Uneven Geographical Distribution Research Articles

Turkish Nationalism, Egalitarianism, and Social Policy: The Compulsory Public Service of Physicians

Abstract This article examines how the Turkish political elites have responded to the uneven geographical distribution of physicians. This has been a chronic problem in health care provision, with physicians concentrated in the urban areas of western Anatolia at the cost of rural areas and the east, especially the Kurdish southeast. Successive Turkish governments have employed compulsory service laws as major policy tools to tackle this distribution problem. Legislative discussions about these laws have revolved around the idea of a unitary Turkey, the Turkish nation, and how to close the gap between the idealized imaginary of these and the defective reality. Drawing on Kojin Karatani’s mode-of-exchange framework, this study examines the legislative process on the distribution problem through the history of the post-Ottoman republic to the present. It identifies Turkish nationalism centered on state and on commodity exchange as two variants giving shape to the response to the problem. This analysis also contributes to our understanding of the weakness of social citizenship in Turkey. It is argued that Turkish nationalism—specifically, its state-centered version—operates by interpellating Turkish citizens as indebted to the nation-state, thereby hindering the development of the notion of the rights-bearing citizen.

A simulation study of the Argo program-enhanced global ionospheric modeling

The ionospheric total electron content (TEC) is a critical parameter for space weather and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) applications. Since 1998, the Ionospheric Working Group of the International GNSS Service (IGS) has been generating global ionospheric maps using data from hundreds of GNSS stations. However, the uneven geographical distribution of these observations has resulted in significant variations in TEC map accuracy, particularly in marine areas where observations are scarce or absent. In this study, we introduce Argo data as additional observations to enhance the accuracy of global ionospheric modeling. Argo data consists of measurements collected by more than 1,000 robotic floats deployed across the world's oceans. By utilizing the NeQuick model and considering the geographic coordinates of both IGS stations and Argo buoys, we simulate the ionospheric Slant Total Electron Content (STEC). This approach allows us to examine the impact of integrating Argo data into global ionospheric modeling and evaluate its effectiveness. The results indicate a significant improvement in the overall accuracy of the model after incorporating Argo data. Furthermore, by increasing the model's degree, a better global fit is achieved. It eliminates noticeable overestimation or underestimation of TEC, especially evident at a degree of 30. As the availability and uniform distribution of observations improve, the model demonstrates higher accuracy and enhanced global performance.

The Impact of Regional Socio-Economic Development on Spatial and Temporal Differences in the Distribution Pattern of Top-Tier Education in China

Regional socio-economics has multiple and far-reaching influences on the development of top-tier education, and the development of top-tier education also represents the strength and level of the regional socio-economics to a large extent. The present study investigates the spatial and temporal differences in the distribution pattern of doctoral disciplines of Chinese “double first-class” construction universities between 1996 and 2022 and the influence of regional socio-economics through two perspectives of economic regions and provinces. The study shows that there are differences in the development speed, scale, and level of top-tier education among different economic divisions and provinces, and the overall pattern of “fast in the east and slow in the west”, “more in the east and less in the west”, and “strong in the east and weak in the west” is unbalanced. At the same time, there is a high degree of concentration in different economic regions. The main reasons include the historical problem of the unbalanced allocation of China’s educational resources, as well as the uneven geographical distribution of relevant national policies, and the influence of regional socio-economic development differences, especially GDP and literacy rate. In terms of the influence mechanism, the development mindset of universities themselves, especially the strategy for talent cultivation and introduction, is the fundamental factor for the formation of the top-tier education development gap among different economic regions and provinces.

The Incidence and Prevalence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Continues to Increase in the Faroe Islands - A Cohort Study from 1960 to 2020.

