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The recovery rate of paper products is a key factor in measuring the recyscling potential and the sustainability of the paper industry. Accurately measuring the recovery rate of paper products holds important theoretical and practical value. This paper took the non-recycling part and time factor into account and built the Koyck model to estimate the recovery rate, storage loss rate and recovery cycle of paper products. The model results showed that the recovery rate of Chinese paper products in 2017 increased to 58.05%, which was 10% higher than the results of methods that did not contain the non-recycling part or the time factor. The model results also showed that the storage loss rate of Chinese paper products was much higher than that of developed countries while the recovery cycle was close to the level of developed countries. The distribution analysis showed that the storage loss rate and recovery cycle of Chinese paper products varied significantly over time, which may be the result of policies and the change of consumption structure. It is suggested that the Chinese government should take measures to reduce the storage loss rate of paper products and enhance their recycling ability to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a major growth in global health networks in recent decades to address health issues including tobacco use, alcohol abuse, and maternal mortality. Most conditions that incur high costs have provoked networks of advocates working to mitigate the impact, increase investment in research, and establish campaigns. Global health networks often work simultaneously across policy, knowledge creation, and advocacy. Until recently there has been limited activity in global health networks and advocacy addressing hearing loss and deafness which has contributed to its relatively low visibility with policymakers compared to other health conditions. This discussion paper reports on a global consultation that explored the views of advocacy groups and individuals on advocacy for the management of hearing loss, and cochlear implantation (CI). It focussed on stakeholders' views of current advocacy endeavours, opportunities and barriers, and the possible development of a global advocacy network to improve access to cochlear implantation and the supporting services. The subsequent development of a global health network, the Cochlear Implant International Community of Action (CIICA) is discussed and the conditions necessary for the successful development of health networks are explored. This paper will be of interest to those wishing to understand the factors influencing the development of health networks and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's low fertility rate has been a concern for over thirty years. Despite a vast literature on the topic, numerous policies and measures to boost the country's fertility rate, and the will of Japanese people to have a family, Japan seems powerless to remedy the problem commonly called shôshika in Japanese. Yet, Southern parts of Japan show that it does not equally affect the archipelago. Remote islands in Japan have an exceptionally high fertility rate compared to other developed countries. The paper aims to understand the reasons for their high fertility rate by focusing on late and lifelong singlehood (bankonka and mikonka) as a critical factor of the shôshika. It will particularly pay attention to the perception of love and romance in one of those remote islands: Tokunoshima. It will argue that the absence of commodification in romantic intercourse facilitates matchmaking that would result in the creation of a family. People are more likely to meet someone with whom they will have a family when the dating process is not embedded with commodified gestures. On another note, although their view of dating is similar to individuals in other developed countries, the practice of dating takes alternative forms that force them not to rely on the commodification of romance, which increases their chances of matchmaking. As a result, inhabitants of Tokunoshima quickly find a marriage partner, which contributes to the absence of late and lifelong singlehood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the macroeconomic and social determinants of voting behavior, and especially of political polarization – defined here as the increasing electoral success of far-right and far-left parties – in 20 advanced countries using annual data from 1970 to 2016 and covering 291 parliamentary elections. Our analysis indicates that the link between income inequality and political polarization appears to have significantly changed over the last 20 years. Indeed, we find that both average net income inequality, as well as the bottom 10% income share are statistically linked to the recent success of far-right parties (but not of far-left parties), while the top 10% or top 20% income shares are not. The link of income inequality and political polarization, and in particular the increasing success of far-right parties, thus seems to be based on the deterioration of the relative economic position especially of the poorest fraction of the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries have more than 1300 investment treaties with developed countries. Investment treaties are often alleged to constrain developing countries' climate policies. This paper examines four treaty reforms that are often suggested as remedies to such regulatory chill. It considers an investment treaty that protects a stranded developed country investment in a developing country. The reforms are compared with regard to whether they can induce the developing country to regulate the investment, and their political attractiveness. The reforms are shown to have features that seem to have gone unnoticed in the debate. Exclusion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) may be ineffective due to a hold-up problem, and if effective requires unlawful regulation by the host country. A shortening of a sunset period applicable to unilateral withdrawal can postpone regulation. A reduction in the amount of stipulated compensation can induce the developing country to phase out the stranded investment, but will require a compensation payment from the developing country to the developed country investor. The reform with best potential to address stranded investment problems appears to be an increase in a carve-out from the compensation requirement for measures with sufficiently positive climate effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production and consumption activities are cross-border and therefore, it is important to understand the role of Global Value Chains (GVCs) in fulfilling a country’s specific climate commitments. This study examines the causal relationship between selected GVC indices and CO2 emissions. We use the GVC position index, considered robust in comparison to the frequently used GVC participation index, for determining the impact on emissions. The forward and backward participation indices are considered in the analysis. The paper presents an analysis of 62 developing and developed economies from 1995 to –2018 using the Juodis A., Y. Karavias, and V. Sarafidis [2021. “A Homogeneous Approach to Testing for Granger non-Causality in Heterogeneous Panels.” Empirical Economics 60 (1): 93–112] approach, which is an improvement over the traditional approaches to analysing causality. The results show that the overall position in GVCs positively affects CO2 emissions for developing countries but a causal relationship does not exist for the developed countries. The developed countries attain a higher participation index but a lower position index. On the other hand, developing countries with fewer stringent environmental regulations may opt for an upstream position (more export-oriented) and by design specialize in more pollution-intensive industries. Noteworthy, production-based emissions in developed countries are reduced because of an increase in imports of emission-intensive products from developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in 2021, the current inflation process has spurred plenty of discussion in academic and policy circles. This paper studies the relationship between firms' markups and inflation during the 2021–22 inflation surge in several industrialized countries. It begins by explaining markup inflation and its critics in the context of the current debate over the sources of inflation. Then it reviews the characteristics of markup inflation within the post-Keynesian theory of markup pricing and complementing it with the Institutionalist approach to inflation that distinguishes between basic inflationary pressures and propagation mechanisms. The second part