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Drug reimbursement decisions that spark public controversy are potential signals that processes used to reach such decisions do not adequately reflect society's goals. Such controversial decisions appear to be a characteristic of Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY)-based Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio (ICER)-dominated decision-making systems. QALY-based ICER-heavy systems have several known weaknesses that lead to individual and societal preferences being either ignored or considered in an unsystematic and inconsistent manner.We reprise some of the key inadequacies of QALY-based ICER analyses and suggest that there are other means including multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and cost-benefit analysis based on willingness to pay (WTP) measures by which to partially mitigate these weaknesses.For long, the inadequacies of QALY-based ICER-heavy decision-making systems have been rationalized with the answer: 'while the method is a second best, it is the best we currently have.' In light of the equally well-developed and widely utilized alternatives available, this resistance to improve assessment processes should not be accepted by policy makers. Health technology assessment bodies should consider and, with appropriate modifications, adopt these alternatives as they have the potential to result in more comprehensive, systematic, and accountable decision-making.

As obesity and physical inactivity rates continue to rise in the United States, Kentucky ranks third in childhood obesity rates (10-17 year olds) and 50th in physical inactivity. The public school environment is a logical place to examine practices and closely discern how time is spent. Federal legislation over the past 50 years has largely dictated the emphasis and priority of our public education system and how schools are funded and assessed. Recently, new federal legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, moved more power, flexibility, and accountability to the states allowing for additional funding opportunities surrounding not just reading and mathematics standardized test scores. Kentucky made promising steps toward including a well-rounded education in their accountability plan, however; ultimately removed those measures in their revised submission to the US Education Department. We must reexamine our current priorities and policies based on evidence-based best practices regarding health, physical activity, and academic achievement. This report outlines history, issues, and policy solutions which will move Kentucky's youth toward better opportunities for quality physical activity in our public schools within our current resources.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has a long-standing commitment to improving the health of all Americans and opposes any form of discrimination in the delivery of health care services. ACP is committed to working toward fully understanding and supporting the unique needs of the incarcerated population and eliminating health disparities for these persons. In this position paper, ACP offers recommendations to policymakers and administrators to improve the health and well-being of persons incarcerated in adult correctional facilities.

This paper is based on ‘Ending Period Poverty in Scotland: A Historical and International Perspective’ funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Arts and Humanities Research Network Award from 2020 to 2022 (grant number 64992), and administratively based at the University of St Andrews with Principal Investigator Bettina Bildhauer and Co-Investigators Sharra Vostral and Camilla Mørk Røstvik. This briefing paper discusses how to include historical perspectives to assess the potential success for current and future menstruation legislation. The case of Scotland provides an instructive example of law-making about free period products and period poverty. While commercial products are perceived as a solution, historical research suggests that cultural attitudes, lingering stigma, and regional differences affect opportunities for passing laws. To predict the likelihood that proposed menstrual product legislation might be adopted in other locations, historical factors related to attitudes about menstruation, including stigma, must be considered and understood to effect lasting change. Publisher PDF

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected cancer care and research by disrupting the prevention and treatment paths as well as the preclinical, clinical, and translational research ecosystem. In Italy, this has been particularly significant given the severity of the pandemic's impact and the intrinsic vulnerabilities of the national health system. However, whilst detrimental, disruption can also be constructive and may stimulate innovation and progress. The Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) has recognized the impact of COVID-19 on cancer care continuum and research and proposes the '2021 Matera statement' which aims at providing pragmatic guidance for policymakers and health care institutions to mitigate the impact of the global health crisis on Italian oncology and design the recovery plan for the post-pandemic scenario. The interventions are addressed both to the pillars (prevention, diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, health care professionals) and foundations of cancer care (communication and care relationship, system organization, resources, research, networking). The priorities to be implemented can be summarized in the MATERA acronym: Multidisciplinarity; Access to cancer care; Telemedicine and Territoriality; Equity, ethics, education; Research and resources; Alliance between stakeholders and patients.

Latino day laborers in the United States are socially and economically vulnerable due to exclusionary immigration policies. Using data from a multi-mode survey, we examine the relationship between immigration policy legal vulnerability and mental health outcomes among 138 Latino, male day laborers (mean age = 45.65, SD = 12.05). Multivariable linear and logistic regression models separately estimated the effect of legal vulnerability, as measured by the Perceived Immigration Policy Effects Scale, on anxiety and depression symptoms and a positive depression and anxiety screening, respectively. Approximately 26.1% and 27.9% of day laborers reported depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. In each adjusted model, we find a positive relationship between legal vulnerability and adverse mental health. Immigration policy legal vulnerability is associated with more depression and anxiety symptoms among Latino day laborers. Policies to reduce legal vulnerability, such as pathways to citizenship and employment authorization, may support Latino day laborers' mental health outcomes.

This study exploits a natural experiment to investigate the impact of land reform on the fertility outcomes of households in rural Ethiopia. Public policies and customs created a situation where Ethiopian households could influence their usufruct rights to land via a demographic expansion of the family. The study evaluates the impact of the abolishment of these pronatal property rights on fertility outcomes. By matching aggregated census data before and after the reform with administrative data on the reform, a difference-in-differences approach between reform and non-reform districts is used to assess the impact of the reform on fertility outcomes. The impact appears to be large. The study estimates that women in rural areas reduced their life-time fertility by 1.2 children due to the reform. Robustness checks show that the impact estimates are not biased by spillovers or policy endogeneity.

Introduction An emerging body of research has developed around tobacco retailer density and its contribution to smoking behavior. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the association between tobacco retailer density and smoking behavior in a rural Australian jurisdiction without a tobacco retailer licensing system in place. Methods A local government database (updated 2018) of listed tobacco retailers (n=93) was accessed and potential unlisted tobacco retailers (n=230) were added using online searches. All retailers (n=323) were visited in 2019 and GPS coordinates of retailers that sold tobacco (n=125) were assigned to suburbs in ArcMap. A community survey conducted in the Local Government Area provided smoking and sociodemographic data amongst adult respondents (n=8981). Associations between tobacco retailer density (calculated as the number of retailers per km2 based on respondents’ suburb of residence) and daily, occasional and experimental smoking were assessed using multilevel logistic regression analysis. Separate models with and without covariates were undertaken. Results Without adjusting for possible confounders, living in suburbs with greater retailer density did not increase the odds of daily smoking (OR=1.01; 95% CI: 0.92–1.12), occasional smoking (OR=1.05; 95% CI: 0.94–1.18), or experimental smoking (OR=0.98; 95% 0.92– 1.05). However, after adjustment, living in suburbs with greater retailer density increased the odds of occasional smoking behavior (AOR=1.37; 95% CI: 1.10–1.71) but not daily or experimental smoking. Conclusions This study found a significant positive association between tobacco retailer density and the likelihood of occasional smoking in a rural Australian jurisdiction without a tobacco retailer licensing system in place. The findings strengthen calls for the introduction of a comprehensive, positive tobacco retailer licensing system to provide a framework for improving compliance with legislation and to reduce the overall availability of tobacco products in the community.

