-resistant epilepsy. Although epilepsy surgery has been established and achieves fair to good outcomes in human medicine, it is still an underdeveloped area in veterinary medicine. With the spread of advanced imaging and neurosurgical modalities, intracranial surgery has become commonplace in the veterinary field, and, therefore, it is natural that expectations for epilepsy surgery increase. This review summarizes current standards of intracranial epilepsy surgery in human medicine and describes its current status and expectation in veterinary medicine. Intracranial epilepsy surgery is classified generally into resection surgery, represented by cortical resection, lobectomy, and lesionectomy, and disconnection surgery, such as corpus callosotomy and multiple subpial transection. In dogs with drug-resistant epilepsy, corpus callosotomy is available as a disconnection surgery for generalized epilepsy. However, other types of disconnection and resection surgeries for focal epilepsy are limited to experimental studies in laboratory dogs and/or anecdotal case reports of lesionectomy, such as tumor or encephalocele removal, without epileptogenic evidence. Veterinary epilepsy surgery is a new and challenging neurosurgery field; with the development of presurgical evaluations such as advanced electroencephalography and neuroimaging, it may become more readily practiced.

China’s Forest Eco-Bank Project: An Analysis Based on the Actor-Network Theory

The high degree of fragmentation and unsustainable exploitation patterns of forest resources have become prominent obstacles to the realisation of the economic and social value of China’s forest resources. China’s forest eco-bank (FEB) project was set up to achieve centralised utilisation of diffuse forest resources in an underdeveloped area. Analysing FEB projects is of great significance to countries with abundant forest resources aiming to benefit from the economic and ecological functions of such resources and achieve sustainable economic and social development. This study uses the actor-network theory framework to analyse cooperation among various actors in the implementation process of the FEB project in China. Our results indicate the following. First, the government was the principal actor playing a vital role in motivating the other parties and driving the project forward. Second, the diffuse nature of China’s forest resources is a major obstacle to their utilisation. The centralised integration of forest resources is a prerequisite for their effective utilisation. Finally, it is necessary to improve the balance of interests of the various actors to promote a more stable actor network and attract more actors to participate in the FEB project.

Additives in the food supply chain: Environmental assessment and circular economy implications

Food additives constitute an integral ingredient of food production and processing operations, as their functional properties are paramount to not only improving the organoleptic qualities but also preventing spoilage thus prolonging food products' shelf life. Despite their cardinal role in the food industry as key facilitators of global food supply and distribution, aspects related to the food additives supply chain remain an underdeveloped research area. Using as a case study a food processing company in Greece that specialises in the production of meat additives, the objective of this paper is twofold. First, to assess the environmental performance of the company's production process, identifying the main hotspots and drivers for environmental impacts by means of the Life Cycle Assessment method. Second, following the identification of employed circular economy practices, to discuss corresponding managerial implications. The latter will attempt to contribute to the enrichment of circular economy in the context of food supply chains relevant literature through exploring strategies of reducing meat additives surpluses, shading light on the underexplored yet paramount industry between the stages of food production and processing. In addition, some social considerations based on the obtained Life Cycle Assessment results will be given, to discuss the consequences of productive behaviours and to understand how they perform in the national context.

Length of stay and influencing factors of NICU in the Western Hunan, an underdeveloped area of China: A 9-year retrospective study.

ObjectiveTo investigate the factors that influence the length of stay (LOS) in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).MethodsThis retrospective study analysed clinical data from all newborns hospitalized in the NICU of a tertiary hospital in the Western Hunan area of China over a 9-year period (2012–2020). Factors associated with the LOS were analysed using univariate analysis and Cox regression analysis.ResultsA total of 16 094 newborns were included in the study: of which 9615 were inborn and 6479 were outborn newborns. There were 9482 males and 6612 females. Over the 9-year period, the mean LOS was 11.08 days (median LOS, 9.00 days; range, 1–141 days); and the LOS first increased, then decreased and stabilized. A LOS of 8–28 days was the most common duration (8849 of 16 094; 54.98%). Cox regression analysis demonstrated that sex, patient source, delivery method, gestational age, birth weight and comorbidities were significantly associated with LOS.ConclusionBeing male, low gestational age and low birth weight increased the LOS. Reducing preterm and post-term infants, as well as eliminating comorbidities, could effectively shorten the LOS of newborns.