assesses markup inflation for several industrialized countries using descriptive statistics and conventional econometrics. The main contribution falls in empirically estimating markups considering the contribution of material cost and controlling for changes in capacity utilization over time. It concludes that there is some evidence pointing at markup inflation and, importantly, the existence of markup inflation leads to rejecting any wage-price spiral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wellbeing is an increasingly prominent topic across academia, including analyses of the myriad factors that influence it. Of these, perhaps the most prominent is economics, with a relatively-well substantiated link, especially at lower levels of income. However, most work has been limited to select measures (usually life evaluation) and/or populations (usually Western nations). This paper offers an expansive approach, exploring associations between income and a selection of 31 items pertaining to wellbeing in the Gallup World Poll over 3 years (2020–2022), covering 386,654 people in 142 countries. Significantly, on every single variable, participants with higher incomes fare better than those with lower incomes. However, there are also many interesting nuances when filtering the results through various demographic considerations, including comparing participants in terms of global regions, sex, age, and level of education. Together, these nuances paint a complex picture of the impact of economics on wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities seeking to establish or expand their research missions in developed countries have at their disposal well-established literature on strategies to foster research capacity in universities. On the contrary, the literature on these processes in the context of developing countries is quite recent and scarce. We offer a descriptive, narrative review of the literature on research capacity building in universities in developing countries, both in terms of the conceptual models or theoretical frameworks used and of strategies reported. We also compare this corpus with recent literature on this set of issues coming from developed countries, covering 40 papers overall. On the theoretical side, we find substantial differences in density and content across both sets of papers. The empirical dimension suggests universities in developing countries tackle the problems of fostering research capacity piecemeal and idiosyncratically without the benefit of an overall conceptual model or blueprint to guide them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive literature has investigated the driving forces behind high-technology exports, but most studies focus on developed countries and developing countries outside Africa. The purpose of this paper is to assess the main factors determining export-oriented technological change, using the technological content of exports (high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech exports) as a proxy. For this purpose, instrumental variable regressions are applied to a panel dataset of 33 African countries. The findings revealed that the main determinants of high-technology exports are: imports of components, rule of law, human capital, FDI inflows, GDP per capita and manufacturing. For medium-technology exports, the determinants identified are similar to high-technology exports with population included. The main determinants of low-technology manufactured exports are imports of components, rule of law, population, FDI inflows, GDP per capita and manufacturing. These give policymakers in African countries a targeted approach in formulating policies related to exports by technological category. This paper contributes to the literature in that it assesses the main factors determining export-oriented technological change, using different levels of technological content of exports (high-tech, medium-tech and low-tech exports). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developed countries, people spend nearly 90% of their time in buildings or during transportation. Recent research studies demonstrated that occupant behaviors have a significant impact on building performance in relation to the indoor environment and energy use. This paper presents the ASHRAE Global Occupant Behavior Database which aims to advance the knowledge and understanding of realistic occupancy patterns and human-building interactions with building systems. This database includes 34 field-measured occupant behavior datasets for both commercial and residential buildings, contributed by researchers from 15 countries and 39 institutions covering 10 different climate zones. It includes occupancy patterns, occupant behaviors, indoor and outdoor environment measurements. The database is open source, a public website was developed for the users to interactively explore, query, and download datasets. This paper focuses on a detailed data analysis to investigate patterns of nine occupant behavior types, examining impacted factors such as building type, country, and climate zone. EnergyPlus simulations have been implemented based on the occupancy profiles derived from this database, and results showed overall building electricity consumption can be reduced up to around 27% in Summer and around 10% in Winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates to what extent the likelihood of young people being long-term NEET can be explained by low literacy skills, how this varies across advanced countries, and how this cross-national variation can be explained by education and social policies. We use PIAAC data and include macro-level indicators on education and social policies. We analyze the likelihood of being long-term NEET versus being in employment or in education/training among some 34,000 young people aged 20–30 from 25 countries. We find that low-literate young people are more likely to be long-term NEET. While NEET risks are associated with countries' institutional characteristics, this does not mean that these characteristics and policies always work in favour of low-literate young people. Although high levels of (enabling) ALMP generally reduce the risk of being NEET, they do so less for low-literate young people. Additionally, young people living in social-democratic welfare states are less likely to be NEET, but low-literate young people seem to profit less from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous communities have a particular stake in climate and energy developments, and have come to occupy a central role in both the movement toward decarbonization of industrial societies and renewable energy transition. Yet they remain underrepresented and excluded from climate policy processes. This paper critically evaluates the case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to foster inclusive decision-making, with a specific focus on the place of Indigenous peoples in these processes. We demonstrate the ways in which the IPCC provides limited voice for Indigenous peoples in the Panel's deliberations. We argue the IPCC's disregard for Indigenous knowledges - and Indigenous peoples - arises from a configuration of structural problems within the governance of decarbonization and the politics of knowledge production. We conclude the IPCC faces on-going challenges in supporting the democratic functioning of climate decision-making, including in upholding Indigenous peoples' internationally recognized human rights as political actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of causal inference in the on-going methodological debate in political science research. Here, we critically engage the extant literature, take stock of the major debates, articulate key gaps and its limitations. Then, we leverage published journal articles in Web of Science (WoS) database collections and analyze them according to their publication years, topics, research areas, and countries/regions that they focused on. Finally, we did the same review at the country-level to look for nuanced patterns. We found that there is an influx of causal inference articles that are primarily election-related and concerns about the government and law. A good number of these studies focused in developed countries, while only limited interest in developing countries. Ultimately, we demonstrate that while the trend of much political science research has been the pursuit of causal inference, many regional and national-level studies of this kind remain scant and marginal. This is particularly revealing in the Philippine context which suggests potentially minimal exposure and lesser interaction and dissemination of the core ideas of establishing cause-and-effect in social science. This bears implications to the state and trajectory of empirical