Background COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has devastated incarcerated people throughout the United States. Objective The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility and acceptability of a COVID-19 Health Review for Correctional Facilities. Methods The COVID-19 Health Review survey for the Department of Corrections was developed in Qualtrics to assess the following: (1) COVID-19 testing, (2) providing personal protective equipment, (3) vaccination procedures, (4) quarantine procedures, (5) COVID-19 mortality rates for inmates, (6) COVID-19 mortality rates for correctional officers and prison staff, (7) COVID-19 infection rates for inmates, (8) COVID-19 infection rates for correctional officers and prison staff, and (9) uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. The estimated time to review the Alabama State Department of Corrections COVID-19 responses on their website and complete the survey items was 45 minutes to 1 hour. Results Of the 21 participants who completed the COVID-19 Health Review for Correctional Facilities survey, 48% (n=10) identified as female, 43% (n=9) identified as male, and 10% (n=2) identified as transgender. For race, 29% (n=6) self-identified as Black or African American, 24% (n=5) Asian, 24% (n=5) White, 5% (n=1) Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian, and 19% (n=4) Other. In addition, 5 respondents self-identified as returning citizens. For COVID-19 review questions, the majority concluded that information on personal protective equipment was “poor” and “very poor,” information on COVID-19 testing was “fair” and above, information on COVID-19 death/infection rates between inmates and staff was “good” and “very good,” and information on vaccinations was “good” and “very good.” There was a significant difference observed (P=.03) between nonreturning citizens and returning citizens regarding the health grade review with respect to available information on COVID-19 infection rates. Conclusions COVID-19 health reviews may provide an opportunity for the public to review the COVID-19 responses in correctional settings.

Universities have increasingly been subjected to policy- and industry demands to produce multi- and interdisciplinary knowledge. This paper explores the extent to which different higher education policy instruments are used to promote interdisciplinarity in teaching and research at universities in the German higher education system comparing them across different federal states. Based on a manifest content analysis of higher education laws and performance agreements with universities in the 16 German states, we were able to distinguish between three types of states: Those a) with a general use of policy instruments aimed at all universities in a state, whereas considerable differences could be observed with regard to the degree of coercion (enabling versus prescriptive provisions) and scope (teaching or research), b) a directed use of policy instrument, targeting specific universities, and c) a hybrid use of policy instruments using both general and directed elements. This paper provides a novel mapping of the promotion of interdisciplinarity in German higher education policies through a variety of policy instruments and hereby contributes to the extant literature on interdisciplinarity in higher education., Tertiary education and management;28(4)

The European Bioeconomy Strategy aims to facilitate the transition from a take-make-dispose fossil economy into one fostering circular bio-based value chains linking sustainable land use with cutting-edge products. Optimised designs, implementation and monitoring rely on continuous interactions between policymakers and modellers who run multiple scenarios for environmentally, economically and socially desirable futures. This paper leverages a multi-layered framework that cross-references 39 policies and 32 models to assess how they address the five principle objectives of the Bioeconomy Strategy in terms of accompanying sectors, value-chains, and multi-dimensional indicators. The framework identifies gaps in bioeconomy knowledge both in policy and modelling. Overall, the analysis found little mention of the wide range of bio-based products, technologies and processes, bio-refineries, waste, and land conservation. Bio-based product policies can be simulated only in a limited number of models, compared, for example, to the wide range of modelling capacities that can model bioenergy. Additionally, in both policy and modelling realms, integration of market and biophysical drivers within the full scope of the value chain is scarce. Multidisciplinary studies combining multiple models perform best in this respect by integrating a more comprehensive range of relevant policies, bioeconomy drivers and indicators. Findings point to a more significant issue in policy-modelling information exchange, and this paper discusses the challenges and opportunities for future improvements in this collaboration. Published

This study sought to assess the influence of language policy on teaching and learning of English in selected primary schools in Homa-bay Sub-County Kenya. A speaker tends to choose language fairly, quickly and automatically without being aware of the determiners of language choice. There is a great impact on the use of the first language in teaching and learning of English and it is a common practice that most teachers of English use to convey a complete notion or an idea while teaching or communicating. The study was conducted in the 93 sampled primary schools. Data was collected through the observation schedule, interview schedule and the questionnaire. The study was guided by Stephen Krashen’s Model of second language acquisition. This study adopted a descriptive design. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results revealed that most schools have language policy, however, there functionality is indeterminate. Formulation and implementation of school language policy is mainly undertaken by language teachers however, school administration plays key rule during its implementation. School language policy moderately influenced teaching and learning of English. The study recommends that the school administration should come up flexible and functional school language policy where all teachers are tasked with its implementation. The ministry of education should consider upgrading seminars and workshops to continuous Teacher Development Programmes as they go a long way to address the challenges the teachers face during implementation of the national and language policies., {"references":["Abagi O. and Odipo G (1997), \"Efficiency of Primary Education in Kenya; situational analysis and implications for Educational reforms.\" Institute of Policy Analysis Research (IPAR), Kenya","Abdulaziz, M. and Osinde K. (1997). \"Sheng and English in Nairobi.\" International Journal of the Africa. 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With the development of the market economy, agricultural trade has become more and more significant for the development of the agricultural economy, which has triggered people’s further thinking and exploration on the impact of agricultural trade on agricultural carbon emissions. This paper takes the measurement of trade implied carbon as the carbon dioxide emission index under the impact of agricultural trade and analyzes the impact of trade implied carbon and implied carbon balance on carbon emission. Taking the impact of Sino-US agricultural trade as an empirical background, this paper measures the impact of environmental changes in agricultural trade opening on China’s agricultural development and its carbon emissions, so as to predict changes in China’s regional agricultural carbon emissions performance. After calculation, it is found that the scale of China’s exports has decreased by 0.089%, which is lower than the decline of 0.361% in the United States. The trade conflict has a significant impact on China’s import and export structure. Under the scenario of mutual tariffs on agricultural products, China’s exports to the United States are expected to decrease by 6.28%, while China’s imports from the United States decreased by 13.02%. The Sino-US agricultural trade dispute will reduce China’s carbon emissions by 0.013% and the United States’ carbon emissions by 0.024%, which is related to the negative impact on the economy. Improving the performance of agricultural carbon emissions is not only the need for the green and sustainable development of the agricultural economy but also conducive to improving the international competitiveness of agricultural products.

The existing literature on smart city pilots mainly focuses on the city level and rarely addresses the firm level. This paper assesses the impact of smart city pilot policy (SCP) on firms' total factor productivity (TFP) and explores the impact of SCP under different heterogeneities as well as the mechanisms of action of the SCP. The LP approach is used in this paper to measure firms' TFP, and the impact of SCP is analyzed by the DID model with firms' panel data from 2009 to 2019 as research objects. First, it was found that the SCP can significantly increase the TFP of firms (0.041). Second, through heterogeneity analysis, we found that SCP can strengthen the monopoly position of monopolistic firms and state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the SCP can also alleviate the development imbalance of TFP between firms in coastal and non-coastal areas. In addition, SCP can significantly improve TFP of heavy polluting enterprises. Finally, we find that the important ways for SCP to improve firms' TFP is increasing investment in technological innovation, talent agglomeration, attracting financing, improving resource allocation efficiency, and digital transformation. The study provides unique insights for policy makers and business managers in China and other emerging countries to enhance TFP and achieve corporate sustainable development.

