Wealthy Regions Research Articles

Haute-Savoie, its lakes, its mountains, its homeless, a possible space for care

Although Haute-Savoie has an image of being a wealthy region, precariousness is often rendered invisible. When this is combined with suffering on the streets and mental health problems, new models of support are essential. A scheme called Un chez-soi d'abord has been set up in the north of the department. Its implementation was based on a phase of experimentation and then prefiguration, during which the issue of access to care shook up working habits. The characteristics of the local area were a key factor in our thinking. In this context, the inclusion of this type of project in housing and mental health programming plans is particularly necessary. These new practices are based on recovery-oriented mental health support.

Looking up the sky: unidentified aerial phenomena and macroeconomic attention

Attention to information plays a key role in recent macroeconomic analysis, yet measuring it is a challenging endeavor, most notably in terms of covering varying geographical levels and time frequencies. We propose a novel, unconventional measure of public attention, which addresses these limitations, based on individuals’ reports of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). We document a surprising link between UAP sightings and macroeconomic conditions at the U.S.-county, state, and national levels. Controlling for weather conditions, and external influences, UAP sightings are more common in wealthier regions, but within regions the pattern is counter-cyclical. Thus, variations in attention to exceptional phenomena in the skies implicitly point at more general patterns of variations in the public attention. We further support this interpretation by a quasi-experimental design that utilizes plausibly exogenous regional variations in COVID-19 restrictions and find evidence for a causal effect on public attention. We further show that the UAP sightings measure is highly correlated with conventional measures of attention that are based on expectations data. We then apply our measure in the context of monetary policy transmission. We find that it can account for sizable regional heterogeneity in the response to monetary shocks. Higher levels of attention across U.S. regions, as well as within regions over the business cycle, substantially mitigate the effect of monetary policy.

Factors Influencing Regional Government Financial Disclosure Compliance

This study analyzes factors influencing mandatory disclosure in the financial statements of Local Governments in East Java, Indonesia, , which adheres to the accrual basis of accounting. The research examines the impact of four factors: regional wealth, the educational background of local government heads, intergovernmental revenue, and population size. The sample consists of 74 financial statements from Local Governments in East Java for the years. Data were analyzed using multiple regression techniques with SPSS 20.0 software. The findings show that wealth and population size are positively correlated with the level of mandatory disclosure in local government financial statements. This suggests that wealthier regions and those with larger populations are more likely to meet disclosure requirements. Conversely, the educational background of local government chiefs and intergovernmental revenue were found to have no significant relationship with the level of financial statement disclosure. This indicates that factors related to leadership qualifications and financial transfers from the central government do not influence the compliance with mandatory disclosure requirements. These results contribute to understanding how local government characteristics affect the transparency of financial reporting, highlighting the role of regional wealth and population size in enhancing financial disclosure practices. However, further research may be needed to explore other potential factors influencing local government transparency.

Unexpected Warming From Land Radiative Management

Abstract“Land radiative management” (LRM)—deliberately increasing surface albedo to decrease temperatures—has been proposed as a form of geoengineering to mitigate the effects of regional warming. Here, we show that, contrary to expectations, LRM causes temperatures to increase in surrounding regions. The basic reason for the increase is unintended impacts on precipitation. Precipitation is suppressed over the LRM region, but this effect also extends to nearby areas unprotected by LRM. The reduction in precipitation and soil moisture in these regions leads to higher temperatures than would be expected in the absence of LRM. The resulting warming outside the LRM region is comparable to the cooling achieved inside it. This implies that, if wealthy regions unilaterally adopt LRM to cool, their neighbors may experience warming, worsening heat inequality.

Derivation of surface models using satellite imagery deep learning architectures with explainable AI

Derivation of surface models using satellite imagery deep learning architectures with explainable AI

The impact of regional poverty on public health expenditure efficacy across South Africa's provinces: investigating the influence of historical economic factors on health.