The Sharing of Costs and Benefits of Rural Environmental Pollution Governance in China: A Qualitative Analysis through Guanxi Networks Perspective

Concern has been expressed in many parts of the world that community relations in rural areas are breaking down, making issues such as rural environmental degradation harder to resolve without external regulation. Guanxi is a specific Chinese idiom for characterizing social networks, as a broad term to represent existing relations among people, which can be loosely translated as ‘‘relationship’’. Based on a case study of an underdeveloped mountainous area of Southern China, this paper examined the problem from the perspective of guanxi, and explored the impacts of internal group differentiation catalyzed by pig farming pollution and the subsequent influences on the distribution of costs and benefits of different shareholders. It was found that the guanxi in the village were changed from blood relationship centered to economic interest centered. This disparity exerts a significant influence on the distribution of costs and benefits of pollution control and exacerbates environmental inequalities. This means that pig farmers dominated the narrative of pig farming pollution, while the ordinary villagers chose to suffer without protesting, which hinders the advancement of pollution control, and pig farmers took the benefits of weak pollution control and managed to transfer the external cost to others, while others became direct victims. The paper concludes that the rich become richer and the poor become poorer in both economic and environmental perspectives. It is strongly suggested that guanxi should be integrated into the consideration and decision-making process of rural environmental governance in order to guarantee the efficiency and efficacy of its implementation.

Demystifying Area and Perimeter: A Practitioner’s Guide to Strategies That Work

An understanding of concepts related to geometric measurement is considered to be critical to the development of individuals’ mathematics knowledge. Specifically, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s 2008 report listed the skills of area and perimeter as foundational for algebra readiness. Yet, this content knowledge continues to be an underdeveloped skill area for many school-age children and especially those with learning disabilities. This article provides educators with the following four strategies that are grounded in research and can be implemented during instruction on area and perimeter: (a) instruction using manipulatives, (b) focusing on salient variables within problems, (c) utilizing visual-chunking representations, and (d) incorporating contextualized scenarios and experiences.

Spatiotemporal heterogeneous effects of socio-demographic and built environment on private car usage: An empirical study of Kunming, China

The increasing car usage has caused a series of social and environmental problems. Most previous studies examined the general correlations between the determinants and the usage pattern of private car by establishing global regression models. These models ignore the variation of travel behavior across temporal and spatial dimensions, which possibly leads to wrong bias and overlooks certain momentous details. Considering this research gap, this paper explores the influence of determinants on the time-of-day car usage pattern, using the multi-source data collected from the city of Kunming, China. It applies a geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to investigate the heterogeneous relationship between on the hourly mode share of private car and the factors of individual attributes and built environment. The empirical results show that the GTWR model produces better goodness-of-fit compared with global regression model, as well as geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. It suggests that most explanatory variables are spatiotemporal non-stationary associated with hourly car share. A visualization method is applied to analyze the temporal variation of the coefficients of socio-demographic attributes and built environment variables, and to reveal the spatial distribution of the effects of determinants during peak periods. The empirical results show that both of selected the socio-demographic and built environment attributes have heterogeneous effect on the car share in time and space dimensions. For example, the proportion of college or college above presents stronger negative effect on the share of private car in the afternoon peak than in the morning peak, the negative impact of the densities of built environment (i.e., road, population, and bus stop) is more significant in underdeveloped area. Finally, insightful policy recommendations for different urban areas are presented to encourage the reduction of car usage and alleviate urban traffic problems.

Prevalence of mental health problems among senior high school students in mainland of China from 2010 to 2020: A meta-analysis