The technical project and STS project both highlight the importance of standards in the design and implementation of new technologies. The technical project, Dots and Boxes as a Portable Game System, was designed following printed circuit board (PCB) and programming standards that are consistent with industry practices. Research was also done to find what other standards the finished prototype would have to comply with to be used commercially, including standards imposed by the United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The STS project researched and analyzed how the lack of standards and regulations in smart home device designs and privacy policies affects user trust and social barriers for the device. Together, these two projects explored how standards not only affect technological design, but also how society perceives and uses technology. Dots and Boxes as a Portable Game System recreated the classic game, Dots and Boxes, using electric components. The original game, played on pencil and paper, involved two players taking turns drawing lines connecting grid of dots to make boxes, competing to see who can make the most boxes. The recreation contains a light emitting diode (LED) array for the display, a joystick and rotary encoder for player movement, and a push button for move confirmation. A microcontroller was used to control the electrical components, and a software program determined the game logic. The microcontroller deterministically receives player input from the joystick, rotary encoder, and the button, and passes it to the software program where the game state updates and reflects on the LED array. This project transforms a game that is normally played with paper and pen into a more efficient and autonomous platform. There were standards associated with each component of the game system that our team complied with, and standards set by OSHA that must be followed if the game system is to be sold or used outside of the finished prototype stage it is currently in. These standards uphold a level of safety, compatibility, and environmental sustainability, allowing for game system to be customizable, used with universal power sources, and maintain a long product life. These standards, along with many more, also act as the unifying factor for this game system to integrate seamlessly into the network of pre-existing game technologies, as well as allow users to see the environmental and societal impact this system has. The STS research paper researched and analyzed different aspects of the relationship between standards, smart home devices, device protocols, privacy policies, and users through the Actor Network Theory (ANT) STS framework. Using techniques like translation and black boxing, ANT examines the human and non-human actors in the smart device network and how these evolving relationships influence social networks. I researched various smart device data collection methods, privacy policies, academic papers, and current standards for smart device technology to understand why there is a lack of standardization and how it impacts all actors in the network. For the analysis, I explored how data collection transparency and device security can be improved by considering user trust and perception of the device in the implementation of standards for those devices. I also analyzed the contribution of users and device manufacturers to the social and economic barriers that limit smart device potential and protocol standardization. Translation and black boxing were used to analyze the relationship between federal legislature, device manufacturers, and privacy policies. Through the research done, standardizing smart device security protocols and privacy policies would protect user data and trust and make future technological development more efficient. Both projects have their own separate merits in completion: the technical project reinforced hard skills associated with product design, team-based industry practices, and the many considerations that go into creating a product from scratch; the STS research paper taught how engineering design decisions can influence all aspects of society and how standards can lay the foundation for improving current and future technologies. Working on both projects simultaneously allowed me to understand how my technical project is shaped by standards and envision the future usage of the game system in its intended spaces. These two projects showed me that standards are not merely industry rules that have to be followed, they are the knowledge of past engineers passed down for the current generation to improve modern technology with.

This paper aims to guide the stakeholder engagement process related to plastic pollution research in marine environments. We draw on advice identified during an online workshop (Ocean Plastic Workshop 2022) organized by Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) from 11 countries, held in April 2022. International experts and workshop participants discussed their experiences in the collaborative development and implementation of ocean plastic pollution projects held worldwide, guided by three main questions: (i) What is the role of scientists in a multi-stakeholder project? (ii) How should scientists communicate with other stakeholders? (iii) Which stakeholders are missing in collaborative projects, and why are they missing? This multidisciplinary, co-learning approach highlights the value of stakeholder engagement for ocean plastic projects with an end goal to identify and implement ocean plastic solutions via innovative technologies, informing policy, community engagement, or a combination of all three approaches. The target outcomes of the workshop described in this paper include the identification of transdisciplinary (academic-stakeholder) engagement frameworks and specific suggestions that can serve as guidelines for the development of future plastic pollution projects.

Peer reviewed: True, Introduction. This paper will build on existing scholarly assets, addressing how the avoidance of rural-to-urban labour migration as a solution to mitigate the challenges faced by left-behind children is pragmatically infeasible. As an alternative, the paper will engage in the discussion about the relevant policy development and existing policy gaps the Chinese Government has implemented and has been subject to respectively, in order to locate the problems of how left-behind children continue to be exposed to emotional and psychological vulnerability, despite the Chinese Government’s interventions. Methods. Bibliographic databases Google Scholar and PubMed were searched. The combination of the words [(“left-behind children” OR “LBC”) AND (“China” OR “Chinese”) AND (“human rights” OR “mental health” OR “well-being”) AND (“policy” OR “policies” or “policymaking”)] was input into the search engines. A total of 38 papers deemed eligible and relevant were chosen non-systematically, studied and summarised. Results. Local rural governments lack any concrete measures designated for left-behind rural children to specifically support their mental health needs. Also, internal and medical care coordination within the Chinese Government and across counties respectively on improving the emotional and psychological well-being of left-behind rural children is disorganised. Moreover, there is a very limited collection of up-to-date, available datasets examining left-behind children’s development and well-being. Discussion. This paper suggests, in detail, how the Chinese Government can strategically apply policies and interventions for the redistribution of resources and opportunities to left-behind children in rural China. This paper recognises the existing interventions initiated and implemented by the Chinese Government for resource redistribution and, simultaneously, recommends the Government to follow two localised American models for further resource redistribution per se that are designated for benefitting left-behind rural Chinese children.

The UN has declared universal health coverage an urgent global goal. Efforts to achieve this goal have been supported by rigorous research on the scientific, technical, and administrative aspects of health systems design. Yet a substantial portion of the world's population does not have access to essential health services. There is growing recognition that achieving universal health coverage is a political challenge. However, fundamental concepts from the political science discipline are often overlooked in the health literature. This Series paper draws on political science research to highlight the ways in which politics can facilitate, or stymie, policy reform. Specifically, we present a framework of analysis that explores how interests, ideas, and institutions shape universal health coverage. We then examine key considerations relating to the implementation of relevant policies. This Series paper shows that a political understanding of universal health coverage is needed to achieve health for all.

Climate change currently observed and expected in the future is associated with risks to security and sustainable development as well as natural and irreversible consequences. To minimize these risks, it is necessary to adapt the public administration, economic sectors, and regional infrastructure to the changing climate conditions. This paper discovers the links between CO2 emission and their key determinants such as economic growth, energy consumption, population, trade openness, and financial development for the Russian Federation using data from 1990 through 2020. Findings reveal that energy consumption, and population have a positive impact on CO2 emissions, while economic growth, financial development, and trade openness has been found to decrease CO2 emissions in the long term. The results of the paper show that there is a "U" shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in the Russian Federation. This shows that EKC is valid up to a certain income level in the Russian Federation and when this income level is exceeded, a positive relationship will begin between economic growth and environmental degradation.

This paper analyzes strategies that can be successfully pursued to implement measures to reduce car traffic in what has traditionally been a very car-centric planning praxis. Analytically, the paper use path dependency theory to provide an understanding of why certain types of measure are not implemented in cities on as widespread a basis as policy objectives may require, and to understand how transport planning path dependence in urban authorities might be changed. Empirically, the analysis builds on a comparative case study of transport and land use planning in Swedish cities. The most effective strategies do not appear to be radical policies leading to fast implementation of goals about sustainable transport, for example by implementing very car restrictive measures, even in the face of resistance from the public and from within the city administration. The results support an approach that from a strategy making perspective can be understood as an institutionalizing process by which internal organizational and external public support for car restrictive and potentially controversial measures are built. Implementation may be achieved by building new institutions within city administrations, where routines and norms gradually change so that car restraint measures gradually become part of the normal way of doing transport planning. This then starts to lock-in certain patterns of travel and make further car restraint measures more feasible and institutionalized as part of a standard menu of measures that cities use, and not something out of the order.

