Ways In Different Regions Research Articles

Modeling cigarette smoking exposure in subsets of the population

Modeling cigarette smoking exposure in subsets of the population Understanding and acknowledging various factors that impact cigarette smoking and exposure is critical when creating public health interventions to curb tobacco use. Here, Theodore R. Holford from Yale University discusses the impact of different approaches to tobacco control. The harmful effects of cigarette smoking have been widely recognized for more than 50 years (1), and the huge toll that it has taken in shortening lives has led to the recognition of an urgent need to reduce associated exposure. Because cigarette smoking is an addictive behavior, it has been a public health challenge to reduce the level of exposure in the population, even though alternative approaches have been used. These approaches include the introduction of taxes that increase cost to users, changing the legal age at which cigarettes can be purchased, introducing clean air laws that limit locations where individuals are allowed to smoke, and establishing resources that will assist those who wish to quit smoking. These efforts can be undertaken on a national level, but more often, such efforts are implemented at different times and in different ways in different regions. In the US, these laws are more commonly introduced by a state, county, or city. (2) This introduces geographic disparities in cigarette smoking exposure, and it is important to understand these differences when planning approaches to protect public health.

Understanding functional brain reorganization for naturalistic piano playing in novice pianists.

Learning to play the piano is a unique complex task, integrating multiple sensory modalities and higher order cognitive functions. Longitudinal neuroimaging studies on adult novice musicians show training-related functional changes in music perception tasks. The reorganization of brain activity while actually playing an instrument was studied only on a very short time frame of a single fMRI session, and longer interventions have not yet been performed. Thus, our aim was to investigate the dynamic complexity of functional brain reorganization while playing the piano within the first half year of musical training. We scanned 24 novice keyboard learners (female, 18-23 years old) using fMRI while they played increasingly complex musical pieces after 1, 6, 13, and 26 weeks of training. Playing music evoked responses bilaterally in the auditory, inferior frontal, and supplementary motor areas, and the left sensorimotor cortex. The effect of training over time, however, invoked widespread changes encompassing the right sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum, superior parietal cortex, anterior insula and hippocampus, among others. As the training progressed, the activation of these regions decreased while playing music. Post hoc analysis revealed region-specific time-courses for independent auditory and motor regions of interest. These results suggest that while the primary sensory, motor, and frontal regions are associated with playing music, the training decreases the involvement of higher order cognitive control and integrative regions, and basal ganglia. Moreover, training might affect distinct brain regions in different ways, providing evidence in favor of the dynamic nature of brain plasticity.

Benefits of international collaboration in computer science: a case study of China, the European Union, and the United States

Co-authored publications can bring positive results for those who participate, such as gaining additional expertise, accessing more funding or increasing the publication impact. China, the European Union, and the United States have been collaborating between each other throughout the years in the field of Computer Science. These collaborations varied over time, as well as they impacted the regions in different ways. In this paper, we collected the publications from these territories across 31 years on the topic of Computer Science and studied them focusing on how the regions have approached co-authorship. In particular, we have analyzed the number of collaborations during that period, the impact of those papers measured as the number of citations, and the topics that have been researched. We conclude that China’s focus on Computer Science fields has led it to be the most productive region in recent years; plus, it has benefited from the American and European reputation, by increasing its citation rates when collaborating with them. On the other hand, the EU and the US have benefited from Chinese interest in computer science, increasing the number of publications together.

Changes in serotonin neurotransmission as assayed by microdialysis after acute, intermittent or chronic ethanol administration and withdrawal.