political works in Philippine political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, the recent SARS-CoV-2 virus disease outbreak has infected more than 691,000,000 people and killed more than 6,900,000. Surprisingly, Sub-Saharan Africa has suffered the least from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Factors that are inherent to developing countries and that contrast with their counterparts in developed countries have been associated with these disease burden differences. In this paper, we developed data-driven COVID-19 mathematical models of two 'extreme': Cameroon, a developing country, and New York State (NYS) located in a developed country. We then identified critical parameters that could be used to explain the lower-than-expected COVID-19 disease burden in Cameroon versus NYS and to help mitigate future major disease outbreaks. Through the introduction of a 'disease burden' function, we found that COVID-19 could have been much more severe in Cameroon than in NYS if the vaccination rate had remained very low in Cameroon and the pandemic had not ended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational therapists support individuals experiencing homelessness in traditional roles, and occupational therapy positions focussed specifically on homelessness appear to be growing. To develop and refine a framework to guide occupational therapy practice and research in homelessness. We developed a framework and refined it through a stakeholder consultation process conducted with 17 international occupational therapy experts using an online survey. In this survey, we presented an initial framework and requested qualitative feedback. We analyzed this qualitative data using content analysis. Stakeholder feedback was categorized into eight recommendations: (1) Revision to the 'four processes'; (2) Emphasizing social justice and systems-level advocacy; (3) Reflecting intersectionality; (4) Emphasizing meaningful activity; (5) Emphasizing peer support; (6) Incorporating a focus on independent living skills; (7) Increasing a focus on an activity for addressing substance misuse; and (8) Acknowledging cognitive and physical health. Each of these recommendations was incorporated into a refined version of this framework. These recommendations and a refined version of the framework are presented in this paper. We have developed and refined a framework aimed at guiding practice and research in occupational therapy in homelessness that will be evaluated in future research. Though a range of frameworks exists for guiding the practice of occupational therapists more generally, this framework represents the first that is focussed specifically on guiding occupational therapy practice and research with individuals who experience homelessness. Research and practice implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil pollution is a global problem. As one of the important tools for contaminated land management, much attention has been given to soil environmental criteria (SEC) in some countries. However, most of the current researches on SEC are concentrated in several developed countries. For other countries that need to establish SEC, learning the experience of developed countries can promote the development of SEC. This paper systematically described the development of SEC in the USA, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, the process of deriving SEC in these countries was comprehensively compared and analyzed from the aspects of human health risk and ecological risk. The results show that the USA and the Netherlands developed SEC earlier and formed a relatively complete system. Health risk assessment and ecological risk assessment are the main methods to establish SEC in the world. The differences in the derivation of SEC in different countries are mainly reflected in the establishment of conceptual site models, the selection of calculation methods and the determination of data. It is suggested that other countries should strengthen the research on risk-based theoretical method systems and pay attention to the localization research of SEC. This paper highlights the importance of establishing SEC based on local realities. Furthermore, it can provide a reference and scientific basis for the establishment of SEC in developing countries, and provide scientific support for soil environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prognosis for cervical cancer varies greatly between nations. The disparity in cancer survival rates within nations is largely a result of disparities in public knowledge, the accessibility of cancer services, diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to assess the survival rate and associated factors among cervical cancer patients in East Africa. Literature search was carried out using Google scholar, PubMed/Medline, Embase and CINHAL. Covidence, a web-based program, was used to import studies for review process. PRISMA guidelines were followed. A total of 110 abstracts were identified from electronic sources. There were five duplicate articles removed. We looked at 105 papers' abstracts and titles, and we excluded 78 of them because they did not fit our inclusion criteria. We conducted a full-text analysis of the remaining 27 papers, leaving out 14 researches that did not fit our inclusion requirements. For final review, 13 studies were included. Using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) assessment checklist, methodological quality was evaluated. The included articles were cohort studies. They were conducted in Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania and Rwanda. One-year, two-year, three-year, four-year and five-year overall survival rates ranged from 67% to 92%, 55% to 84%, 44% to 53%, 32% to 47%, and 26% to 43%, respectively. The pooled one-year, two-year, three-year, four-year and five-year survival rates of cervical cancer patients in East Africa were 84%, 71%, 50%, 39% and 36%, respectively. HIV status, late presentation, treatment modalities, older age and presence of comorbidities were the most commonly mentioned prognostic factors for survival. CRD42023402551 Most women in developing countries present with advanced disease, often untreatable or suitable only for palliation. In East Africa, cervical cancer makes up 40% of all cases of cancer detected in women. This largely highlights the inadequacy of national cancer control initiatives in most African nations, including immunization, screening, and early detection. Cervical cancer survival rates vary throughout the world and are commonly associated with the country's development status. The pooled five-year survival rate for cervical cancer patients in East Africa was 36%, according to this systematic review and meta-analysis, which is much lower than the rates in developed countries like the United States, Japan, and Australia but comparable to studies conducted in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominance of the 'After the Washington Consensus' for international development is based on mainstream-neoclassical economics that has been imposed by Washington upon debt-stranded developing and developed countries. Against this tide, the purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative scheme and recommendations for international development, pulling from the Marxist political economy practice. Considering, Marxist political economy as a living tradition, the paper contributes to offering a Marxist political economy perspective to international development in the form of a retort to the 'After the Washington Consensus'. 