The highest reported incidence rate of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD], and especially of ulcerative colitis [UC], is found in the Faroe Islands. This study aimed to assess the incidence rate and temporal trends in prevalence over six decades. All incident and prevalent patients diagnosed with IBD between 1960 and 2020 from the nationwide and population-based Faroese IBD cohort were included in this study. All patients fulfilled the Copenhagen Diagnostic Criteria. Overall, 873 individuals were diagnosed with IBD during the study period, 559 [64%] with UC, 151 [17%] with Crohn's disease, and 163 [19%] with IBD unclassified. A total of 59 patients had paediatric-onset IBD. The incidence of IBD continued to increase throughout the study period, as the age-standardized incidence rate started at 8 per 100 000 person-years [py] [European Standard Population, ESP] in 1960-79 and reached 70 by 2010-20. In 2021, the age-standardized period prevalence was 1414 per 100 000 persons. The IBD incidence was unevenly distributed among the islands with Sandoy having the highest rate of 106 per 100 000 py in 2010-2020. The incidence of IBD continues to increase in the Faroe Islands, mainly driven by UC. The incidence shows an uneven geographical distribution, which suggests an adverse interaction between unknown environmental factors and genetic traits. The prevalence in 2021 corresponded to 1.3% of the Faroese population. Environmental risk factors are suspected to impact this homogeneous high-risk population; however, the reason for this is unclear.

Epidemiology of bone tumors in Lebanon: a retrospective study from 2000 to 2022 at a tertiary center.

Bone tumors are rare and have an uneven geographic distribution. 730 patients diagnosed with bone tumors were included in this retrospective analysis. With a 64% rate of malignancy, the most common tumors were metastasis (40%) mostly in the axial skeleton, Osteosarcoma (9%) mostly in the femur, Osteochondroma (8%) mostly in the femur, giant cell tumors (7%) mostly in the knee, and Ewing's sarcoma (6%) mostly in the axial skeleton. Even though a some of the tumors have a predilection for certain localizations in the human body, they may differ in the middle-eastern population. One must also pay attention to the higher rates of malignancies as compared with other cohorts.

Microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic structural correlations between the international energy “investment–trade” networks based on network motifs

In recent years, international energy investment and energy trade activities have developed rapidly. Because energy has commodity and financial product attributes, there is often a correlation between international energy trade and investment. This correlation has regional specificity due to the uneven geographical distribution of energy production and consumption. The existing literature mainly studies the correlation between the international energy “investment–trade” systems from a macroscopic or microscopic perspective. However, the relationship between them among countries from a mesoscopic perspective has not been fully demonstrated. With the development of economic globalization, we need to pay attention to whether the energy trade model of countries can reflect their preference for choosing investment partners and whether the energy investment model can reflect energy trade cooperation. In this paper, by taking the frontier approach of network motifs, we analyzed the correlation between international energy trade and investment from more than 200 economies worldwide from the macroscopic perspective, microscopic perspective, and local structure from a mesoscopic perspective. Meanwhile, we compared the results of the study in 2018 with those in 2022 to obtain the impact of international events on the international energy “investment–trade” networks. We found that 1) the structures of energy trade and investment networks are similar from a macroscopic perspective, which is the basis for exploring the correlation between energy trade and investment. 2) Bilateral cooperation and transaction transmission are important local structures of energy trade and energy investment activities. 3) The formation of an equal and close local structure among economies in energy trade is more likely to be preferred for investment cooperation, and forming a representative local structure with statistical significance among economies in energy investment is more likely to obtain energy trade cooperation. This work innovatively adopts motifs to study the correlation between energy investment and trade, which can help energy investors predict the direction of investment and provide guidance to governments in formulating energy trade policies.