<p id="p00005">High school is the key period of psychological development, and it is also the frequent period of a variety of psychological problems. The mental health problems of senior high school students not only come from adolescents themselves, but also should attract extensive attention from families, schools and society. In order to improve the mental health of senior high school students and ensure the effective development of follow-up mental health work, it is necessary to understand the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students in China, so as to master the basic situation of mental health of senior high school students. Although many previous studies have involved the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students, there is no consistent conclusion on the detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students in China in recent ten years. In order to clarify the detection rates and influencing factors of mental health problems of senior high school students in China in recent ten years, this study makes a comprehensive and systematic meta-analysis of the relevant detection rate articles of senior high school students (including higher vocational students) in recent ten years, so as to form a clearer understanding of the general situation of their mental health. Because there are too many indicators involved in mental health problems, this study focuses on the detection rate of two common problems in senior high school students: internalizing problems (including anxiety, depression, sleep problems, somatization, suicidal ideation, and suicide plan) and externalizing problems (including self injury and suicide attempt. In addition, this study also investigated the regulatory effects of publishing age, relevant factors of measurement tools (measurement tools, detection standards, detection time), and demographic variables (grade, region, gender, only child or not, birthplace) on the detection rate of mental health problems. <br/>By searching the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database and Web of Science core collection database from 2010 to 2020, 252 effective literatures were finally obtained, including 48 articles on anxiety, 99 articles on depression, 21 articles on sleep problems, 14 articles on somatization, 29 articles on self injury, and 41 articles on suicide. The results of meta-analysis showed that (1) The prevalence from high to low were depression (28.0%), anxiety (26.3%), sleep problems (23.0%), self-injury (22.8%), suicidal ideation (17.1%), somatization (9.8%), suicide plan (6.9%), and suicide attempt (2.9%); (2) In the past ten years, the mental health problems of senior high school students in China have deteriorated with the passage of time, especially anxiety; (3) The detection rate of mental health problems of senior high school students is affected by the relevant factors of measurement tools (measurement tools, detection standards and detection time); (4) The mental health problems of senior high school students increased with the increase of grade, especially sleep problems; (5) The mental health problems of senior high school students were affected by regions, especially in economically underdeveloped areas. It can be seen that the prevalence of mental health problems of senior high school students in China was affected by the year of publication, measurement tools, detection standards, detection time, grade and region. In the future, efforts should be made to prepare standardized evaluation tools, build a long-term mechanism of mental health education, and focus on the mental health problems of senior class and underdeveloped area senior high school students.

Methamphetamine‐Induced Proteomic Changes Within the Neuroinflammatory TLR4 Pathway Persist After Long‐Term Self‐Administration in Rats

In the United States, at least 1.6 million people use methamphetamine (METH) annually, with over half of these meeting criteria for a substance use disorder. Extended METH use causes a state of chronic neural inflammation, which can lead to lasting detrimental effects if left untreated. Due to the cognitive, behavioral, and financial toll of METH use disorders, further investigation into the mechanism behind the persistence of these effects is warranted. Our lab conducted a pilot behavioral and proteomics study using a rodent model of intravenous (i.v.) METH self‐administration to simulate daily METH use. We aimed to identify key protein expression changes in specific brain regions affected by METH‐induced inflammation as potential future therapeutic targets. We hypothesized that in a model emulating contingent, chronic METH usage and subsequent long‐term washout, we would observe regional and molecular proteomic changes indicating the persistence of METH‐induced neural inflammation.Male Sprague‐Dawley rats (N = 8) were trained to acquire a METH dose of 0.1 mg/kg via lever‐press, and after acquisition criteria were met, underwent dose‐substitution testing with METH (0.001‐0.32 mg/kg/inf) in daily, 2‐hour sessions. This was followed by progressive ratio testing in which rats responded for saline or METH (0.010‐0.1 mg/kg/inf) in 12‐hour sessions (all rats had 3‐4 months access to METH). After a 72‐hour washout period post‐METH exposure, a subset of the brains (n = 3) were sectioned into hippocampus, striatum, frontal cortex, and cerebellum regions for non‐targeted proteomics analysis. Identification of a total of 6,892 proteins was performed using a MaxQuant (Max Planck Institute) database search against Rattus norvegicus (May 2020), and these data were examined via Qiagen’s Ingenuity Pathway Analysis tool.Our results displayed upregulation of acute phase response signaling across the four brain regions studied, indicating a METH‐induced inflammatory state had been achieved and maintained despite a 72‐hour period free of METH self‐administration. Four key pro‐inflammatory upstream regulators were identified to be upregulated – OSM, inosine, JUN, and IL1B. Inosine is an anti‐inflammatory agent. OSM, JUN, and IL1B are activated by the Toll‐like Receptor 4 (TLR4) and downstream Peroxisome Proliferator‐Activated Receptor‐Gamma (PPAR‐γ) pathways, each of which have been previously implicated to modulate inflammatory signals in other substances of abuse such as ethanol, cocaine, and heroin. METH has been previously noted to induce microglial activation via a stabilizing interaction with TLR4, though mitigating METH‐induced neuroinflammation via modulating regulators downstream of this interaction remains an underdeveloped area of study. Our preliminary findings suggest that TLR4 and PPAR‐γ may play a role as important regulators of METH‐induced neural inflammatory changes at least 72‐hours post‐exposure, and are potential targets for METH use disorder therapies.