'After the Washington Consensus' represents an evolution from the Washington Consensus, due to the need for capital to adapt to new forms of exploitation. Students and scholars of international development would benefit from this worthwhile exercise that distinguishes in a succinctly and methodically manner between mainstream-neoclassical and Marxist political economy perspectives on international development. The paper concludes that in contradistinction, a Marxist political economy approach to international development that serves the interests of the working class does not have any commonalities with the 'After the Washington Consensus' that serves the interests of international capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing rate of global inequality, on the one hand, and hyper-consumerism, particularly among higher socio-economic classes in developed countries, on the other, have resulted in the emergence of new forms of subsistence, lifestyles and settlement types where subaltern groups and populations live and work. This paper investigates the emergence of two of these kinds of settlement in Tehran, Iran, that have developed based on the intersection of two factors: garbage and undocumented migration. In these places, undocumented Afghan migrants sort and sell dry garbage. At the same time, these places shelter the workers, chiefly teenage and underage undocumented Afghan migrants. This paper is a preliminary effort to archaeologically categorize and conceptualize these garbage-based settlements. Archaeology is among the best methodologies to investigate the materiality and inequality faced by such transient subaltern groups in the short and long term. Here I discuss how several factors, beyond absolute poverty, participate in turning garbage into a livelihood and generate garbage-based settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The canonical work of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Manual of Archive Administration, published in 1922, provided the basis of archival theory and practice in many countries, especially British colonies. In his canon, Jenkinson requested the archivists to evaluate the manner in which they select records for permanent preservation. With examples from South Africa, this paper intends to confront the canon about the selection and destruction of modern archives. A complementary method of appraising records based on an 'audit or money trail,' as best illustrated through the Auditor-General of South Africa's audit reports of public entities such as the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, is proposed. This paper ruffles feathers and argues that contrary to established orthodoxies of records selection, financial audit trails provide the most reliable clues of which and what historical records ought to be set aside and preserved. The authors cite the limits of this 'follow the money' method and provide mitigation suggestions. The paper challenges existing appraisal paradigms and has a potential to influence policy, theory and practice of appraisal in developing and developed countries. It also offers a modern-day refurbished continuation and expansion of the ideas addressed by Sir Hilary Jenkinson in his seminal canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative clusters are increasingly being recognized as vital tools in the promotion of the competitiveness, innovation, urban development, and growth of cities in developed countries. This paper studies the geography of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) in Barcelona (Spain) for the years 2009 and 2017. We investigate the spatial distribution of firms using the Scan methodology, which identifies the localization of clusters and assigns them statistical significance. Our findings indicate that CCIs are not located haphazardly— they tend to cluster in and around Barcelona's prime districts. The evolution of the clusters over these nine years reveals distinct patterns of clustering among the twelve CCI sub-sectors. The mature clusters in Barcelona's core tend to have greater growth and enhanced transformation capabilities. Our results can guide CCI cluster policy, taking into account the specificity of each sub-sector. In addition, they can direct place-based development strategies, creative urban and rural planning, and restructuring in a polycentric context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been an accelerated growth in the education field in developed countries since the second half of the 20th century, it is not the case among developing regions where progress is slow and uneven. To help the Southeast Asian region move forward, it is imperative to examine the topographical trends within this field of study. Thus, this study sought to gain empirical insights into the current status of educational research in Southeast Asia and how it compares globally and to the United States as the leading country in the field. A total of 13,527 documents from 709 education-related source titles from the Scopus database were examined. Using a bibliometric approach, the findings revealed that despite the region's progress in educational research, its contribution to global scientific knowledge remains modest compared to other leading countries. A stable growth rate and selective publications in favour of top-tier journals were also observed among the leading countries in the region. Meanwhile, education scholars from emerging countries frequently publish their work in low-tier journals. A substantial link between research productivity, impact, and collaboration was also observed. The paper concludes with practical, theoretical, and methodological implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this review was to examine the methods used to measure food insecurity (FI) globally, to inform considerations relating to adopting a novel, or reviewing an existing, FI measurement approach in developed countries. Considerations for measurement are examined with particular applicability to the United Kingdom (UK) which has recently announced adoption of the US Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) as an indicator to facilitate annual FI monitoring. This study uses a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) methodological approach to systematically review the literature on FI measurement and considers: geographical jurisdiction, methodological approach, sampling strategy, FI indicator(s) used, and implications for measurement. Results found that the majority of papers reviewed emanate from North America with the US Household Food Security Scale Module (HFSSM) and its various adapted forms being the most commonly reported indicator. FI is becoming a key concern within developed countries with a range of indicators being used to report on the severity of the issue. This paper provides a contribution to knowledge by: (i) identifying various approaches to FI measurement and commonalities of existing measurement approaches; (ii) providing a summation of the methodologies and findings of studies relating to FI measurement, and associated implications for measurement, (iii) providing a justification evidenced by the literature for the adoption of the HFSSM in the UK; and (iv) assessing the methodological usefulness of a REA review. Understanding the components of robust FI indicators and their effectiveness can help inform existing and novel measurement approaches to ensure that data collected on FI are meaningful and thereby useful to inform future policy work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Christian Watson (known as Chris Watson) was the first Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP) leader and from May 1901 to October 1907. During this time, while sitting on the cross benches between Alfred Deakin's Protectionists and George Reid's Free Traders, Labor regularly held the balance of power. For a short stint between April and August 1904, Watson was (the first world Labor and Australia's youngest) prime minister and treasurer. Watson resigned as FPLP leader on 23 October 1907. By choosing not to contest his seat, Watson left parliament on 29 April 1910. It is Watson's resignation as FPLP leader that is the focus of this paper. By drawing on a repository of newspaper clippings once owned by Watson and now held by the National Library of Australia along with Trove Digitised Newspapers, this article analyses the reporting of the week surrounding Watson's resignation including the question if Watson's retained articles favoured a particular stance. The paper concludes that newspapers were of the opinion that the stress of the job and subsequent ill health it induced, led to Watson's resignation. Hence, this paper's focus is contained to Watson's resignation, a period of newspaper reporting and collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a country, the United States spends significantly more on healthcare than other advanced industrialized countries, and Americans have comparably worse health outcomes. Both are developments of the last four decades. In this paper, we look at how change in antitrust and patent law and thus change in market power in the largest four subsectors of healthcare, hospitals, physician groups, prescription drugs, and net medical insurance, have contributed to the increasing cost of medical care in the United States. We show that the annual rent – the degree to which health care is overpriced as a result of market power – was between 2.47 and 4.30 percent of GDP in 2016 – truly a big cost for big medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rate at which the development of librarianship is advancing in African countries compared to developed countries is agonizing, which gives rise to many questions regarding the future trend of the library profession. This paper reviews current trends and emerging issues in libraries and the librarianship education profession in African countries. Challenges in the