More than half of South Africa's population lives in poverty, with significant health disparities across different regions. This study investigates the effects of regional poverty and historical economic factors on the efficacy of public health expenditure to understand how socioeconomic contexts influence overall public health outcomes. Our study utilized annual data from 2005 to 2019 for 9 provinces, drawing from the General Household Survey, Health Systems Trust database, and National Treasury's Intergovernmental Fiscal Review. The primary health outcome was life expectancy at birth, while public health expenditure per capita was the main independent variable. We developed the Provincial Index of Multiple Deprivation to assess poverty, incorporating dimensions such as health, education, and living standards. We employed a two-way fixed effects model to examine the complex relationships between regional poverty, public health spending, and health outcomes. The study found that poverty levels moderate the impact of public health spending on health outcomes, as evidenced by varying results across different provincial regions. Health outcomes in poorer provinces were less influenced by public health spending than wealthier regions. Additionally, the study established that income per capita, along with its lagged values and the lagged values of public health expenditure per capita, did not significantly affect health outcomes as measured by life expectancy. The impact of health expenditure in South Africa is influenced by regional poverty levels. To maximize the effectiveness of health spending, equitable, region-specific interventions tailored to address the unique health challenges of each area should be implemented.

The distributional characteristics of Interreg Transnational Programmes and their role in promoting regional cohesion

The distributional characteristics of Interreg Transnational Programmes and their role in promoting regional cohesion

Pursuing equitable access to vaccines for the next epidemic.

To mitigate the pandemic stemming from COVID-19, numerous nations have initiated extensive vaccination campaigns for their citizens since late 2020. While affluent countries have predominantly received vaccine allocations, fewer doses have been dispatched to nations with lower average incomes. This unequal distribution not only widens the disparity between wealthy and impoverished regions but also prolongs the pandemic, evident in the emergence of new viral variants. Our research delves into the correlation between the duration of the pandemic and the timing of vaccine distribution between two countries with migratory ties. By using a pair of coupled susceptible-infected-recovered-deceased models incorporating vaccination data, we demonstrate that timely sharing of vaccines benefits both nations, regardless of the presence of viral variants. This underscores that in the realm of vaccine distribution, self-interest and altruism are not mutually exclusive.

Are vegetarians’ diets inherently healthy? Ultra-processed food consumption is associated with overweight among vegetarians: the brazilian survey on the health, food, and nutrition of vegetarians

This cross-sectional study investigated ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and its association with overweight among Brazilian vegetarian adults (n = 925). Data were collected using a self-administered structured online questionnaire. The prevalence of overweight was 26.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 23.3–29.1). The median UPF consumption was 1.8 times/day (1.0–3.1 interquartile range [IQR]). The multivariable generalised linear model identified an increase in overweight probability as the UPF intake – categorised into quintiles – increases (prevalence ratio [PR] 1.08 [95%CI 1.01–1.17]). Additionally, age (PR 1.03 [95%CI 1.02–1.04]), eating more than three meals/day away from home (PR 1.56 [95%CI 1.08–2.23]), duration of vegetarianism (PR 0.98 [95%CI 0.97–0.99]) and living in the wealthiest regions in the country (PR 1.35 [95%CI 1.06–1.71]) were associated with overweight. Although vegetarians have a lower average UPF intake and overweight prevalence than the general population, UPF exposure can still lead to excessive weight gain or maintenance. This study endorses generalising the Brazilian Dietary Guidelines for the vegetarian population.

Why South Africa needs cognitive neuroscientists

Despite a long-standing and growing popularity in the minority world (wealthier regions that represent a small percentage of the world population), cognitive neuroscience has been slow to attract South African researchers and practitioners. This brief commentary reflects on why South Africa needs its own cognitive neuroscientists. Prevailing theories and constructs in the field are developed from minority world populations and are taken unquestioningly to reflect the neurocognition of all humanity. A significant potential contribution by local cognitive neuroscientists would be to challenge and critique these theories and constructs underlying neurocognition. Without representation from majority world contexts (developing nations whose populations form a significant demographic majority in the world), like South Africa, cognitive neuroscience will continue to be biased and its findings ungeneralizable. In addition, the contribution of South African cognitive neuroscientists extends beyond the conceptual. Currently, those working in the field have made some noteworthy contributions that have made a material difference in the lives of South Africans. Selected examples of these are provided. The future research agenda for the field promises increased integration of contributions from artificial intelligence (AI), psychometrics, bioinformatics, and genetics, as well as collaborative and open sharing of data. It is vital that South African cognitive neuroscientists keep pace with these developments.