This paper examines three common critiques of 'resilience': (i) that it is a 'top-down' policy discourse that pays too little regard to local specificities; (ii) that resilience policy represents a neoliberal shift towards the responsibilisation of communities and a retreat of the state from its role in providing protection; and (iii) that the focus on resilience tends to divert attention from the underlying causes of vulnerability. Using data collected after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the paper argues that these critiques have mixed salience in this context, but that (i) and (iii) in particular point to important problems in how the central government and its international partners have approached enhancing the resilience of communities. While there are benefits to considering resilience at the local level, it is important to recognise the inequalities within communities, how these might be reflected in differential degrees of vulnerability, and how they might be reinforced through resilience-building programmes.تعرض مفهوم المرونة لعدد من الانتقادات. في هذا البحث، ندرس الثلاثة نقاط الأكثر شيوعًا: 1) أن المرونة هي خطاب سياسي “من أوله إلى آخره” والذي لا يولي اهتمامًا كبيرًا للخصوصيات المحلية 2) تمثل سياسة المرونة تحولاً ليبراليًا جديدًا نحو اضفاء المسؤولية على المجتمعات المحلية وتراجع الدولة عن دورها في توفير الحماية 3) يميل التركيز على المرونة إلى تحويل الانتباه بعيدًا عن الأسباب الاجتماعية والسياسية والاقتصادية الكامنة وراء الضعف. نتناقش بأن هذه الانتقادات لها أهمية مجتمعة في هذا السياق بالذات حيث تم استخدام البيانات التي تم جمعها في نيبال بعد الزلزال من بارباك، وتقع القرية في مركز زلزال غوركا 2015، ومقر المقاطعة وعلى المستوى الوطني في كاتماندو وتشير الأولى والثالثة على وجه الخصوص إلى مشاكل مهمة في الطرق التي تعاملت بها حكومة نيبال وشركاؤها الدوليون مع مهمة قدرة المجتمعات النيبالية على الصمود. نناقش بأنه في حين أن هناك فوائد للنظر في المرونة على مستوى المجتمع، إلا أنه من المهم التعرف على عدم المساواه داخل المجتمعات وكيف يمكن أن ينعكس ذلك على المستويات المختلفة من الضعف، وكيف يمكن تعزيزها من خلال برامج بناء القدرة على الصمود. الكلمات الدليلية: الزلازل، نيبال، المرونة، المسؤولية، الضعف.“恢复性”的概念受到了许多批评。在本文中，我们研究了三种最普遍的批评：i) 恢复性政策是一种自上而下的政策，很少考虑当地的特殊性； ii) 恢复性政策代表着向社会责任化的新自由主义转变，代表国家不再扮演保护性角色； iii) 人们关注恢复性，往往会将注意力从社会、政治和经济等造成脆弱性的潜在因素上转移开。我们分析了从尼泊尔地震后的巴尔帕克、2015年廓尔喀地震震中的村庄、地区总部和加德满都国收集的数据，认为这些批评在这种特定背景下具有联合显著性，但第一点和第三点特别指出了尼泊尔政府及其国际合作伙伴在增强尼泊尔社会恢复性的方式中存在的重要问题。我们认为，虽然在社会层面考虑恢复性有好处，但要认识到社会的不平等问题，要了解社会不同的脆弱程度如何反映了不平等问题，如何在恢复性建设计划中改善这些问题。 关键词： 地震、尼泊尔、复原力、责任感、脆弱性.

In the recent two decades, construction and demolition (CD) waste is becoming a major source of municipal waste which causes severe damage to the environment. To solve the problem, waste recycling measures are gradually used to turn waste into treasures. Meanwhile, several kinds of policies such as waste disposal charging fees have been issued to stimulate stakeholders' behavior to take waste recycling measures to promote the CD waste recycling industry. However, the CD waste recycling rate is still too low in China. In order to promote CD waste recycling industrial development, this paper aims at introducing subsidy and environmental tax policies to promote CD waste recycling. Based on system dynamics method, this study establishes a model to determine the proper subsidy and environmental tax range. According to the simulation results, three kinds of incentive policies are obtained, namely, single subsidy policy, single environmental tax, and combined incentive policies. Optimal single subsidy and environmental tax are in the interval, [10, 30] and [20, 60], respectively. The best combination strategy is subsidy = 10 yuan/ton and environmental tax = 20 yuan/ton. The results from this paper could be a foundation for government to establish incentive policies to promote CD waste recycling.

Background The limited health and social care infrastructure that existed in the 1970s in Cambodia was destroyed due to the Khmer Rouge. Mental Health service infrastructures have developed in Cambodia in the last twenty five years, however, they have been shaped significantly by very limited funding being made available for human resources, support services and research. The lack of research on Cambodia’s mental health systems and services is a significant barrier to the development of evidence-based mental health policies and practice. In order to address this barrier, effective research and development strategies are needed in Cambodia, which are based on locally well-informed research priorities. There are many possibilities for mental health research in LMIC countries such as Cambodia, therefore focused research priorities in these areas are needed to guide future research investment. This paper is the result of the development of international collaborative workshops, which focused on service mapping and research priority setting in the field of mental health in Cambodia. Methods A nominal group technique was used to gather ideas and insights from a range of key mental health service stakeholders in Cambodia. Results: The key issues in service provisions for people with mental health issues and disorders, the interventions and programmes of support available, and currently needed, were identified. This paper also identifies five key mental health research priority areas which could form the basis for effective mental health research and development strategies in Cambodia. Conclusion There is a clear need for the Cambodian government to devise a clear policy framework for health research. This framework could focus on the five research domains identified in this paper and could be incorporated within its National Health Strategic plans. The implementation of this approach would likely lead to the development of an evidence base which would allow the development of effective and sustainable strategies for mental health problem prevention and intervention. This would also contribute to promote the Cambodian government’s capacity to take the deliberate, concrete, and targeted steps necessary to address the complex mental health needs of its population.

For years Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has served as a key indicator of human progress and “successful” societies. Unfortunately, GDP has failed to robustly capture the human experience or predict resilience through crises; and obscures the presence of inequity -- a key determinant of suffering. It is clear the global community needs a new organizing principle: one that envisions and measures progress by focusing on the conditions that support health, resilience, and overall wellbeing. This paper examines key health promotion concepts and approaches, juxtaposed with philosophical underpinnings of the concept of wellbeing, alternative measurement strategies, and examples of wellbeing policy initiatives. In doing so, the paper highlights the relevance of wellbeing policy frameworks to health promotion, the utility of health promotion strategies for implementing wellbeing policy frameworks, and controversies and pitfalls that require consideration. The paper concludes by outlining how health promotion is uniquely poised to contribute to wellbeing policy frameworks that promote the sources of human and planetary thriving through sustainable development, and that promoting a wellbeing agenda can strengthen efforts to promote health by addressing social determinants and ensuring universal access to resources that support coping with emerging challenges and strengthen resilience.