training of librarians are described. Disparities in advancement are explained through a comparison of the development of libraries and the librarianship profession in different African zones, that is, East, South, West, and the Northern part of Africa. Challenges that face libraries and librarians' profession are summarized, and the authors offer some recommendations and practicable solutions to the emerging trends and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of market distortions in the manufacturing sector in Morocco. Recent microdata are used to calculate the extent of resource misallocation associated to these distortions and the potential total factor productivity (TFP) gain resulting from their removal. Market distortions in the manufacturing sector in Morocco are higher compared with developed countries and slightly more important compared with other developing countries, such as China and India. These distortions decreased between 2007 and 2013. Full liberalization would raise TFP by about 84%. If distortions are removed to the level of selected developed countries with better resource allocation, the increase in TFP would be of 56%. The paper also suggests that industries that are more opened to competition such as textiles industries present lower levels of market distortions compared with more protected industries with relatively little competition, such as the food industry. Besides, some evidence is provided showing that smaller firms face more extensive distortions compared to medium and larger firms. The main results of the paper are robust to an alternative estimation that uses a different methodological framework with a less extensive theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology is an innovative science and technology that has the most opportunity to be applied in the market, and its intrinsic value is immeasurable. Some developed countries have invested a lot in research activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the biomechanical principle of the skeletal muscle of the molecular motor and its application in the active rehabilitation of the lower limbs. In this paper, based on the force generation mechanism and biomechanical model of skeletal muscle, and guided by the mechanical principle equation of skeletal muscle contraction of the collective operation mechanism of a molecular motor, and combined with the experiment of active rehabilitation design of human lower limbs, it is demonstrated in the results that the angle error after yaw angle fitting can be controlled within −1° − 1°, which has a strong effect, and in the rehabilitation effect in fruit, the swing phase accounts for about 40% and the support phase accounts for about 60%. It can be concluded that the accuracy of rehabilitation data collection and the effectiveness of gait parameters detection in the process of human rehabilitation, as well as the actual recognition effect of lower limb movement pattern recognition, is good and efficient. Molecular materials play an important role in biology or medicine. With the development of technology, they contribute to the recovery of skeletal muscle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political economy literature on international bailouts has repeatedly shown that the domestic politics of rescued countries influence international bailout compliance. However, we know less about the domestic politics of bailout negotiations, and especially the type of conditions negotiated by governments of more developed countries with strong ties to international lenders. This paper puts forward an argument about the role of a government's partisanship in shaping the conditions stipulated between international lenders and developed countries when crises confront the latter. Consistent with political cover theories, we argue that governments of crisis countries seek to scapegoat international institutions in order to push domestically unpleasant reforms. However, when crises affect countries significantly close to international lenders, international institutions may tolerate the scapegoating attitude and accept to emphasize governments' reforms in the direction of their core ideological constituencies. Focusing on bailout negotiations during the Eurocrisis (2008–2016), we maintain that while important and painful reforms were discussed at the negotiation tables, the involved international lenders also accommodated the policy preferences of both left and right governments of crisis-ridden countries, everything else constant. So, conditionality came with duress, but governments were also able to emphasize reforms on the opponents' policy issues, hence systematically obtaining fewer measures on their voters' main policy areas. Regression analyses of an original country-quarter dataset of EU bailout conditionality measures provide support to our hypothesis. The findings are relevant to the analysis of partisan politics in economic negotiations and of democratic deficits in international organizations. Furthermore, this study contributes to understanding the political accessibility and ideological dynamics of international lending beyond the Eurocrisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agglomeration effects on the workers' and firms' productivity in developed countries are widely confirmed by previous studies, while empirical evidence for developing countries is still limited. This paper sheds light on another urban productivity factor that is particularly important for developing countries: self-employment and wage jobs. The transition from the economy dominated by the former to the one by the latter is a key to economic development. This study examines how urban agglomerations are linked to the mix of self-employment and wage jobs by focusing on one of the least urbanized low-income countries: Ethiopia. Applying an instrumental variable approach to worker-level cross-sectional data, the analysis finds a negative link between town population size and the share of self-employment workers: a log increase in town population size lowers the probability of engaging in self-employment by 7.9 percentage points. Particularly female, young, and less-educated workers are more likely to work with wage jobs in larger towns. The findings suggest a crucial link between urban agglomerations and employment modes in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context of implementation plays an important role in the delivery of optimal treatments in stroke recovery and rehabilitation. Considering that stroke systems of care vary widely across the globe, the goal of the present paper is to compare healthcare providers' priority of key areas in translating stroke research to clinical practice among High Income Countries, Upper Middle- and Lower Middle-Income Countries (HICs, UMICs, LMICs). We also aimed to compare perceptions regarding the key areas' feasibility of implementation, and formulate recommendations specific to each socioeconomic region. Data related to recommendations for knowledge translation in stroke, from a primary survey from the second Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation Roundtable were segregated based on socioeconomic region. Frequency distribution was used to compare the key areas for practice change and examine the perceived feasibility of implementation of the same across HIC, UMIC and LMICs. A total of 632 responses from healthcare providers across 28 countries were received. Interdisciplinary care and access to services were high priorities across the three groups. Transitions in Care and Intensity of Practice were high priority areas in HICs, whereas Clinical Practice Guidelines were a high priority in LMICs. Interventions specific to clinical discipline, screening and assessment were among the most feasible areas in HICs, whereas Intensity of practice and Clinical Practice Guidelines were perceived as most feasible to implement in LMICs. We have identified healthcare providers' priorities for addressing international practice change across socioeconomic regions. By focusing on the most feasible key areas, we can aid the channeling of appropriate resources to bridge the disparities in stroke outcomes across HICs, UMICs and LMICs. It is pertinent to examine the differences in priorities of stroke rehabilitation professionals and the feasibility of implementing evidence-based practice across socioeconomic regions. There is an urgent necessity for the development of clinical practice guidelines for stroke rehabilitation in Low-Middle Income Countries, taking into consideration the cultural, economic and geographical constraints. In upper-middle income countries, encouraging family support and timely screening and assessment for aphasia, cognition and depression appear to be the low