The serotonergic neurotransmitter system is involved in many ethanol-induced changes, including many behavioural alterations, as well as contributing to alcohol dependence and its withdrawal. This review has evaluated microdialysis studies where alterations in the serotonin system, that is, serotonin, 5-HT, or its metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, 5-HIAA, have been reported during different ethanol intoxication states, as well as in animals showing alcohol preference or not. Changes in 5-HT receptors and the 5-HT transporter are briefly reviewed to comprehend the significance of changes in microdialysate 5-HT concentrations. Changes in 5-HT content following acute, chronic and during ethanol withdrawal states are evaluated. In addition, the serotoninergic system was assessed in animals that have been genetically selected for alcohol preference to ascertain whether changes in this monoamine microdialysate content may contribute to alcohol preference. Changes occurred in 5-HT signalling in the limbic brain regions, increasing after acute ethanol administration in specific brain regions, particularly at higher doses, while chronic alcohol exposure essentially decreased serotonergic transmission. Such changes may play a pivotal role in emotion-driven craving and relapse. Depending on the dosage, mode of administration and consumption rate, ethanol affects specific brain regions in different ways, enhancing or reducing 5-HT microdialysate content, thereby inducing behavioural and cognitive functions and enhancing ethanol consumption. Microdialysis studies demonstrated that ethanol induces several alterations in 5-HT content as well as its metabolites, 5-HIAA and 5-HTOL, not only in its release from a specific brain region but also in the modifications of its different receptor subtypes and its transporter.

The Correlation between Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and COVID-19 Data in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Period.

COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) has become the deadliest virus to affect the international community in recent history, with more than 760 million people infected and more than 6.87 million deaths as of March 2023; therefore, based on Hofstede's national cultural theory, this study collected Hofstede's six national cultural dimensions on a global scale, namely, power distance (PDI), individualism/collectivism (IDV), masculinity/femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), long-term/short-term orientation (LTO), and indulgence/restraint (IVR) scores, and COVID-19 data from the World Health Organization (WHO) from 22 February 2020 to 30 February 2021. Then, based on eight items of global COVID-19 data, this study analyzed the correlation between Hofstede's six dimensions and the COVID-19 data from six regions (Africa (AFRO), Europe (EURO), the Americas (AMRO), the Western Pacific (WPRO), South East Asia (SEARO), and the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO)) divided by the WHO. This study found the following: (1) Hofstede's six cultural dimensions indeed have a significant correlation with the COVID-19 data of different WHO regions in different ways. (2) Except for IDV and UAI, PDI is a highly critical factor and has a significant correlation with the COVID-19 data from AFRO and EMRO. MAS also is an important factor and has a significant correlation with COVID-19 data from WPRO and SEARO. Meanwhile, LTO has a significant correlation with some COVID-19 data from the AMRO region, and IVR has a significant correlation with some COVID-19 data from the EURO region. Finally, the new insights from this study are worthy of further study by scholars, and they will be of great help to global governments and medical institutions in formulating policies to suppress infectious diseases in the future.

What Factors Influence Producers’ adoption of Transgenic Technology under the Background of Risk Amplification?

Consumer preference for products made from transgenic technology has been widely studied, yet few studies exist exploring the factors influencing producers’ adoption of transgenic technology. Based on field surveys in Chinese provinces of Shanxi, Henan and Shandong, we employed a gambling experiment to capture producers’ risk preferences by estimating their risk aversion coefficients. We further estimated producers’ risk amplification and risk perception of GM technology. Using ordered logit model, we identified the major factors influencing producers’ adoption of transgenic technology. We found the factors impacted the decision of producers from different regions in different ways. The results showed that two-thirds of participants amplified the risk of transgenic crops. When there was potential risk, producers might not be rational even if they had high level of knowledge and cognition about the technology. Our results shed light on government policies aiming to increase the adoption of new technologies by producers.

Characteristic, Impact and Countermeasures to Support Employment in The Context of The Digitalization of The Economy

With the rapid expansion of new technologies of the 4th industrial revolution, such as artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud computing, and big data, the digital economy is becoming an increasingly large-scale component of the national economy. However, supported by the technologies of the new technological order, it affects employment in different ways in different regions, industries and social groups, bringing new opportunities and challenges to the labor market. The contradiction between China's GDP growth rate and the employment rate of college graduates is found to be inconsistent with Oaken's Law. It is concluded that Oaken's law is valid for the macroeconomy, the population of the country as a whole, and for its adaptation to a special group of students (graduates) the influence of a number of identified factors should be taken into account. The formal institutionalization of the policy of digitalization of the economy of the leading countries and China was monitored. The measures of employment adaptation to the new labor relations in the digital era were substantiated: modernization of the state policy of unemployment prevention, large-scale financial trends of talent cultivation, development of the platform economy.