An expanded database of Southern Hemisphere surface sediment dinoflagellate cyst assemblages and their oceanographic affinities

Abstract. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages present a valuable proxy to infer paleoceanographic conditions, yet factors influencing geographic distributions of species remain largely unknown, especially in the Southern Ocean. Strong lateral transport, sea-ice dynamics, and a sparse and uneven geographic distribution of surface sediment samples have limited the use of dinocyst assemblages as a quantitative proxy for paleo-environmental conditions such as sea surface temperature (SST), nutrient concentrations, salinity, and sea ice (presence). In this study we present a new set of surface sediment samples (n=66) from around Antarctica, doubling the number of Antarctic-proximal samples to 100 (dataset wsi_100) and increasing the total number of Southern Hemisphere samples to 655 (dataset sh_655). Additionally, we use modelled ocean conditions and apply Lagrangian techniques to all Southern Hemisphere sample stations to quantify and evaluate the influence of lateral transport on the sinking trajectory of microplankton and, with that, to the inferred ocean conditions. k-means cluster analysis on the wsi_100 dataset demonstrates the strong affinity of Selenopemphix antarctica with sea-ice presence and of Islandinium spp. with low-salinity conditions. For the entire Southern Hemisphere, the k-means cluster analysis identifies nine clusters with a characteristic assemblage. In most clusters a single dinocyst species dominates the assemblage. These clusters correspond to well-defined oceanic conditions in specific Southern Ocean zones or along the ocean fronts. We find that, when lateral transport is predominantly zonal, the environmental parameters inferred from the sea floor assemblages mostly correspond to those of the overlying ocean surface. In this case, the transport factor can thus be neglected and will not represent a bias in the reconstructions. Yet, for some individual sites, e.g. deep-water sites or sites under strong-current regimes, lateral transport can play a large role. The results of our study further constrain environmental conditions represented by dinocyst assemblages and the location of Southern Ocean frontal systems.

Rhetoric and Disposition, Temperament and Place: Polykleitan Rules

Abstract: This paper explores the relationships between style and complexion, temperament and disposition, climate and place in seventeenth-century thought. Facility and variation in style not only depend on reason, judgement, and responsiveness, but on the material substrata of the imagination and memory, in turn conditioned by air and temperament, climate and the uneven geographical distribution of environmental and internal, vital heat. This ensemble ofconcernes spurred wide-ranging enquiry in early modern anthropology, ethnography, and rhetoric, which I examine her in order to substantiate the mathematician and rhetorician Bernard Lamy's 1675 claim that "Every Clymat hath its style."

Game-Based Task Offloading and Resource Allocation for Vehicular Edge Computing With Edge-Edge Cooperation

Vehicular Edge Computing (VEC) enables task offloading from vehicles to the edge servers deployed on Road Side Units (RSUs), thus enhancing the task processing performance of the vehicles. However, in a multi-RSU VEC scenario, the uneven geographical distribution of the vehicles naturally causes the load imbalance among the edge servers and leads to the overload and performance degradation problems of the edge servers in hot areas. To this end, in this paper, we propose a joint task offloading and resource allocation for VEC with edge-edge cooperation, in which the tasks offloaded to a high-load edge server can be further offloaded to the other low-load edge servers. Our objective is to minimize the total task processing delay of all the vehicles while guaranteeing the task processing delay tolerance and the holding time of each vehicle. An M/M/1 queue is used to model the task queuing and task computing processes on each RSU. An exact potential game is adopted to model the competition process for the task offloading among the RSUs. A two-stage iterative algorithm is designed to decompose the optimization problem into two stages and solve them iteratively. We analyze the computational complexity of the algorithm and conduct extensive simulations by varying different crucial parameters. The superiority of our scheme is demonstrated in comparison with 3 other reference schemes.

Mapping public health training in Latin America: perspectives for training institutionsMapeamento da formação em saúde pública na América Latina: perspectivas para as instituições formadoras

Map the public health training courses and programs offered in Latin America, and identify regional training strategies and competencies developed in health workers. An internet search was conducted to identify public health training courses and programs offered by Latin American institutions. The following data were collected: name, country, and province/state of the training institution; course name; type of institution; educational level; modality; accreditation; year first offered; periodicity; and contact information. The programs and curricula on offer were analyzed by training level using descriptive content analysis, and the main competencies developed were identified. The mapping identified 2 296 public health training opportunities in all Latin American subregions, distributed across 29 of the Region's 33 countries; these were fairly heterogeneous, both conceptually and programmatically, with uneven geographical distribution within and between countries. In the analysis of curricula and programmatic contents, a need for greater linkage with essential public health functions was detected. It is necessary to adapt the competencies and skills developed by the courses and programs to the demands of users of the regional health services, programs, and systems in order to achieve programs aimed at tackling the socio-environmental determinants of health and the production and reproduction of inequalities.