Emergence of multivariate climate change signals

Abstract The emergence of a climate change signal relative to background variability is a useful metric for understanding local changes and their consequences. Studies have identified emergent signals of climate change, particularly in temperature-based indices with weaker signals found for precipitation metrics. In this study, we adapt climate analogue methods to examine multivariate climate change emergence over the historical period. We use seasonal temperature and precipitation observations and apply a sigma dissimilarity method to demonstrate that large local climate changes may already be identified, particularly in low-latitude regions. The multivariate methodology brings forward the time of emergence by several decades in many areas relative to analysing temperature in isolation. We observed particularly large departures from an early-20th century climate in years when the global warming signal is compounded by an El Niño-influence. The latitudinal dependence in the emergent climate change signal means that lower-income nations have experienced earlier and stronger emergent climate change signals than the wealthiest regions. Analysis based on temperature and precipitation extreme indices finds weaker signals and less evidence of emergence but is hampered by lack of long-running observations in equatorial areas. The framework developed here may be extended to attribution and projections analyses.

Net evaporation-induced mangrove area loss across low-lying Caribbean islands

Abstract Although mangroves provide many beneficial ecosystem services, such as blue carbon storage and coastal protection, they are currently under threat due to changes in climate conditions, such as prolonged drought exposure. Under drought conditions, evaporation exceeds precipitation and high soil salinities can lead to stunted growth and die-back. To quantify this interplay, we developed a database for low-lying and uninhabited mangrove islands in the Caribbean under various evaporation and precipitation regimes. We extracted physical and biological information from each island using remote sensing techniques and coupled it with a process-based model. We used this database to develop a model that explains both the spatial variability in vegetated area across the Caribbean—as a function of rates of evaporation and precipitation—and porewater salinity concentration and dispersion from island edge towards the interior of mangrove islands. We then used this validated model to predict mangrove area loss associated with increases in evaporation to precipitation rates by 2100 for different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP). Less wealthy Caribbean regions such as Belize, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela are disproportionally affected, with mangrove area losses ranging from 3%–7% for SSP 2.6 and 13%–21% for SSP 7.0. Furthermore, foregone carbon sequestration in lost biomass under SSP 4.5 and 7.0 scenarios could compromise the ability of low-lying Caribbean mangrove islands to vertically adjust to sea level rise.

A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Interventional Clinical Trials in High-Grade Glioma Therapy.

High-grade glioma is the most frequent and lethal primary tumor of the central nervous system. Despite advances in surgical, pharmacological, and cell-directed therapies, there have been no updates to the standard of care in over a decade. This cross-sectional study analyzes patient and trial data from 201 interventional trials completed between 2010 and 2023, encompassing 18,563 participants. Although we found that all trials reported participant age and sex, only 52% of trials reported participant demographics, resulting in 51% of total participant demographics being unreported. The majority of studies did not report ethnicity, with approximately 60% of participants unreported. Additionally, males were significantly underrepresented in trials, comprising 60% of participants despite representing 75% of glioblastoma patients. Improved demographic reporting has been observed since 2011; however, it is inconsistent. Furthermore, we cataloged the geographic diversity of trials across the United States and found significant coverage deserts in relatively rural, but highly affected, areas such as Montana and Maine. We found a wider distribution of trials in both urban and wealthier regions, which indicates extensive coverage gaps and decreased access to participation for patients of a lower socioeconomic status.