hanging fruits to enhance quality of life after stroke. Innovative ways to increase intensity of practice and channelling of resources to improve transitions in care may prove to be the most beneficial in advancing stroke rehabilitation in high income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the accuracy performance of eight stochastic mortality models in the forecasting of the male mortality rates pertaining to different age groups and countries. The mortality datasets for three developed countries (Canada, France and Japan) and two developing countries (Taiwan and Ukraine) are employed in this study. For each country, the age range is split into three age groups – A (0–19), B (20–60) and C (61–90). The forecasting accuracy of the mortality models is evaluated using the RMSE, MAE, MPE and MAPE metrics. Mortality models with more complex specifications perform better for the age groups B and C, than for the age group A. The cohort feature is more significant for age categories B and C, especially for the developed countries where there are significant medical and health advances. From an overall perspective, the Lee-Carter, Renshaw-Haberman and Age-Period-Cohort models are superior for the age group A while the Plat model proves to be the best forecasting model for the age categories B and C. The empirical analysis concludes that the mortality patterns diverge for different age categories and countries with different development status. The occurrence of extreme mortality events also negatively affects the patterns of human mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Innovative interventions are needed to address the growing burden of breast cancer globally, especially among vulnerable patient populations. Given the success of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in addressing communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases, this scoping review will investigate the roles and impacts of CHWs in breast cancer screening programs. This paper also seeks to determine the effectiveness and feasibility of these programs, with particular attention paid to differences between CHW-led interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs).Methods: A scoping review was performed using six databases with dates ranging from 1978 to 2019. Comprehensive definitions and search terms were established for 'Community Health Workers' and 'breast cancer screening', and studies were extracted using the World Bank definition of LMIC. Screening and data extraction were protocolized using multiple independent reviewers. Chi-square test of independence was used for statistical analysis of the incidence of themes in HICs and LMICs.Results: Of the 1,551 papers screened, 33 were included based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Study locations included the United States (n=27), Bangladesh (n=1), Peru (n=1), Malawi (n=2), Rwanda (n=1), and South Africa (n=1). Three primary roles for CHWs in breast cancer screening were identified: education (n=30), direct assistance or performance of breast cancer screening (n=7), and navigational services (n=6). In these roles, CHWs improved rates of breast cancer screening (n=23) and overall community member knowledge (n=21). Two studies performed cost-analyses of CHW-led interventions.Conclusion: This review extends our understanding of CHW effectiveness to breast cancer screening. It illustrates how CHW involvement in screening programs can have a significant impact in LMICs and HICs, and highlights the three CHW roles of education, direct performance of screening, and navigational services that emerge as useful pillars around which governments and NGOs can design effective programs in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial and economic development of the industrialized countries, from the nineteenth century, has gone hand in hand with the development of electricity, the internal combustion engine, computers, the Internet, data use, and the intensive use of knowledge focused on science and the technology. Most conventional energy sources have proven to be finite and exhaustible. In turn, the different production activities of goods and services using fossil fuels and conventional energy have significantly increased the pollution of the environment, and with it, contributed to global warming. The objective of this work was to carry out a theoretical approach to data analytics and business intelligence technologies applied to smart electrical-system networks with renewable energies. For this paper, a bibliometric and bibliographic review about Big Data Analytics, ICT tools of industry 4.0 and Business intelligence was carried out in different databases available in the public domain. The results of the analysis indicate the importance of the use of data analytics and business intelligence in the management of energy companies. The paper concludes by pointing out how business intelligence and data analytics are being applied in specific examples of energy companies and their growing importance in strategic and operational decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The science, technology and innovation (STI) framework is a fundamental catalyst for economic development, growth, and sustainability. Somalia has been recording moderate economic growth despite external shocks related to security, drought, and famine. However, there are severe shortcomings in the business environment, associated with the insufficient conceptually inclusive policy framework and the absence of direct and concrete pro-poor innovation policy instruments. On that basis, the study aimed to acquire a profound understanding of how the environment for innovation, policy, and regulations conditions entrepreneurship practices in a post-conflict Somalia context. The research conducted face-to-face interviews complemented by consultative workshops and a qualitative survey. The interviews involved 20 leaders representing government, business associations, and cross-sector practitioners. The main findings show that 55% of entrepreneurs had difficulties doing business due to the absence of regulatory and policy instruments. The respondents reported not knowing anything about an innovation policy framework. The paper suggests that the Somali government should initiate a pragmatic policy experimentation approach to identify workable instruments that can broadly support innovation in specific contexts instead of imitating developed countries' policy frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation has been found, in prior related studies, as a way of demonstrating impartiality and ensuring inclusivity. In developed countries, governments ensure public participation using e-petitions. This study focused on determining municipal residents' perceptions of the electronic petition system ahead of its execution in City of Tshwane municipality. City of Tshwane is one of the largest municipalities in South Africa. The study relied on collecting quantitative data and thus it falls within the positivism paradigm. Quantitative data were collected via questionnaires involving n = 150 residents in City of Tshwane municipality. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the profiles of participants and then a factor analysis using varimax rotation was performed to identify the resultant factors. The results show that residents are ready for the e-petition system, optimistic about this contemporary initiative as a means of managing problems in their municipal area, and have confidence in the anticipated efficacy of e-petitions. It concludes that the e-petition system may be effective when used along with the traditional paper petition system. Moreover, it raises insights for policymakers, municipal management and government, and makes suggestions for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper applies a modified gravity model to examine the relationship between global economic sanctions (GES) and global value chains (GVC) by using a dyad panel dataset of 38 developed and 28 developing countries during the 2005–2015 period and the rich and updated database of the Global Sanction Database version 2 (Felbermayr, G., A. Kirilakha, C. Syropoulos, E. Yalcin, and Y. V. Yotov. 2020. "The Global Sanctions Data Base." European Economic Review 129: 1–23. doi:; Kirilakha, A., G. Felbermayr, C. Syropoulos, E. Yalcin, and Y. V. Yotov. 