Researching higher education leadership and management in Arab countries: A systematic review

The present study aims to review higher education leadership and management (HELM) research in the Arab region. The study employed systematic review methods to analyze 77 articles published in educational leadership and management journals, higher education journals, and journals indexed in the Scopus database between 2000 and 2020. The analysis focused on identifying the main features and trends found in the articles including the development of publication volume over time, geographical distribution, types of studies, research topics, and research methods. Quantitative methods were used to analyze the data. The features identified echoed those reported for the broader educational leadership and management literature in Arab societies such as the relatively small size of the knowledge base, uneven geographical distribution, the predominance of empirical, quantitative studies, and high emphasis on leadership as a research topic. The findings are discussed in the light of relevant literature, and recommendations are provided to improve future HELM research in the region.

Spatial patterns of tuberculosis in Russia in the context of social determinants

Our study investigated the spatial distribution of tuberculosis and the influence of social determinants in Russia between 2006 and 2018 using the regional incidence of multi-drug resistance tuberculosis, HIV-TB coinfection, and mortality data. The “space-time cube” method identified the uneven geographical distribution of the tuberculosis burden. There is a clear distinction between a healthier European Russia, where a statistically significant stable trend towards a decrease in incidence and mortality was found, and the eastern part of the country, where there is no such trend. Generalized linear logistic regression analysis found that the challenging situation was associated with HIV-TB coinfection incidence, with a high incidence rate being detected even in more prosperous regions of European Russia. HIV-TB coinfection incidence was determined by a set of socioeconomic variables, out of which the influence of income and urbanization were the most pronounced. The influence of crime could indicate the spread of tuberculosis in socially disadvantaged regions.

Tourism Innovation in the Adriatic-Ionian Region: Questioning the Understanding of Innovation

Today, tourism as the most important global service industry faces many challenges, which call for innovations. That includes product (new products and services), process (new ways of delivering tourist services), logistical (new ways of providing products/services to tourists), and market innovations (new marketing methods or market behaviour). To detect the number and types of tourism innovations funded by the EU in the Adriatic-Ionian region (AIR), a desk research approach and a survey was carried out between 2020 and 2022. The purpose of our work was to detect projects fostering innovations in sustainable tourism, analyse their innovation capacity and propose possible policy enhancements. The main research questions were: Firstly, are financial incentives appropriate measures to foster innovations? and secondly what is the role of governance models of the EUSAIR in fostering innovations in sustainable tourism? In total, 88 projects were detected fostering different types of innovations. The results demonstrate an uneven geographical distribution of financial incentives for innovative projects and underline the lack of a clear understanding of the concept of innovation in funded projects and in seconded national administration in the AIR. Additionally, our findings show that financial incentives, although welcome, do not always foster innovations. Rather, an effective governance should be in place to tailor the appropriate financial incentives and guide the process. Our work contributes to the development of new guidelines related to growth and innovation in sustainable tourism in the AIR.

Plural Words in Austronesian Languages: Typology and History

This paper investigates the typology and history of plural words in the Austronesian family, by using a sample of 128 languages representing both genealogical and geographical diversity. I first consider the definition of plural words, which are grammatical words indicating nominal plurality at the phrasal level. I then present the distribution of plural words in the sample and examine their history. Several findings can be drawn from the data. First, plural words are the most common type of plural markers in the Austronesian family, attested in more than half of the sample languages. Second, languages with plural words exhibit an uneven distribution: they are typically found in the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, and across the Pacific islands, particularly in New Ireland and Vanuatu, but virtually absent in western Indonesia. This uneven geographical distribution also correlates with a skewed genealogical distribution. Third, as for the diachronic developments of plural words, the previously reconstructed proto plural word *maŋa is only reflected to a limited extent, almost exclusively in the Philippine languages. More commonly, plural words reflect the grammaticalization of third-person plural pronouns, a path found for nearly half of the plural words.