The Border Development in Biski Beach Tourism in Riau Province

Pasir Limau Kapas Subdistrict is located in Rokan Hilir Regency, which has interesting tourist destinations but needs to be developed. In particular, Biski Beach tourism, which is visited by many local people and those from outside the area, but in reality, it is still far from what is expected, even though the potential for natural tourism objects is very feasible. A solution is sought. This is an interesting issue to be discussed. Pasir Limau Kapas Subdistrict [Palika], Rokan Hilir Regency, Riau Province, is an underdeveloped, isolated, and outermost area. This position makes welfare an important and major issue. Important and main issues related to welfare include minimal and slow infrastructure development and ambiguous development policies [the average policy issued overlaps and does not support each other related to development in border areas]. Based on various important issues, this study aims first to explain how the development of the border area (Case Study: Biski Beach Tourism Object, Pasir Limau Kapas District, Rokan Hilir Regency). The research approach used is qualitative with a descriptive analysis method. Primary and secondary data were gathered through document reviews, interviews with informants chosen using the purposive sampling technique, and observations and literature reviews.After collecting the data, it was analyzed by means of the Interactive Analysis Model. The theory used in this research is the Theory of Regional Development according to Riyadi (2000). There are three indicators of the success of regional development that can be seen. The first is productivity, the second is efficiency, and the last is community participation, which can ensure the continuity of the implementation of a program in an area. Based on these indicators, it is known that the development of the border area is not optimal.

A sustainable University: Digital Transformation and Beyond.

Universities focus on digital transformation strategy to stay competitive in global education, staying competitive is taking on quite a different meaning in the 21st century – it includes the long-term implications of Covid-19 – the interaction of politics and economics, the emergence of China as a superpower, the end of neoliberalism, the emergence of distributed autonomous organisations particularly in the area of research and education.The impact of sustainable digital transformation in universities could be perceived as system and systematic. When the intangible but impactful influence is identified/recognized as a system, an applicable conceptual model could become designable and implementable. Conceptual models of digital transformation are vital to universities and business schools to gain sustainability amid rapid technological changes. However, there is paucity of practical, implementable and simple digital transformational models combining technologies, system and educational phenomena. This theoretical gap is sizeable, impactful and non-ignorable.To fulfil this gap, this paper critically examines the need and the association between sustainable digital transformation and its impact in the universities, using an innovative qualitative grounded theory approach which uses three distinct coding procedures namely open, axial and selective followed by transcribing qualitative data. The researchers have proposed a conceptual model for sustainable digital transformation, new propositions by critically reviewing the latest but multiple cases on (a) sustainability (b) digital transformation (c) green technologies and (d) implementable approaches in the education industry/universities. How fast universities could develop dependable business models to cater for the rapid changes amid globalization of education has become an important issue. If the universities can explore a scientific approach to the design-developing conceptual model, then it becomes straightforward for the academic leaders to implement digital transformation process effectively without resource burnouts.The adoption sustainability in digital transformation/information technology is remaining an underdeveloped area. There is a need to develop an innovative architectural design (blueprint) to stimulate sustainable practice, reporting mechanism and its leadership implication. Once universities recognize the digital transformational capabilities, then they could transform into operational effectiveness, which is vital to their business sustainability. This research study points to the effectiveness of using a sustainable blueprint while designing, developing and implementing digital transformation projects in universities. Also, this paper developed numerous value propositions for green implementation of digital transformation as new research studies/potential studies.

Property use diversity and spatial accessibility within urban retailing centres: drivers of retail rents

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between use and investor diversity, spatial accessibility, and high street retail rents. Spatial quantitative analysis of the high street retail sector remains an underdeveloped area so this paper seeks to bridge this gap and contribute to the debate on the adaptability of urban retailing centres by adopting a spatial fixed-effects panel modelling approach. The empirical findings reveal that diversity and richness in property use tend to have a significant positive impact on retail rental values. The influence of ownership richness on rents is positive implying that rents tend to be higher on streets where there is a greater range in the type of landlords. Walkability, as a measure of spatial accessibility, is found to have a negative relationship with market rents. This is perhaps surprising as it had been expected that the most walkable streets in retailing centres to be the most connected and have the highest rents. This contrary finding may be due to large developments interrupting the street network and restricting the choice and movement of pedestrians. Location on the prime retail pitch has a significant positive relationship with shop rents, whereas proximity to transportation nodes has a less consistent influence.