DeepSVP: integration of genotype and phenotype for structural variant prioritization using deep learning.

MotivationStructural genomic variants account for much of human variability and are involved in several diseases. Structural variants are complex and may affect coding regions of multiple genes, or affect the functions of genomic regions in different ways from single nucleotide variants. Interpreting the phenotypic consequences of structural variants relies on information about gene functions, haploinsufficiency or triplosensitivity and other genomic features. Phenotype-based methods to identifying variants that are involved in genetic diseases combine molecular features with prior knowledge about the phenotypic consequences of altering gene functions. While phenotype-based methods have been applied successfully to single nucleotide variants as well as short insertions and deletions, the complexity of structural variants makes it more challenging to link them to phenotypes. Furthermore, structural variants can affect a large number of coding regions, and phenotype information may not be available for all of them.ResultsWe developed DeepSVP, a computational method to prioritize structural variants involved in genetic diseases by combining genomic and gene functions information. We incorporate phenotypes linked to genes, functions of gene products, gene expression in individual cell types and anatomical sites of expression, and systematically relate them to their phenotypic consequences through ontologies and machine learning. DeepSVP significantly improves the success rate of finding causative variants in several benchmarks and can identify novel pathogenic structural variants in consanguineous families.Availability and implementation https://github.com/bio-ontology-research-group/DeepSVP.Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Potential life years lost to COVID-19 in 17 countries during the pandemic period, up to August 2020

BackgroundCOVID-19 pandemic is affecting populations and regions in different ways. In this study, we assess the Potential Years of Life Lost (PYLL) to COVID-19 across different regions.MethodsWe used age-group and sex-specific weekly COVID-19 deaths (from January to August 2020) from national primary sources of 17 countries from the C-MOR consortium (Australia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Peru, Norway, England & Wales, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States). PYLL were calculated by summing up the numbers of deaths in each age group multiplied by the remaining years of life up to age 80. Age-standardized PYLL rates (per 100,000 population), using the World (WHO 2000-2025) Standard population as the reference population, were estimated to facilitate comparison across countries.ResultsCountries in South America displayed the highest PYLL rates (567-1,377 PYLL/100,000). Countries in Asia & Middle East (besides Kazakhstan), Australia, and some European countries (Georgia, Norway, and Slovenia) observed <50 PYLL/100,000. Furthermore, the male to female PYLL rate ratio was above one in all countries [1.3 (Ukraine) - 14.4 (Cyprus)], besides Georgia (ratio = 0.5).ConclusionsSouth America, and males were found to be the most affected by COVID-19. Ongoing monitoring of the COVID-19 mortality impact is essential in order to assess health system performances, control measures, and identify vulnerable populations. Differences in mortality burden among populations will help public health officials in their efforts to minimize the COVID-19 mortality burden on a local, and on a global level.Key messages Up to August 2020, COVID-19 was a cause of premature mortality in all the participating countries, with South America and males to be more affected.The timing of the pandemic, seasonal trends, the control measures enforced, and underlying social conditions are probable explanations for the differences observed among countries.

MIGRANTI, ATTRATTIVITÀ E RIUSO DEI CENTRI STORICI. IL CASO DI RIACE IN CALABRIA

Migrants, abandonment and reuse of historical centers. The case of Riace in Calabria. – Italy, a migratory crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, has always been affected by migratory movements that have affected its regions in different ways. In recent decades, they have assumed a synergistic demo-graphic dimension between population and depopulation, which modifies the structure and composition of the population, mitigating the unstop-pable demographic decline along with the depopulation of historic cen-ters. This is possible through urban redevelopment and socio-economic revitalization paths linked to the reception of migrants. The contribution analyzes possible causes and effects of migratory processes on the Cala-brian population, using the Riace case study as a model in which the “wel-come path” has had positive results and revitalized the historical center with the return of residents and the construction of a society with high values of cultural pluralism.

