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This paper investigates how ancillary geographic data – in particular, information on land or assessor parcels – might be used to improve estimates for small area populations and population characteristics. It seeks to determine whether parcel land use codes can be used to reliably replicate population and housing distributions within small (subcounty) areas and whether other parcel attributes – in addition to land use – exhibit any explanatory power in replicating population and housing characteristics within these same places. The basis for this paper was Professor Barbara Buttenfield's service on the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, in which her working group explored the utility of administrative source data as an alternative or complement to federal survey data. This analysis highlights some of the benefits and complications of the incorporation of parcel data into geodemographic estimation, and the findings demonstrate that such a use is problematic but encouraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic screening at population scale generates many ethical considerations. One is the normative role that people's preferences should play in determining access to genomic information in screening contexts, particularly information that falls beyond the scope of screening. We expect both that people will express a preference to receive such results and that there will be interest from the professional community in providing them. In this paper, we consider this issue in relation to the just and equitable design of population screening programs like reproductive genetic carrier screening (RGCS). Drawing on a pluralistic public health ethics perspective, we claim that generating and reporting information about genetic variants beyond the scope of the screening program usually lacks clinical, and perhaps personal, utility. There are both pragmatic and ethical reasons to restrict information provision to that which fits the stated purpose of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a Special Issue on Engaging Vulnerable Populations in the Co-Production of Public Services prepared by the journal which focuses on how to engage and empower populations with vulnerabilities that could otherwise challenge their participation in the co-production and co-design of public services. The deadline on the submission of queries and abstracts is cited.

This paper analyses the way in which Sindhi traders – one of the largest Indian diasporic populations in Asia – have managed to live and work in China as de facto migrants despite their inability to be granted settled immigration status by the Chinese state. Drawing on long-term fieldwork that started in 2010, the paper offers a China-centric ethnographic perspective on how Indian traders, particularly Sindhis in the Chinese county of Keqiao, have been dealing with the incongruence between immigration policies that largely preclude the possibility of their permanent residency and their long-term entrepreneurial engagement in China. I argue that this incongruence, despite the tensions and uncertainties it continues to generate, has in fact become a crucial factor in stabilizing the diasporic convergence upon Keqiao by Sindhi traders. The eventual consequence is what I call 'indifferent survival': that is, the Sindhi traders, a group of non-white foreigners, are managing to stay together and even expand the size of their diasporic community in China despite their vast internal differences in class, local knowledge, and wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests an improvement to the performance of existing house price indexing methods and explores a way to improve their applicability. The proposed approach takes population distribution into account by integrating it with index prices. This approach is validated with two exemplary applications in Germany at different levels of aggregation. The generated population-weighted boxplots reveal previously hidden, human-centered insights that differ significantly from methods in which only index prices are examined. This standardized approach enables effective subject-matter discourse and resilient decision-making in urban affairs. It is applicable to a broad range of price-related metrics and issues, including affordability in housing, spatial planning, building, and urban development. Its novelty lies in comprehensively integrating population distribution into house price statistics, thereby uniquely connecting the disciplines of economics and spatial planning. It also aims to initiate new conversations that remain unexplored in urban affairs and the real estate industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase in human population is one of the underlying factors driving the ecological crisis. Despite efforts on the part of educators to raise awareness of environmental issues, the ecological impact of a burgeoning population – and the ethical implications of having children – remains an unbroachable topic. Nevertheless, the increase in human numbers is central to questions of sustainability: How can a species expect to survive in a finite terrestrial environment without limits to its population? Since most of the world's ecological impact can be traced to capitalist-industrial- consumer societies in over-developed nations, the middle and upper classes in rich countries must weigh the ecological consequences of their family-planning decisions. In this paper, I argue that educational programs that are concerned with environmental ethics should have students examine the assumptions and implications of having children. I consider the risks associated with this proposal and respond to a series of possible objections. This paper does not advocate coercive measures for population control, but rather enjoins a pedagogical responsibility to view having children as an act with ecological consequences, an act that must be subject to careful examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the sociology of education (SOE) as a modern human science. It