2021. The Global Sanctions Data Base: An update that includes the years of the Trump presidency. The Research Handbook on Economic Sanctions, Edited by Peter AG van Bergeijk.). GVC participation is classified into the source of the value-added as incorporated in exports, looking both backward and forward from the view of a reference country. With distinct econometric techniques and empirical estimation strategies, our empirical results document a negative association between GESs and GVC, including backward and forward linkages. This marginal effect of sanction on backward GVC is more sizable than those on forward GVC. Furthermore, the GES-GVC nexus is only evident in the case of developing countries, while the effects of sanctions are found to be small or statistically insignificant in the developed countries. However, these marginal effects of sanctions become less sizable if the target country develops a well-developed institutional system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea has been proactive in concluding bilateral investment treaties to promote both inward and outward investment. While South Korea had concluded 95 BITs as of 2017, there have been very few empirical works on whether BITs have positive effects on South Korea's FDI flows. This paper aims to empirically examine the effects of BITs between South Korea and treaty partners on South Korea's outward FDI into them. The results show that BITs—either signed or entered in force—between South Korea and host countries have positive and statistically significant effects on Korea's direct investment into these countries. Moreover, it turns out that South Korea FDI flows into developing countries are positively affected by BITs which is statistically significant while those into developed countries are not. This paper positively contributes to existing literature by deepening understanding of the effects of international investment treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns for the ongoing and increasing degradation of the natural environment worldwide have increased the impetus for action, and development of governance arrangements to support natural resource management. Despite this, several issues around governance still remain as challenges to the success of natural resource management. This study reports the findings of a systematic literature review of 240 papers to better understand how governance challenges manifest spatially, and how they change over time. Also the paper identifies key priority areas for strategic governance reform. This paper reveals that the capacity of natural resource management governance systems internationally is most limited by factors that limit connectivity and collaboration between stakeholders in decision-making processes, and the alignment of vision and objectives across institutions. The paper also reveals clear spatial disparities and temporal changes in the number of studies and governance challenges identified in natural resource management in developing and developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current era of globalisation has been accompanied by China's rise as a major economic actor. Chinese firms are expanding their presence globally and are seeking to 'catch-up' with firms in developed countries across different sectors. This paper uses China's agricultural machinery sector as a vehicle to examine the challenges faced by firms from developing countries in their effort to catch-up with 'core firms'. Chinese firms operating in the sector struggle to compete with a small number of dominant core firms based in developed countries. These core firms are sectoral leaders with a global presence. They are continuously strengthening their competitive advantage using diverse strategies, including: investing in R&D, focused acquisitions and developing relationships with actors internal and external to agriculture. The challenge of catching-up for Chinese firms in the sector has further increased as developed countries seek to protect firms in strategic sectors like agriculture. By examining the changing nature of the agricultural machinery sector, and the role of core firms, the paper highlights the substantial barriers facing Chinese firms in their efforts to catch-up. This paper has important implications, as it shows that even if firms from developing countries enjoy state-support, they will increasingly struggle to catch-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous methodologies measuring walkability have been developed over the last years. This paper reviews the Walkability Index (WI) literature of the last decade (2009–2018) and highlights some limitations in the current approaches. Only a few studies have evaluated walkability in Latin America, mainly in big cities but not in medium and small-sized cities in the region, which present their own urbanisation dynamics, security issues, sidewalk invasion problems, and poor planning. Furthermore, most WIs in the literature use objective mesoscale variables to assess walkability in a given area. This paper contributes to filling these gaps by generating new evidence from a medium-sized city in Latin America to question if characteristics of the built environment encourage walking trips, as found in the literature, are transferable among regions. The study also proposes a novel index comprised of microscale and mesoscale built environment variables to assess walkability using virtual tools and considering users' perceptions. The WI estimation relies on ranking probability models. The results of the case study suggest that subjective Security and Traffic Safety are the most crucial factors influencing walkability in these kind of cities, which is different from what is found in the literature from cities in developed countries where Sidewalk Condition and Attractiveness are the most important factors. Security appeared to be strongly associated with a subjective dimension, represented by the fear of crime or perceived risk for crime, instead of the actual occurrence of crimes. This result evidences the importance of the physical attributes of the real world and how they are captured, judged, and processed by pedestrians. Then, regional transferability of WIs needs to be done carefully. Finally, results in this paper highlight the importance of microscale built environment characteristics in the WI formulation in these cities. Results are in line with other research in some cities of the region, which found that microscale variables such as pavement quality and presence of obstacles on the sidewalks are relevant components to promote walkability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of the lateral load-carrying capacity of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings is essential for their design, vulnerability assessment, and rehabilitation. Lateral strength of URM buildings can be assessed using experimental studies or numerical simulation, but conducting such studies on full-scale building specimens is expensive and requires huge computational effort and input data, which is not easily available. Therefore, the availability of test results and data is scarce in many developing countries having a huge concentration of URM buildings. Moreover, the quality and strength of masonry found in these countries are inferior to those found in some developed countries where data are available. This results in under-developed design codes and thus improper design and construction of URM buildings in seismically active regions of many developing countries. Therefore, simple analytical methods are required to be developed for the estimation of lateral load-carrying capacity of URM buildings with the help of systematic experimental and numerical studies on full-scale specimens. The paper presents a comparative assessment of the lateral strength of a URM building using experimental, analytical and numerical approaches. Pseudo-static in-plane cyclic tests were carried out over three full-scale URM walls with different opening configurations followed by testing of a single story URM building having a single room, constituting the walls, which were already tested. The walls and a building were then numerically analyzed in Abaqus and Strand7 to estimate the lateral load-carrying capacity. The lateral strength of individual walls was also estimated analytically using several existing methods. Finally, the effectiveness of combining the lateral strength of individual walls to estimate the lateral strength of full URM building was assessed that can be handy to the practicing engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does foreign direct investment increase cooperation among states? This study uses new data on Chinese investment as well as measures of political relations based on United Nations voting data to estimate the international political effect of the Chinese overseas investment boom. Contrary to predictions based on previous "commercial peace" literature, our results show that Chinese overseas investment has a negative effect on bilateral relationships in developed countries, and its influence on those with developing ones is statistically