Quantifying energy footprint inequalities across different socio-economic segments in Spain

Quantifying energy footprint inequalities across different socio-economic segments in Spain

Factors associated with early-stage lung cancer diagnosis (ESLCD) in Brazil, 2013-2019: A multivariable analysis.

e20091 Background: Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate among the leading deadly cancers worldwide. Despite improvements in tobacco cessation and treatment over the years, disparities in access to care, timely diagnosis, and proper treatment remain prevalent. This study aims to identify the factors associated (FA) with Early-Stage Lung Cancer Diagnosis (ESLCD) in Brazil. Methods: This retrospective cohort study includes individuals diagnosed with lung cancer from January 2013 to December 2019, registered in the Brazilian hospital-based Cancer Registry (HBCR). Descriptive and bivariate analysis was performed, and T-tests and Chi-square were used to compare early vs late-stage groups. Multivariable backward stepwise logistic regression identified FA with ESLCD at a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: The study was conducted with data on 86,558 individuals registered in the HBCR; 56.6% were men, 64 years old on average, and 54.8% were white. We found a high percentage of patients without education information (23.9%), and 70% had completed high school. As for behavioral characteristics, only 20% of the patients had never smoked; the others were current smokers (40%) or former smokers (40%). Almost half of the patients were from the Southeast region of Brazil (44.6%), 27% from the South, 19.9% from the Northeast, 3.9% from the North and 3.9% from the Midwest. The vast majority of the individuals were diagnosed at a late stage (85.6%), while 14.4% were ESLCD. In the bivariate analysis, being less than 65 years old, being female, white, never smoking, having a college degree, and living in the south or southeast regions were associated with ESLCD. In the final multivariable model the Factors Associated with ESLCD were having less than 65 years (OR=1.28 [95% CI: 1.22-1.34]), of the female gender (OR=1.26 [95% CI: 1.22-1.32]), having education greater than a college degree (OR=1.49 [95% CI: 1.38-1.61]), and living on the southeast (OR=1.22 [95% CI: 1.15-1.30]); and in the south region (OR=1.21 [95% CI: 1.18-1.32]); which are the wealthiest regions in the country. Conclusions: The education level was the most decisive factor associated with ESLCD. Geographic location played an important role in ESLCD, indicating issues related to wealth and access to health services. Improving access to lung cancer diagnosis, especially for vulnerable populations, can reduce disparities in the rates of early-stage diagnosis and improve overall survival. [Table: see text]

The role of air pollution in electric vehicle adoption: Evidence from China

The role of air pollution in electric vehicle adoption: Evidence from China

General practitioner workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review protocol

IntroductionThere are not enough general practitioners (GPs) in the UK National Health Service. This problem is worse in areas of the country where poverty and underinvestment in health and social...

Contributions to a global understanding of socioenvironmental justice related to urban forest: Trends from Brazilian cities in the southeastern Paraná State

Contributions to a global understanding of socioenvironmental justice related to urban forest: Trends from Brazilian cities in the southeastern Paraná State

A Glimpse into Gynecologic Practice During the Islamic Golden Age.

The Islamic Golden Age was the time in history from eighth to fourteenth century. This era was marked by expansion of Islamic world to all the Middle East, North Africa, South and East Europe, and Central Asia. The Islamic world was the wealthiest region in the world at that time and that wealth was utilized to promote great flourishing in the arts, philosophy, science, and medicine. The practice of healing was considered the most noble of human undertakings by Islamic scholars. In this era, many great physician-scientists emerged in the Islamic world, albeit several were not Muslims, who examined prior writings, corrected many, and proceeded to produce their own observations and innovations. This article highlights some of the most important contributions to gynecology of some prominent scholars during this shining phase of medical history.

СУБЪЕКТИВНОЕ БЛАГОПОЛУЧИЕ И ЦЕННОСТИ КАК ПРЕДИКТОРЫ ПРОТЕСТНОГО УЧАСТИЯ В РЕГИОНАХ РОССИИ

Political protest is an important indicator of political conflict in a society. Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there was a worldwide trend of increasing protest activity. Russia was not left aside from the global trend. According to polls, the level of protest sentiment increased in 2019. Researchers, politicians and the entire global community was faced with the issue of protests as a widespread phenomenon, including the causes and factors that influence the increase in the number of protests. This paper studies the influence of such factors of protest participation as subjective well-being, values, and the level of economic development of the region. The database includes 11045 respondents from 36 regions of Russia. The survey was conducted in 2018. Using multilevel regression on the survey data, the author concludes that respondents with post-material values and those living in wealthier regions are more likely to participate in protests. Subjective well-being has no statistically significant correlation with participation in protests.