suggests that the SOE is mired in a set of unreflexive, redemptive, Enlightment rationalities, and explores the messy relationships of the sociology with education that result from this. It is argues that the sociology of education has consistently failed to distance itself from the metaphysics, optimism and oppressions of modern schooling. That it has failed to call into question either the basic building blocks of schooling, or what we call education – pedagogy, curriculum and assessment – or the buildings themselves, the spaces of education. The paper concludes by asserting to need for critique rather than simply criticism as a starting point for thinking education differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses an R&D-based growth model that presents an empirically plausible relationship between population growth and income growth for in particular developed countries. The paper shows that in the presence of highly productive education, a decrease in population growth accelerates income growth even though public education sectors are not well developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian federal government white paper 'Our north, our future' projects that northern Australia's population could reach 5,000,000 by 2060. This represents an almost four-fold increase in population (an additional 3,700,000 people) all within the next 41 years. Given the ambiguities in the White paper about the distribution of this population, this paper ventures three settlement pattern scenarios to explore the issues these may pose. The paper concludes that population growth of the scale projected will require comprehensive, long term planning – without such planning the scale of population growth projected could result in negative environmental and societal consequences. As such, the discipline of planning in Australia should be aware of this emerging situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant and deadly link between air-borne pandemics (for example, COVID-19) and air pollution, as airborne particulate matter enhances the spread of such diseases. Moreover, economically disadvantaged groups are more susceptible. This paper analyses the effects of health expenditure on carbon emissions in BRICS (that is, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries from 2000 to 2017. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FM-OLS), the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) Granger causality and the Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality tests are employed. In terms of aggregate health expenditure, the level of current health expenditure is significantly and negatively connected with carbon emissions. With regard to disaggregated variables, private health expenditure is also negatively and significantly linked to emissions. However, domestic general government health expenditure and external health expenditure are positively and significantly associated with carbon emissions. Country-specific results are also provided. The causality tests confirm bi-directional causality between the level of current health expenditure, private health expenditure, and domestic general government health expenditure, and carbon emissions. External health expenditure in BRICS does not cause emissions, and vice-versa. VECM causal links are also discussed. The results point to the need to review health expenditure sub-policy programs to achieve zero-carbon targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether boundary changes lead to changes in the relationship between voters and politicians. We focus on the wave of municipal mergers in Japan that took place in the 2000s in order to examine this question. Municipalities with small population size, once they merge with their larger neighbours, would have a small number of voters relative to the size of the electorate in the post-merger municipalities. Therefore, municipal politicians in the post-merger municipalities do not have strong electoral incentives to receive support from geographic areas corresponding with pre-merger municipalities of small population size. Using a survey of voters in 89 locations corresponding with pre-merger municipalities, we demonstrate that voters who live in small municipalities that experienced mergers interact with politicians less frequently and have less favourable impressions of politicians than before the mergers. These patterns are not observed in municipalities that did not experience mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International migration has a consistently high profile within national and international politics with increased focus on measurement and quantification of migrant numbers, impact on services and contribution to local, regional and national economies. However, the absence of consistency within definitions, categorisations and measurement of international migration and migrant populations create challenges and barriers to both understanding the needs of migrant communities but also the provision of adequate services within specific geographical areas. This paper will present findings from a project designed to map the impact of migration on a settled community within a Local Authority (LA) in the North East of England. As the project encountered routine inconsistencies around definitions, categorisations and measurement of migration within the LA area, this paper demonstrates the complexity of trying to 'measure' migration on the ground and while consistency in measurement is key to accurate data, we conclude with an ethical question about the rationale for collecting data on migrant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to illuminate the significance of datafication for anti-poverty programmes, meaning social protection schemes designed specifically for poor people. The conversion of beneficiary populations into machine-readable data enables two core functions of social protection, those of recognising entitled beneficiaries and assigning entitlements connected to each anti-poverty scheme. Drawing on the incorporation of Aadhaar, India's biometric