The storm-track suppression over the western North Pacific from a cyclone life-cycle perspective

Abstract. Surface cyclones that feed the western part of the North Pacific storm track and experience a midwinter suppression originate from three regions: the East China Sea (∼30∘ N), the Kuroshio extension (∼35∘ N), and downstream of Kamchatka (∼53∘ N). In midwinter, in terms of cyclone numbers, Kuroshio (45 %) and Kamchatka (40 %) cyclones dominate in the region where eddy kinetic energy is suppressed, while the relevance of East China Sea cyclones increases from winter (15 %) to spring (20 %). The equatorward movement of the baroclinicity and the associated upper-level jet toward midwinter influence cyclones from the three genesis regions in different ways. In January, Kamchatka cyclones are less numerous and less intense, and their lifetime shortens, broadly consistent with the reduced baroclinicity in which they grow. The opposite is found for East China Sea cyclones, which in winter live longer, are more intense, and experience more frequently explosive deepening. The fraction of explosive East China Sea cyclones is particularly high in January when they benefit from the increased baroclinicity in their environment. Again, a different and more complex behavior is found for Kuroshio cyclones. In midwinter, their number increases, but their lifetime decreases; on average they reach higher intensity in terms of minimum sea level pressure, but the fraction of explosively deepening cyclones decreases and the latitude where maximum growth occurs shifts equatorward. Therefore, the life cycle of Kuroshio cyclones seems to be accelerated in midwinter with a stronger and earlier but also shorter deepening phase followed by an earlier decay. Once they reach the latitude where eddy kinetic energy is suppressed in midwinter, their baroclinic conversion efficiency is strongly reduced. Together, this detailed cyclone life-cycle analysis reveals that the North Pacific storm-track suppression in midwinter is related to fewer and weaker Kamchatka cyclones and to more equatorward intensifying and then more rapidly decaying Kuroshio cyclones. The less numerous cyclone branch from the East China Sea partially opposes the midwinter suppression. The cyclones passing through the suppressed region over the western North Pacific do not propagate far downstream and decay in the central North Pacific. The behavior of cyclones in the eastern North Pacific requires further analysis.

НАСЛІДКИ COVID-19 ДЛЯ СВІТОВОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ: ПЕРШІ ПІДСУМКИ 2020 РОКУ

The purpose of article is to comprehensively assess the consequences of COVID-19 for global economy, regions, industries and different forms of international economic relations. In early 2020, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. To save the lives of citizens and the integrity of the health care system, countries were forced to resort to radical measures: lockdowns, which included the complete or partial cessation of international traffic and the reduction of economic activity. Such actions had a negative impact on the world economy: a drop in world production, a decrease in international demand, an increase in unemployment and poverty, a decline in FDI flows. The situation has reached the level of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The COVID-19 crisis has affected regions in different ways. The research methodology combines general and special methods of scientific knowledge: descriptive-analytical, analysis and synthesis, methods of quantitative and qualitative comparisons. The information basis of the article is research and periodical publications of foreign economists, materials and analytical reports of international organizations. The results of the study revealed that the global economic crisis caused by COVID-19 started with China, which applied extremely strict quarantine restrictions and already at the end of 2020 showed economic growth. And gradually spread to Europe, North America and the rest of the world. The negative impact of COVID-19 on developed countries with a high proportion of the older people among the population most vulnerable to the disease has been most noticeable. Europe is the region that has suffered the most. For Latin America, Africa and parts of developing Asia, the COVID-19 crisis has been burdened by permanent economic problems and natural disasters: the weakness of the financial system, large public debt, high dependence on commodity prices, locust infestations etc. Developed countries had a margin of stability, so they conducted large-scale programs to support business and households, especially effective were credit guarantee and job preservation state programs. While developing countries were less affected by the spread of the disease but did not have the financial resources to deploy large-scale government assistance programs. New imbalances have emerged in the structure of the world economy. Some industries suffered huge losses and found themselves on the brink of survival (tourism, hotel and restaurant business, entertainment, etc.), unemployment rose significantly; others, on the contrary, worked at full capacity 24/7 and workers were forced to work overtime. FDI flows fell below the level of 2008-2009. The least FDI came to developed countries. Most FDI accounted for mergers and acquisitions in 2020, while investment in existing production assets suffered the most. This trend is expected to continue in 2021. According to the forecast, 2021 should mark the beginning of economic recovery, but it is unlikely to reach the level of 2019. The results of this study could be used in further research, also as in development, planning and implementation of state crisis strategies.