The green credit is one of the effective tools to save energy and reduce pollution, which mainly applies in industry. Thus, this paper explores the impact of green credit on the upgrading of China's industrial structure from the perspective of industrial sectors, by means of a dynamic panel model with the dada from 2005 to 2016. The upgrading of industrial structure is divided into three dimensions to be analyzed-rationalization of industrial structure (RIS), advancement of industrial structure (AIS), and greenization of industrial structure (GIS). The empirical results are also explained by four influence mechanisms-resource allocation, technological innovation, credit catalysis, and policy guidance mechanism. This paper finds that on the national level, green credit has a positive impact on the upgrading of China's industrial structure and plays a significant role in promoting the greenization and advancement of industrial structure. However, on the regional level, the effect of green credit is more complex. First, green credit has a significant positive effect on the GIS in the eastern, central, and western regions of China, which suggests that green credit is conductive to the cleaner production of industry across the country. Second, green credit also has a positive impact on the AIS in these three regions, but the effect is only significant in the eastern region. Third, in terms of the RIS, the effect of green credit is positive but not significant in the eastern and central regions. However, it is negative, not significant as well, in the western region, which can be explained from the perspective of the resource allocation and technological innovation mechanism. In addition, there is a significant positive correlation between the previous period and the current value of RIS, AIS, and GIS, which indicates that there is a significant positive inertia dynamic feature in the upgrading of China's industrial structure.

Identifying and monitoring of health inequalities requires good-quality data. The aim of this work is to systematically review the evidence base on approaches taken within the healthcare context to improve the quality of data for the identification and monitoring of health inequalities and describe the evidence base on the effectiveness of such approaches or recommendations. Peer-reviewed scientific journal publications, as well as grey literature, were included in this review if they described approaches and/or made recommendations to improve data quality relating to the identification and monitoring of health inequalities. A thematic analysis was undertaken of included papers to identify themes, and a narrative synthesis approach was used to summarise findings. Fifty-seven papers were included describing a variety of approaches. These approaches were grouped under four themes: policy and legislation, wider actions that enable implementation of policies, data collection instruments and systems, and methodological approaches. Our findings indicate that a variety of mechanisms can be used to improve the quality of data on health inequalities at different stages (prior to, during, and after data collection). These findings can inform us of actions that can be taken by those working in local health and care services on approaches to improving the quality of data on health inequalities.

Historically, there is a documented lack of support for women leaving their communities to give birth. Due to an over-emphasis on risk discourse (no distinction between low- or high-risk pregnancies with options to birth at home, the large geographical distances to regional centres within circumpolar regions, remoteness of communities, lack of qualified staff, and limited resources), women are forced to travel great distances to give birth. In Canada until 2017, women travelled alone or bore the burden of paying out of pocket for someone to travel with them for support with the births of their babies. A recent policy change has allowed for one paid escort to accompany a pregnant woman. The purpose of this paper is to provide an outcome assessment of the perinatal transport and non-medical escort policy implemented by the federal government in Canada. The paper utilises a narrative literature review along with preliminary Indigenous photovoice results to illuminate the perspectives of Indigenous families. There are numerous challenges women face when travelling for birth including feelings of loneliness and fear, stress and separation from their children, lack of community connection, financial concerns, and a loss of self-determination. Women are given an opportunity in decision-making about who will travel with them as an escort. This does little to address the disparity of delivering their babies away from their families and communities, the burden of figuring out who cares for the children at home, and the impact their absences have on health of their families. Although, additional support has been provided for birthing women in northern Canada, there continues to be little effort to return to community birthing creating safety for Indigenous families through traditional practices, Indigenous midwifery, and community ceremonies and changing the disproportionate burden of poor outcomes experienced by Indigenous women.

Health Impact Assessment is a key approach used internationally to identify positive or negative impacts of policies, plans and proposals on health and well-being. In 2020, HIAs were undertaken in Scotland and Wales to identify the potential health and well-being impacts of the 'stay at home' and physical distancing measures implemented at the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. There is sparse evidence evaluating whether the impacts predicted in HIAs occur following policy implementation. This paper evaluates the impacts anticipated in the COVID-19 HIAs against actual observed trends. The processes undertaken were compared and predicted impacts were tabulated by population groups and main determinants of health. Routine data and literature evidence were collated to compare predicted and observed impacts. Nearly all health impacts anticipated in both HIAs have occurred in the direction predicted. There have been significant adverse impacts through multiple direct and indirect pathways including loss of income, social isolation, disruption to education and services, and psychosocial effects. This research demonstrates the value of prediction in impact assessment and fills a gap in the literature by comparing the predicted impacts identified within the HIAs with observed trends. Post-COVID-19 recovery should centre health and well-being within future policies and decisions. Processes like HIA can support this as part of a 'health in all policies' approach to improve the health and well-being of populations.Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is an approach used to identify positive or negative impacts of policies, plans and proposals on health and well-being. In 2020, HIAs were undertaken in Scotland and Wales to identify the potential health and well-being impacts of the ‘stay at home’ and physical distancing measures (commonly called ‘lockdown’) which were put in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper evaluates whether these assessments were correct in their predictions. It finds that most of the health impacts anticipated in both assessments have occurred. These include significant impacts on income, employment and mental health. Using HIAs can help policymakers to take full account of these wider impacts on health and develop policies that benefit health and health equity.

Road closure is an effective measure to reduce mobility and prevent the spread of an epidemic in severe public health crises. For instance, during the peak waves of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented road closure policies, such as the traffic-calming strategy in the UK. However, it is still not clear how such road closures, if used as a response to different modes of epidemic spreading, affect the resilient performance of large-scale road networks in terms of their efficiency and overall accessibility. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based approach to theoretically investigate two types of spreading mechanisms and evaluate the effectiveness of both static and dynamic response scenarios, including the sporadic epidemic spreading based on network topologies and trajectory-based spreading caused by superspreaders in megacities. The results showed that (1) the road network demonstrates comparatively worse resilient behavior under the trajectory-based spreading mode; (2) the road density and centrality order, as well as the network's regional geographical characteristics, can substantially alter the level of impacts and introduce heterogeneity into the recovery processes; and (3) the resilience lost under static recovery and dynamic recovery scenarios is 8.6 and 6.9%, respectively, which demonstrates the necessity of a dynamic response and the importance of making a systematic and strategic recovery plan. Policy and managerial implications are also discussed. This paper provides new insights for better managing the resilience of urban road networks against public health crises in the post-COVID era.

Based on the findings from the National Lung Screening Trial, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual low dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening (LCS) among high-risk adults. Approximately 54% of individuals seeking LCS report current cigarette smoking. Effective smoking cessation interventions, offered at the time of LCS, enhances the health benefits of screening that are attributable to reductions in lung cancer overall and tobacco-related mortality. Considering these data, the Centers for MedicareMedicaid Services' (CMS) 2015 decision to cover LCS with LDCT required that radiology imaging facilities make tobacco cessation interventions available for people who smoke. In February 2022, CMS reversed their 2015 coverage requirement for delivering tobacco use treatment at the time of LDCT; CMS retained the requirement for counseling during the shared decision-making visit prior to the exam. The policy change does not diminish the importance of offering high-quality tobacco cessation services in conjunction with routine LDCT for LCS. However, LCS programs face a range of barriers to implementing tobacco use treatment in their settings. As a result, implementation has lagged. Closing the "evidence to practice" gap is the focus of implementation science, a field that offers a set of rigorous methods and a systematic approach to identifying and overcoming contextual barriers to implementing evidence-based guidelines in a range of clinical settings. In this paper, we describe how implementation science frameworks and methods can be used to help guide LCS programs in their efforts to integrate tobacco use treatment and discuss policy changes needed to further facilitate the delivery of TUT as an essential component of the LCS process.Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. There is strong evidence, from a large number of international studies, that lung cancer screening for people who meet specific criteria, can reduce lung cancer-related deaths. Based on these findings, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid decided to provide insurance coverage for lung cancer screening for eligible patients. This includes people aged 50–80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. Over 50% of people who seek lung cancer screening report current cigarette smoking. Studies show that offering these smokers support to quit at the time of screening can further increase survival rates by reducing both deaths from lung cancer and other tobacco-related diseases. Unfortunately, lung cancer screening programs do not consistently provide effective treatments to help smokers quit. This is a missed opportunity to engage smokers in quitting when the health risk of tobacco use is most salient, and therefore smokers may be more willing to engage in tobacco use treatment. This paper provides detailed guidance on how programs can implement high quality tobacco use treatment services in conjunction with lung cancer screening.