insignificant. We complemented our empirical tests by investigating the mechanisms based on the heterogeneity of ownership status of investors and sectors. The results indicate that the effect is mainly driven by state-owned enterprise investors and investment in natural resource sectors. Our findings offer valuable insights into whether and how economic interdependence affects political relations with a rising power in the current era. In so doing, this paper contributes to the existing literature, bringing a broader perspective to bear on the foreign policy consequences of China's economic rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting in 1850, Portugal embarked on a technical-scientific agenda (historically known as Fontism, after its main advocate, Fontes Pereira de Melo) that pursued the modernisation of the country or, in its broader sense, progress, until the turn of the twentieth century. These efforts were captured through the lens of a German photographer living in Portugal, Karl Emil Biel. For the purposes of this paper, I have analysed around 200 of Biel's works in which he recorded progress in Portugal. I argue that Biel felt inspired by the sublime inherent to technology to create a technological landscape and a narrative of progress in Portugal, marked by a variety of icons of modernity, similar to those found in cities of Europe's most advanced countries, especially structures that promoted mobility and contributed to the territorial appropriation of the peripheral provinces. Furthermore, I contend that the publication of his photographs in the illustrated press contributed to the dissemination of this technological landscape and this narrative of progress nationwide and to the promotion of a nationalism fuelled by technology. Finally, I speculate how the current uses of Biel's photographs at public events still share similar notions of progress, based on technological modernity and sublime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fill the gap in health research capacity-building efforts, we created the 'Virtual Library' (VL) – a web-based repository of context-relevant resources for health researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper describes the participatory process used to systematically develop the VL, and describes how our interprofessional team – representing both an LMIC (Nepal) and a high-income country (HIC) (USA, US) – engaged in shared meaning-making. A team of researchers and clinicians representing a range of subdisciplines from Nepal and the US created a replicable search strategy and standardized Resource Screening Guide (RSG) to systematically assess resources to be included within the VL. Descriptive methods were used to summarize findings from the RSG and lessons learned from the collaborative process. Collectively, 14 team members reviewed 564 potential resources (mean = 40, SD = 22.7). Mean RSG score was 7.02/10 (SD = 2). More than 76% of resources met each of the four quality criteria (relevant; reputable, accessible; understandable). Within the published VL, 298 resources were included, organized by 15 topics and 45 sub-topics. Of these, 223 resources were evaluated by the RSG; 75 were identified by team member expertise. The collaborative process involved regular meetings, iterative document revisions, and peer review. Resource quality was better than expected, perhaps because best practices/principles related to health research are universally relevant, regardless of context. While the RSG was essential to systematize our search and ensure reproducibility, team member expertise was valuable. Pairing team members during peer-review led to bi-directional knowledge sharing and was particularly successful. This work reflects a highly collaborative global partnership and offers a model for future health research capacity-building efforts. We invite engagement with the Virtual Library <> as one supportive pillar of infrastructure to develop individual and institutional research capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic has affected one and all in unison. Different sectors, including the educational sector, have been disproportionately affected in developing and the least developed nations. Against this backdrop, this paper, while considering the impact that the pandemic has had on the education sector in developing nations viz. – India, South Africa, and Bangladesh, aims to bring to light the importance of teaching global mindset as there are several unique implications, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for these nations. Using qualitative methodology, this research adopts an exploratory approach to understand how, among other things, the education sector can catalyze the development and teaching of a global mindset in the selected three countries and can be responsive even beyond. Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted with "institutional heads/directors" across higher educational institutions in the nations under study to answer the research question that brings out three themes: global and local problem solving, resources, and international experiential learning and exposure toward developing a global mindset. Finally, while corroborating the findings of the research, the article also proposes a new definition of a "global mindset". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies occupy a central position in the Covid-19 pandemic. Public response has been deemed extremely important, with social media platforms playing a key role in both institutional and bottom-up information sharing processes. The emerging field of platform studies has shown that platforms increasingly influence how society works; however, such studies often adopt a highly Western-centric approach. By focusing on Twitter and Weibo use in the early stages of the pandemic, the paper presents an exploratory study that comparatively explores the role of the two platforms for both Western and Chinese publics. Our findings indicate that during the Covid-19 outbreak, Weibo worked as a propaganda tool to unite the Chinese people and promote public policies under the control of the government and the guidance of the mainstream media. Twitter functioned more like a public discourse platform open to personal expression, often showing the influence of defined partisan political discourses. We argue that the participatory dynamics characterizing Weibo and Twitter conversations at the outbreak of the pandemic at least partially mirrored the different 'platforms societies' currently developing in China and the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific contribution in high-impact journals is largely from authors affiliated with institutions in high-income countries (HICs). Publication of papers by contribution of individual countries to leading journals can provide a picture of the most influential countries in a particular discipline. The aim of the study was to identify changes in the patterns in authorship and origin of original research articles in relation to countries' income level in the field of public health in 2016 in comparison to previous studies. A descriptive analysis was conducted based on articles published in highly ranked public health journals in 2016. Based on the inclusion criteria, 368 research articles were identified. Over 80% of these studies were conducted in HICs. Authors were mainly based in HICs (84%), especially in the USA. The majority of first, last, and corresponding authors were affiliated with HICs (over 90%). Our study might serve as a prompt for editorial and advisory boards of the leading international journals to provide more opportunities for researchers based in low and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetries of power are not only a characteristic feature of today's world order but also manifest in knowledge production in the discipline of international relations (IR). Even the use of the 'Global South' concept, which highlights one set of hierarchies in international politics, sometimes perpetuates them latently, instead of offering solutions to overcome them. From a critical pedagogy perspective, I explore whether engaging in a dialogue on the 'Global South' can facilitate an understanding of the structures and processes of knowledge production and the perpetuation of hierarchies in the discipline. The paper argues that such knowledge can be created with reference to Paolo Freire's concept of dialogic encounters by using research designs deriving from participatory action research. The goal of this article is to contribute to making IR as a discipline more inclusive through the co-production of knowledge that incorporates marginalised voices across the Global North and the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]