Go Global or Go Home: Comparing the Regional vs. Global Engagement of Brazil and South Africa at the UN General Assembly

ABSTRACT Brazil and South Africa have long been regarded as archetypical regional powers, commanding more resources than their neighbours, spearheading regional projects and pursuing high-profile global status. Yet, recent years have also evidenced how the engagement with their regions and acceptance as leading players is often ambiguous and incomplete. How does one ascertain that a regional power privileges either the regional or the global stage? Through an original dataset of Brazilian and South African output at the UN General Assembly between 1994 and 2013, we monitor sponsorship patterns and thematic preferences in order to verify whether these countries indulged their regional partners and topics. Our findings suggest that Brazil and South Africa favoured their immediate neighbourhoods but have gradually engaged their regions in different ways: while Brazilian emphasis on regional peers and themes declined over the years, South Africa developed an increasingly more regionalised UNGA agenda.

ДО ПИТАНЬ РОЗВИТКУ ІНТЕГРАЦІЙНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ В УМОВАХ ГЛОБАЛІЗАЦІЇ

In today's world, the problem of the impact of globalization on the development of regional integration associations is relevant. This situation is ambiguous because some integration associations contribute to the spread of globalization, while the rest remain a deterrent to globalization. The aim of the study is to determine the positive and negative aspects of globalization and their impact on the development of integration processes, to determine the relationship between globalization and regional processes, to clarify the factors of integration for different regional blocs. The following research methods were used: comparative analysis, systems analysis, structural-functional method, synthesis. Globalization is a holistic and heterogeneous process at the same time. It covers the whole world, however, manifests itself in different ways in different regions of the world. The experience of regional integration confirms the heterogeneity of globalization processes, because different regionalisms coexist in a systemically integrated international economy. Thus, regional integration does not contradict globalization, is its derivative, and arises as a result of the imposition of a homogeneous process on a complex (geoeconomically, civilizationally, nationally) and stratified (stratification, macroeconomic, political) world. In modern international relations, three motives lead to integration - political, economic and value-civilization. Regional associations differ in their structure, the nature of macrostructural (geopolitical, civilizational, racial and ethnic) content and place in the world hierarchy. Based on this, there are three types of regionalism: regionalism of the world system core, semi-peripheral regionalism, peripheral regionalism, which have different causes and different growth factors. Therefore, regional associations of the countries of the world system core are aimed at expansion and are a factor of globalization, and peripheral associations are protectionist in nature and become a deterrent to globalization. The article has scientific, informational and cognitive value.

Beyond territorial conceptions of entrepreneurial ecosystems: The dynamic spatiality of knowledge brokering in seed accelerators

Abstract In spatial terms, entrepreneurial ecosystems are mostly conceptualized as confined to a specific territory. At the same time, the growing relevance of entrepreneurship in digital fields is underlined. This paper argues that this is contradictory since territorial thinking underestimates the disruptive qualities of new entrepreneurial practices in the digital economy. Using process-based, qualitative case studies on seed accelerators from four regions: Amsterdam, Berlin, Detroit and Hamburg, this study seeks to explore knowledge brokering in entrepreneurship ecosystems and analyzes the corresponding spatial dynamics. Our findings imply that startups in digital fields share knowledge about business models and technologies in a way that is unattainable in classical knowledge clusters. Moreover, we show that most of the observed entrepreneurial practices in seed accelerators crucially rely on extra-regional resources and thus remain only incompletely embedded into the respective regions. Against the background of these results, we suggest that entrepreneurial ecosystems should not be primarily viewed as territorial phenomena. Instead, we suggest that the territorial view on entrepreneurship ecosystems should be complemented with a topological view that foregrounds entrepreneurship as a trans-locally shared practice that is tangent to different regions in different ways.

A surgical and anatomo-histological study on Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy Vestibular Approach (TOETVA).