Designing carbon anodes for advanced potassium-ion batteries: Materials, modifications, and mechanisms

Recently, the limited abundance and uneven geographical distribution of Li resources seriously hamper the growing demand for lithium-based energy storage devices. In this regard, potassium-ion batteries (KIBs) sharing similar “rocking chair” working principles with lithium-ion batteries have started to attract increasing attention due to their high energy density and abundant potassium resources. Carbon material is considered to show great potential for using as high-performance anode in KIBs. However, it is still a challenge to simultaneously achieve satisfactory specific gravimetric and volumetric capacities, high initial Coulombic efficiency, superior rate performance, and excellent cycle stability due to the sluggish reaction kinetics of the large-sized K-ions. Herein, we summarize the latest research achievements of different types of carbon anodes for KIBs, including graphite, graphene, hard carbon, soft carbon, and carbon nanotubes, in which the key factors affecting the electrochemical performance are explored. Importantly, the alternative strategies for addressing the low gravimetric/volumetric capacity and low initial Coulombic efficiency of carbons are thoroughly emphasized. Finally, the critical issues, challenges, and perspectives are proposed to show the development direction of KIBs. We hope this review can provide researchers with new ideas to design high-performance carbon materials and give insightful perspectives to accelerate the application of carbon electrodes for KIBs. The latest research achievements of different types of carbon anodes for KIBs are summarized, including graphite, graphene, hard carbon, soft carbon, and carbon nanotubes, in which the key factors affecting the electrochemical performance are demonstrated. Importantly, the alternative strategies for addressing the low gravimetric/volumetric capacity and low initial Coulombic efficiency of carbons are thoroughly emphasized. Finally, the critical issues, challenges, and perspectives are proposed to show the development direction of KIBs. • The latest progress of carbon materials in potassium ion batteries are presented. • Promising strategies to improve the potassium storage performances are emphasized. • Challenges and prospects for the future development of carbon materials are highlighted.

A job scheduling algorithm based on parallel workload prediction on computational grid

Generally, the computational grid consists of a large number of computing nodes, some of them are idle due to the uneven geographical distribution of computing requirements. This may cause workload unbalancing problems, which affect the performance of large-scale computational grids. In order to balance the computing requirements and computing nodes, we propose a job scheduling algorithm based on the workload prediction of computing nodes. We first analyze the causes of workload imbalance and the feasibility of reallocating computing resources. Secondly, we design an application and workload-aware scheduling algorithm (AWAS) by combining the previously designed workload prediction model. To reduce the complexity of the AWAS algorithm, we propose a parallel job scheduling method based on computing node workload prediction. The experiments show that the AWAS algorithm can balance the workload among different computing nodes on the real-world dataset. In addition, we propose the parallelism of workload prediction model from the perspective of internal structure and data set to make AWAS apply to more computing nodes of the large-scale computing grids. Experimental results show that the combination of the two can achieve satisfactory acceleration efficiency.

Disparities in Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Conditions.

Mental and behavioral health conditions are common among children and adolescents in the United States. The purpose of this state-of the-art review article is to describe inequities in mental and behavioral health care access and outcomes for children and adolescents, characterize mechanisms behind the inequities, and discuss strategies to decrease them. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these inequities is essential to inform strategies to mitigate these health disparities. Half of United States children with a treatable mental health disorder do not receive treatment from a mental health professional. Children and adolescents in racial, ethnic, sexual, sex, and other minority groups experience inequities in access to care and disparities in outcomes for mental and behavioral health conditions. Suicide rates are nearly twice as high in Black compared to White boys 5 to 11 years old and have been increasing disproportionately among adolescent Black girls 12 to 17 years old. Children identifying as a sexual minority have >3 times increased odds of attempting suicide compared to heterosexual peers. Adverse experiences of children living as part of a minority group, including racism and discrimination, have immediate and lasting effects on mental health. Poverty and an uneven geographic distribution of resources also contribute to inequities in access and disparities in outcomes for mental and behavioral health conditions. Strategies to address inequities in mental and behavioral health among United States children include investing in a diverse workforce of mental health professionals, improving access to school-based services, ensuring equitable access to telehealth, and conducting quality improvement with rigorous attention to equity.