As a policy that is widely used worldwide, Vision Zero is a long-term strategic goal for road safety in China. The aim of this paper is to examine the literature in the field of Vision Zero retrieved by the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database from 1997 to 2021 based on mapping knowledge domain (MKD) and bibliometric methods. In this paper, we analyzed the overall development level of Vision Zero at different stages using the statistical analysis of the distribution of literature years. Based on the analysis, four major research directions of Vision Zero are obtained through keywords co-occurrence analysis, including “Vision Zero in road safety”, “vulnerable road users’ risks”, “effect of speed on severity”, and “responsibility management for crashes”. Furthermore, we explore the influence and development potential of each country and region of Vision Zero based on the number and citation frequency of the literature, and the distribution of time dimensions. Among the research topics, all countries and regions are clustered into four clusters, and the current status of Vision Zero for countries in the most influential clusters, which include Sweden, the United States, Australia, China, and Norway, have been presented. Finally, an analysis of road safety in China is carried out, which includes displaying the changes in the number of road accidents, fatalities, and serious injuries in China between 2009 and 2018, comparing the fatalities per 10,000 vehicles and the fatalities per 100,000 people between China and other countries, and describing China’s strategic routes toward Vision Zero.

Elevated policy uncertainty acts as a tax on investment. In 1921, Frank Knight made a basic conceptual distinction between risk and uncertainty. In a market context, risks can be hedged through the use of different instruments, yet in the policy context, uncertainty makes waiting and seeing an option with value. However, this can come at a high economic cost. The academic analysis of policy uncertainty is today an active field of research globally. Some papers have been published in this regard, each using different approaches to measure macroeconomic and policy uncertainty. In 2015, the North-West University Business School (in conjunction with the School of Economics) pioneered the creation and publication of a Policy Uncertainty Index (PUI) for South Africa, which has since then captured the impact of key events – from ‘Nenegate’ to ‘Ramaphoria’. This paper presents an analysis of policy uncertainty in South Africa and how the PUI has contributed to an understanding of the economic environment in which business operates, with a specific focus on investment. The paper’s contribution lies in the unique context that it creates – where policymaking is more performative than evidence-based and there is a perennial tug of war between the state and market forces, against the backdrop of South Africa’s mixed economy.

What can we learn from the history of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in healthcare and research across global jurisdictions? Depending on region and context, the terminology and heritage of involvement in research vary. In this paper, we draw on global traditions to explore dominant themes and key considerations and critiques pertaining to PPI in order to inform a PPI culture shift in Ireland. We then describe the heritage of PPI in Ireland and present the case for combining methodological imperatives with policy drivers to support and encourage meaningful involvement. Specifically, we propose that PPI can be enriched by the theory and processes of participatory health research (PHR); and that implementation requires concurrent capacity building. We conclude with a call for Irish researchers (authors of this paper included) to consider the conceptual complexities and nuances of a participatory approach to build on the policy imperatives driving PPI and to contribute to the international evidence base and research culture. Specifically, we call for Irish health researchers and funders to consider and reflect on: (1) the rich literature of PHR as a resource for enacting meaningful PPI; (2) the roots and origins of varying participatory health research methods; (3) how community/patient groups can lead health research; and (4) co-learning and partnership synergy to create space for both academic and community expertise; and (5) the importance of using standardized reporting tools.

Sustainable development of agriculture is the basis for achieving social sustainable development. As the basic industry of national economy, green development of agriculture has become an important support for building an environment-friendly society. Agricultural fiscal expenditure is a direct channel for the government to support agriculture and promote agricultural transformation. It is important to analyze the impact of agricultural fiscal expenditure (AFE) on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) for sustainable agricultural development. Therefore, this paper employs the random effect model and spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of AFE on AGTFP by using the agricultural panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020. Then, by taking the policy proposal as the time node, this paper also conducts a time heterogeneity analysis to measure the impact of policy enactment on AFE and AGTFP. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) AGTFP exists significant positive spatial spillover effect. The "radiation effect" of agricultural green development is significant. (2) AFE can significantly reduce the AGTFP in the local area, that is, 1% increase of AFE in the local area will reduce AGTFP by 0.037%. At present, agriculture is still yield-oriented. The improvement of AFE in the local area will lead to the expansion of local agricultural production and increase pollution emission. (3) AFE has a significant negative spatial spillover effect on AGTFP, that is, for every 1% increase in AFE, the AGTFP will decrease 0.123% in geographically similar areas, while the AGTFP will decrease by 0.116% in economically and geographically similar areas. It is obvious that AFE will promote the optimization of agricultural production conditions in the province, with the "demonstration effect" on the surrounding areas, the enthusiasm of production in the surrounding areas will increase, thus expanding the pollution emission. (4) According to the analysis of different periods, AFE has a negative impact on AGTFP mainly before the reform innovation is proposed in 2015. It indicates that reform policies have a significant impact on agricultural sustainability.

IoT devices present an ever-growing domain with multiple applicability. This technology has favored and still favors many areas by creating critical infrastructures that are as profitable as possible. This paper presents a hierarchical architecture composed of different licensing entities that manage access to different resources within a network infrastructure. They are conducted on the basis of well-drawn policy rules. At the same time, the security side of these resources is also placed through a context awareness module. Together with this technology, IoT is used and Blockchain is enabled (for network consolidation, as well as the transparency with which to monitor the platform). The ultimate goal is to implement a secure and scalable security platform for the Smart Grid. The paper presents the work undertaken in the SealedGRID project and the steps taken for implementing security policies specifically tailored to the Smart Grid, based on advanced concepts such as Opinion Dynamics and Smart Grid-related Attribute-based Access Control. This research was funded by the European Commission, under the SealedGRID project, Grant Agreement no. 777996, and by the Norway Grants and UEFISCDI, under the SOLID-B5G project, Project contract no. 42/2021, RO-NO-2019-0499. Institutional Review. Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga

Existing studies ignore the importance of information infrastructure development in improving regional health care environment. This paper adopts a spatial difference-in-difference (DID) model to assess the impact of information infrastructure development on urban health care environment based on a quasi-natural experiment of the “Broadband China” city pilots (BCCP). A balanced panel of 259 cities from 2010 to 2019 is selected for empirical analysis in this paper. Our findings show that the implementation of BCCP resulted in a 4.1 and 2.9% improvement in local medical workforce and medical infrastructure. In addition, there is significant spatial spillover effects of the implementation of BCCP, with 7.2 and 12.5% improvement in medical workforce and medical infrastructure in the surrounding areas. Our findings also suggest that information infrastructure development enhances the health care environment by driving industrial upgrading and education levels. Further analysis shows that BCCP has the strongest improvement on medical workforce in the eastern region and non-ordinary prefecture-level cities. For medical infrastructure, BCCP has stronger improvement in central region, western region, and non-ordinary prefecture-level cities. Finally, the paper conducts a series of robustness tests to ensure the reliability of the analysis results, including parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and re-estimation with different methods. Policies to improve the health care environment through information infrastructure development are proposed.