The number of TOETVA surgeries has increased worldwide but the anatomical passage of trocars is not clearly defined. We aimed to define detailed surgical anatomical passage of the trocars in cadavers. The incisions in oral vestibule, anatomical pathways of trocars, affected mimetic muscles, neurovascular relations of trocars and histological correlation of surgical anatomy were investigated. Four cadavers and 6 six patient oral vestibules were used. The locations of optimised vestibular incisions were measured photogrammetrically. Initial steps of TOETVA surgery were performed on cadavers according to those optimal incisions. TOETVA preformed cadavers dissected to determine anatomical passages of the trocars. Afterwards, flap of lower lip and chin were zoned by software appropriate to the trocars routes. Histological analyses of the zones were made in correlation with dissections. Mimetic muscles associated with median (MT) and lateral trocars (LT) are orbicularis oris, mentalis, depressor anguli oris, depressor labii inferioris and platysma muscles. Trocars affect mimetic muscles in the perioral, chin and submental regions in different ways. The risk of mental nerve injury by MT is low. LT pass through the DLI muscle. The transmission of LT to the subplatysmal plane in the submental regions can be in two different ways. The arterial injury risk is higher with LT than the MT. The surgical anatomy of the perioral, chin and submental regions for the initial TOETVA steps has been defined. Detailed surgical anatomical passages of the MT and LT were determined. Anatomical pattern to reach subplatysmal plane are presented. Mimetic muscles effected by trocars were determined. Endocrine surgeons should know the anatomical passage of TOETVA trocars.

Effects of Three Interventions on Children's Spatial Structuring and Coordination of Area Units

We examine the effects of 3 interventions designed to support Grades 2–5 children's growth in measuring rectangular regions in different ways. We employed the microgenetic method to observe and describe conceptual transitions and investigate how they may have been prompted by the interventions. We compared the interventions with respect to children's learning and then examined patterns in observable behaviors before and after transitions to more sophisticated levels of thinking according to a learning trajectory for area measurement. Our findings indicate that creating a complete record of the structure of the 2-dimensional array—by drawing organized rows and columns of equal-sized unit squares—best supported children in conceptualizing how units were built, organized, and coordinated, leading to improved performance.

Structure-Related Differences between Cytochrome Oxidase I Proteins in a Stable Heteroplasmic Mitochondrial System.

Many bivalve species have two types of mitochondrial DNA passed independently through the female line (F genome) and male line (M genome). Here we study the cytochrome oxidase I protein in such bivalve species and provide evidence for differences between the F and M proteins in amino acid property values, particularly relating to hydrophobicity and helicity. The magnitude of these differences varies between different regions of the protein and the change from the ancestor is most marked in the M protein. The observed changes occur in parallel and in the same direction in the different species studied. Two possible causes are considered, first relaxation of purifying selection with drift and second positive selection. These may operate in different ways in different regions of the protein. Many different amino acid substitutions contribute in a small way to the observed variation, but substitutions involving alanine and serine have a quantitatively large effect. Some of these substitutions are potential targets for phosphorylation and some are close to residues of functional importance in the catalytic mechanism. We propose that the observed changes in the F and M proteins might contribute to functional differences between them relating to ATP production and mitochondrial membrane potential with implications for sperm function.

Editorial

Editorial

The impact of cheap natural gas on marginal emissions from electricity generation and implications for energy policy

We use quasi-experimental variation due to the introduction of fracking to estimate the short-run impact of a decrease in natural gas prices on marginal air pollution emissions from electricity producers. We find that cheap natural gas has shuffled the marginal fuel in different ways in different regions, changing the marginal emissions profile. The impact of cheap natural gas varies across U.S. regions as a function of the existing stock of electricity generation. We demonstrate the impact of these changes on the environmental benefits of energy policy by simulating the installation of wind and solar generating capacity in different regions around the U.S. We construct an hourly data set of potential renewable generation for both wind and solar power and combine that with our estimated marginal emissions. CO2 emissions offset by wind generation are around 6% lower on average, and emissions offset by solar generation are essentially flat, although the average hides significant variation across regions.