Describing and mapping scientific articles on alcohol globally for the period 2010–2021: a bibliometric analysis

ObjectivesTo describe and map scientific literature related to alcohol consumption, its determinants, governance, harm and control policies by publication output, author affiliations, funding, countries of study and research themes.DesignBibliometric analysis...

A review of gender in agricultural and pastoral livelihoods based on selected countries in west and east Africa

This scoping paper presents the results of a review of the landscape of research on gender and agricultural and pastoral livelihoods in select countries in west and east Africa (Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Uganda) published over 5 years (January 2016–March 2021). A keyword search of the Scopus database gave rise to an ultimate dataset of 169 papers which were coded for geographical location, approaches to gender, and theme based on inductive identification of clusters of research. There has been an increase in the number of published papers but there is an uneven geographical distribution of research. Studies vary in the way they treat gender: with an almost even split between modeling-based studies, where gender is one of many variables to be correlated with, or to determine, an outcome (e.g., poverty—for example, as a dummy variable in regressions); and studies where the expressed aim is to look at gender differences, whether through the gender of an individual or the gender of a household head. Clusters of papers look at gender differences in assets, health, perceptions of environmental degradation, agricultural perceptions and outcomes, and climate change perceptions, vulnerability, and adaptation. There is also a number of papers exploring women's empowerment, including intra-household decision making. Intersectional approaches have been employed both through modeling studies and through more in-depth qualitative studies that are able to trace changes in identity over time, and the implications therein. The household and household headship have remained common entry points and units of analysis, despite known critiques. The results highlight a need to address geographical gaps in gender research, expand the evidence base of intersectional approaches, explore other aspects of social inequality, and expand more innovative methodological studies.

Association of specific HLA alleles and haplotypes with pemphigus vulgaris in the Bulgarian population.

Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune bullous dermatosis with uneven geographic distribution and higher incidence in certain populations. In previous studies, a relatively high incidence of PV was reported in Bulgaria (0.47/100,000/year) comparable to that in other countries. The genetic background was considered responsible for the disease susceptibility, and multiple reports have proven PV to be an HLA-associated condition. The aim of our study was to analyze the role of genetic factors in the development of PV in Bulgaria. HLA genotyping was performed in 56 PV patients, ethnic Bulgarians whose diagnosis was confirmed based on clinical, histological, and immunofluorescent findings. The control group consisted of 204 healthy individuals from the Bulgarian population without evidence for HLA-associated autoimmune diseases. HLA-A,-B,-DRB1,-DQB1 analysis was performed by PCR-SSP. Our results revealed predisposing associations with DRB1*14, DRB1*04:02, and B*38, B*55, while allele DRB1*03:01 and the corresponding haplotypes were significantly decreased in the PV patients. The predisposing role of these alleles has been observed in other populations. All reported predisposing DRB1 alleles have the same amino acids at key positions of the beta chain of the HLA molecules, 26 (Phe), 67 (Leu or Ileu), 70 and 71 (hydrophobic AA: Gln, Arg, Asp, or Glu), and 86 (Val), which is important for the selective presentation of desmoglein 3 peptides. Additionally, specific alleles HLA-A*01 and DRB1*11 were identified with decreased frequencies in the patients’ group, the last one being a common protective allele for autoimmune diseases in the Bulgarian population. The elucidation of the role of genetic factors for the development of pemphigus will help explain its higher incidence and clinical variability in certain populations.