As pressures to maximize research funding grow, biomedical research funders are increasingly tasked with demonstrating the long-term and real-world impacts of their funded research investments. Over the past three decades, research impact assessments (RIA) have emerged as an important tool for analysing the impacts of research by incorporating logic models, frameworks and indicators to track measures of knowledge production, capacity-building, development of research products, adoption of research into clinical guidelines and policies, and the realization of health, economic and social benefits. While there are currently several models for RIA within the literature, less attention has been paid to how funders can practically select and implement a RIA model to demonstrate the impacts of their own research portfolios. In this paper, a literature review was performed to understand (1) which research funders have performed RIAs of their research portfolios to date; (2) how funders have designed their assessments, including the models and tools they have used; (3) what challenges to and facilitators of success have funders found when adopting the RIA model to their own portfolio; and (4) who participates in the assessments. Forty-four papers from both published and grey literature were found to meet the review criteria and were examined in detail. There is a growing culture of RIA among funders, and included papers spanned a diverse set of funders from 10 countries or regions. Over half of funders (59.1%) used a framework to conduct their assessment, and a variety of methods for collecting impact data were reported. Issues of methodological rigour were observed across studies in the review, and this was related to numerous challenges funders faced in designing timely RIAs with quality impact data. Over a third of articles (36.4%) included input from stakeholders, yet only one article reported surveying patients and members of the public as part of the assessment. To advance RIA among funders, we offer several recommendations for increasing the methodological rigour of RIAs and suggestions for future research, and call for a careful reflection of the voices needed in an impact assessment to ensure that RIAs are having a meaningful impact on patients and the public.

Acknowledgements: The authors thank Andy Cowan for providing editorial support with the submission and the cover letter., BACKGROUND: The United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) seeks to create multisectoral changes that align healthy ageing with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given that the SDGs have completed their first five years, the objective of this scoping review was to summarise any efforts launched to directly address the SDGs in older adults in community settings prior to the Decade. This will contribute to providing a baseline against which to track progress and identify gaps. METHODS: Following Cochrane guidelines for scoping reviews, searches were conducted in three electronic databases, five grey-literature websites, and one search engine between April to May 2021; and limited to entries from 2016 to 2020. Abstracts and full texts were double-screened; references of included papers were searched to identify additional candidate publications; and data were extracted independently by two authors, using an adaptation of existing frameworks. Quality assessment was not conducted. RESULTS: In total, we identified 617 peer-review papers, of which only two were included in the review. Grey literature searches generated 31 results, from which ten were included. Overall, the literature was sparse and heterogeneous, consisting of five reports, three policy documents, two non-systematic reviews, one city plan, and one policy appraisal. Initiatives targeting older adults were mentioned under 12 different SDGs, with SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) being the most commonly discussed. Also, SDG-based efforts frequently overlapped or aligned to the eight domains of age-friendly environments outlined in the World Health Organisation framework. CONCLUSION: The review has documented the extent, range, and nature of available research and provided an initial evidence backdrop for future research and policy development.

Both the U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Journal of Environmental Quality (JEQ) trace back to 1972. The journal has a strong history of publishing science in support of the CWA, from basic science used to develop best management practices to address water quality problems to special sections on hot issues of the day and publishing long-term data that provide evidence of success. The objective of this article is to provide a brief overview of how JEQ has provided a publication outlet for researchers involved in efforts focused on key CWA issues and to introduce a special section celebrating the golden anniversary of this blue policy. The special section includes papers that look back historically on biosolids research that began with the advent of the CWA as well as a forward-looking paper encouraging readers to think about the implications of the ubiquitous use of lithium-ion batteries and a call to action before tangible problems are realized.

BackgroundLack of political will is frequently invoked as a rhetorical tool to explain the gap between commitment and action for health reforms in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the concept remains vague, ill defined and risks being used as a scapegoat to actually examine what shapes reforms in a given context, and what to do about it. This study sought to go beyond the rhetoric of political will to gain a deeper understanding of what drives health reforms in SSA.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review using Arksey and O’Malley (2005) to understand the drivers of health reforms in SSA.ResultsWe reviewed 84 published papers that focused on the politics of health reforms in SSA covering the period 2002–2022. Out of these, more than half of the papers covered aspects related to health financing, HIV/AIDS and maternal health with a dominant focus on policy agenda setting and formulation. We found that health reforms in SSA are influenced by six; often interconnected drivers namely (1) the distribution of costs and benefits arising from policy reforms; (2) the form and expression of power among actors; (3) the desire to win or stay in government; (4) political ideologies; (5) elite interests and (6) policy diffusion.ConclusionPolitical will is relevant but insufficient to drive health reform in SSA. A framework of differential reform politics that considers how the power and beliefs of policy elites is likely to shape policies within a given context can be useful in guiding future policy analysis.

Plastic pollution has become a major environmental concern worldwide. As the circular economy is increasingly seen as a means for achieving sustainable development, it is imperative to promote the more efficient use of plastics worldwide. An integral part of the circular economy model, trade in waste, and the scrap for recovery is a part of the solution to achieve sustainability. This paper studies the changing geography of the international trade in plastic waste. It reveals increasingly complex patterns of the transboundary trade in plastic waste over more than two decades. The movement of plastic waste from high-income countries to developing nations has been the largest flow, but trade flows of other directions turn out to be significant. The findings of the paper debunk the North–South or core–periphery dichotomy that is embedded in the international environment justice tradition (including the ecologically unequal exchange theory) as well as in international environmental regulatory regimes such as the Basel Convention. The paper contributes to the discussions about value that are central in political economic approaches to global trade (e.g., the global value chain and global production network) by demonstrating the relative, spatial, and dynamic nature of the concept. As the transboundary trade in plastic waste has exacerbated pollution and marine litter in some major receiving countries, it needs to be better monitored and regulated to ensure it is conducted in a transparent and environmentally sound manner. The paper also explores several policy measures that could help tackle the plastic pollution crisis and achieve sustainable development.

As a comprehensive benefit coordination mechanism, ecological protection compensation has received increasing attention internationally. China has also introduced a series of policies to promote ecological protection compensation mechanism improvement. The evaluation of ecological protection compensation policies is the main basis for the formulation, adjustment and improvement of the policy. Based on the front-end perspective of policy formulation, this paper selects 10 ecological protection compensation policies issued by the State Council and various ministries in China from 2006 to 2021. A text mining-based PMC index evaluation system using the ROSTCM tool is constructed to quantitatively evaluate these 10 typical policies, and four representative policies are selected for comparative analysis. The overall design of China’s ecological protection compensation policies is reasonable, and 5 out of 10 policies have good PMC index scores, which are: P1, P2, P5, P7 and P9; and 5 are at acceptable levels, which are: P3, P4, P6, P8 and P10. However, the PMC surface and the concavity index indicate that there are still some limitations that need to be improved, including the obvious internal differentiation of the policies, the single effectiveness of the policies, and the insufficient incentive and guarantee measures. Finally, this paper provides suggestions for the optimization of ecological protection compensation policies accordingly.

The Chinese central government established eight pilot zones in five provinces for green finance reform and innovations (GFRI) in 2017. The pilot zones promote green finance development and explore the propagable and reproducible experiences regarding mechanisms and institutions. Adopting a sample of China’s listed companies from 2012 to 2021, this paper constructed a quasi-natural experiment and investigated the GFRI policy’s effect on firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) using the difference-in-differences (DID) method to verify the implementation effect of the GFRI policy. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis and mechanism analysis were conducted to identify the guidance effect and deep mechanisms of the GFRI policy. The empirical results demonstrated that firms’ TFP in pilot zones increased substantially after implementing the GFRI pilot policy, confirming that the policy had a strong incentive effect. The corresponding promoting effect was particularly significant for non-state-owned companies, the eastern and central regions, and firms in the growth stage. Further mechanism analysis revealed that the GFRI pilot policy can stimulated firms’ TFP by promoting technological innovation and improving resource allocation efficiency. This paper’s empirical findings are essential in improving relevant policies and expanding the pilot zones.

This paper discusses potential barriers to electric vehicle purchase in fleets and how these could be overcome by policymakers, fleets, and organizations with fleets. Fleets may face unique challenges to electrification and require different support than is provided to private consumers due to their variety of vehicle uses and applications. The paper is divided into discussions on purchase issues and those on operational issues. Purchase issues include ensuring plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are available across different vehicle types, creating educational campaigns for both decision-makers and fleet vehicle drivers, and tailoring incentives to the fleet context. Operational issues include factors such as creating post-purchase incentives, implementing low-emission zones and congestion charges, and facilitating utility support for fleet vehicle charging installations.

In Indonesia, there is still a disparity in telecommunications access, with most rural areas experiencing “no signal” or “blank spots.” In contrast, urban areas enjoy modern and societally-beneficial technologies. A comprehensive framework is needed to address the disparity in telecommunications access between “rich” and “poor” groups in urban and rural/remote areas, respectively. This paper proposes a framework, built by the mathematical model, that can be used as a reference for the Indonesian government in constructing the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. The framework categorizes Indonesian administrative regions into four grids: Grid #1: “fostered” districts; Grid #2: “developing” districts; Grid #3: “developed” districts; and Grid #4: “independent-advanced” districts. To determine where each district falls in these grids, we propose a novel statistical approach using 17 indicators involving a telecommunications network and socioeconomic factors. The proposed framework results in a grid visualization of 7232 districts in Indonesia. Finally, as this paper is replete with academic research approaches and mathematical model perspectives, it is expected that the results may be a valuable input to the development of the country’s telecommunications policy.

This review paper provides preliminary analysis and answers to three key questions that were identified by synthesizing qualitative evidence from climate security research in Japan. The questions identified are: (1) Has Japan participated in the global climate security debate at all? (2) Why did climate security struggle to become a major political theme in Japan until 2020? (3) Why did Japan explicitly start dealing with climate security as a policy issue in 2020? We identify and discuss four key reasons relative to the second question. The review provides key details (and general parameters) of these questions that have been overlooked by not only Japanese researchers but also climate security research conducted between 2017 and 2022 in Europe and the United States. Climate security suddenly became a trending topic among Japanese researchers and political elites in 2020; we find evidence that future studies could provide important and more robust insight if an analysis of the above questions is supported by interview data obtained from Japanese government officials. In doing so, researchers will be able to provide valuable insight into the possibility (and extent) that inter-ministerial rivalry between key ministries has impeded domestic progress on climate security action. Furthermore, three separate projects on climate security have been commissioned and recently implemented in Japan. These form the basis for this first systematic literature review of 34 papers and the related research reports resulting from these projects. These papers and reports were retrieved from the electronic databases of Google Scholar, ProQuest, and the National Institute for Environmental Studies in April 2022. While the main limitation of this review paper is that readers are expected to connect these questions to their own experiences at the global level, we reduce the possibility of presenting biased information by identifying and verifying missing details. For example, we had difficulty identifying the method used in one of the co-authored papers and contacted the corresponding author. In summary, sustained discussion in academia and high-politics settings should eventually lead to a greater awareness about climate security.

In this paper we discuss the influence of war as a metaphor in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. After an introduction on the traditional analysis of the war metaphor, we address the social consequences of using this metaphor, a topic that has been widely debated with regard to public communication in the context of COVID-19. We pay particular attention to a theory that many intellectuals have raised: the possibility that the use of the metaphor in this context is harmful to a democratic society because it may lead citizens to accept limited civil liberties and authoritarian policies. After presenting the extensive literature on the use of the war metaphor before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the final section of the paper, we analyse experimental evidence of the effects of this metaphor. In the conclusion, we hint at open questions and suggest that the current evidence does not support claims of direct liberticidal influence.

Green credit policy is an important practice to guide green development through the rational allocation of credit funds. Using the promulgation of the "Green Credit Guidelines" policy in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper examines the impact of green credit policy on heavily polluting enterprises' substantive and strategic green innovations within a difference-in-differences framework. We find that green credit policy improves the overall and strategic green innovations but has no significant effect on substantive green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises. Moreover, this effect is more prominent for state-owned enterprises and enterprises in regions with lower levels of financial development. Further analysis demonstrates that the green innovation induced by green credit policy increases heavily polluting enterprises' loan availability but does not improve heavily polluting enterprises' value. This paper sheds new light on the relationship between green credit policy and corporate green innovation in China as a transition economy.

The opioid epidemic has renewed debate about how to structure laws, agency policies and hospital protocols for mandatory reporting of illicit substances during pregnancy. This paper analyzes the ethics of Rhode Island's approach to mandatory reporting - in particular, reporting of positive maternal and newborn drug tests at time of delivery. Given that state intervention is generally perceived by pregnant people as punitive and threatening to their family, we consider how four elements often used to justify punitive action by the state - retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation (societal protection) - apply to Rhode Island's policy and approach to prenatal substance use. In addition, the paper considers the equity implications of Rhode Island's approach. It concludes that, given the potential for the policy to do more harm than good, investment of resources would be better spent on clinical and community services that support substance using parents and their newborns.

The planetary boundaries concept has triggered a vast amount of pure and applied scientific research, as well as policy and governance activities globally. Indeed, it has rapidly become a centerpiece of sustainability study. It is crucial to review the scientific state of the planetary boundaries (PB) concept systematically. However, there is a lack of research on drawing a scientific investigation map of planetary boundaries. Therefore, to clarify the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, research hotspots, and frontiers of planetary boundaries, a scientometric analysis was performed based on 530 academic publications on planetary boundaries from 2009 to 2021. This paper conducted the analysis by visualizing the social network, dual-map overlay, co-cited references, structure variation article, and co-occurrence keywords with CiteSpace. The results show that as a new achievement and paradigm in sustainable development research, the planetary boundaries framework is gradually getting global attention and promotion, which has increasingly become an interdisciplinary hot research topic. The most productive authors and institutions are concentrated in England, the USA, Germany, and Sweden. Relevant articles were mainly published in journals focusing on ecology, earth, marine, veterinary, animal, economics, and politics. In addition, we summarized four predominant research themes by clustering keywords: the calculation of single boundary threshold and present value, the integration with assessment methods such as life cycle assessment and footprint families, the downscaling of planetary boundaries, and the expansion to economic and social domains. For scholars who are interested in this topic, this paper would be a useful reference and guideline.