population database, in the national agenda for social protection, we unpack a techno-rational perspective that crafts datafication as a means to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty schemes. Nevertheless, narratives collected in the field show multiple forms of data injustice on recipients, underpinned by Aadhaar's functionality for a shift of the social protection agenda from in-kind subsidies to cash transfers. Based on such narratives the paper introduces a politically embedded view of data, framing datafication as a transformative force that contributes to reforming existing anti-poverty schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new generalized regression estimator for the problem of estimating the population total using unequal probability sampling without replacement. A modified automated linearization approach is applied in order to transform the proposed estimator to estimate variance of population total. The variance and estimated value of the variance of the proposed estimator is investigated under a reverse framework assuming that the sampling fraction is negligible and there are equal response probabilities for all units. We prove that the proposed estimator is an asymptotically unbiased estimator and that it does not require a known or estimated response probability to function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethnohistory of the Colorado River delta has been substantively misunderstood, owing to the widespread neglect and/or misinterpretations of the writings of Francisco Garcés. In 1771, 1774, and 1775–76, Garcés undertook three entradas into the delta, and wrote a series of valuable ethnographic accounts. Not only have Garcés's locations and routes frequently been misidentified by earlier scholars, his observations on agricultural production and population size have been ignored or marginalized, enabling misconceptions about delta historical demography and adaptation to flourish. The present paper seeks to restore Garcés's accounts, making his locations and ethnographic observations intelligible and interpretable, and to show how these can help resolve extant misconceptions. Part I focuses on some key texts, tying his locations to a master map. Part II focuses on ethnolinguistic groups and settlement sites, and discusses the implications for a better understanding of historical demography and agricultural adaptation in the delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss how a professor could have students, using rational and exponential functions, develop models for several different density-dependent populations based on characteristics of the species. Students would then need to choose an appropriate method from among three different analytic methods (find a solution, phase-line analysis, graphing approximate solutions) to analyse their models. We then discuss how to use aspects of a species' behaviour to choose an appropriate model from among the ones developed. Finally, we show how a professor could apply what students have learned to develop general principles for sustainable harvesting of such species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 was first experienced in Wuhan City, China, during December 2019 before it rapidly spread over globally. This paper has proposed a mathematical model for studying its transmission dynamics in the presence of face mask wearing and hospitalization services of human population in Tanzania. Disease-free and endemic equilibria were determined and subsequently their local and global stabilities were carried out. The trace-determinant approach was used in the local stability of disease-free equilibrium point while Lyapunov function technique was used to determine the global stability of both disease-free and endemic equilibrium points. Basic reproduction number, R 0 , was determined in which its numerical results revealed that, in the presence of face masks wearing and medication services or hospitalization as preventive measure for its transmission, R 0 = 0.698 while in their absence R 0 = 3.8. This supports its analytical solution that the disease-free equilibrium point E 0 is asymptotically stable whenever R 0 < 1 , while endemic equilibrium point E ∗ is globally asymptotically stable for R 0 > 1. Therefore, this paper proves the necessity of face masks wearing and hospitalization services to COVID-19 patients to contain the disease spread to the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to quantify airborne fungal load in air-conditioned rooms and develop a health risk rating scale for different indoor environments. Five sampling locations in Kolkata frequented by a heterogeneous human population, containing various types of fungal growth-promoting substances (FGPS) like old documents, food items, waste hair, etc. were chosen as sampling locations where an Andersen Two-Stage Cascade Impactor was ran using Rose Bengal agar and Potato Dextrose agar media plates. Total spore load (CFU/m3), species diversity, species dominance, human exposure time, susceptible age and FGPS were considered the risk factors for this study. A risk rating scale was developed after evaluating the relative importance of these different factors in relation to human health. The most dominant genera were Aspergillus, followed by Penicillium. Maximum CFU was observed at library, followed by computer room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the developed world, the historic process of fertility decline was interrupted by an unexpected period of increasing fertility called the baby boom. Recent studies suggest that a similar trend change in fertility may have occurred in many less developed nations at approximately the same time. Using cohort fertility data for 26 less developed countries from around the world taken from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International (IPUMS-I), this paper aims to ascertain the extent to which these trend changes occurred in a large sample of countries around the world. It offers convincing proof of the existence of an upward shift in fertility among cohorts born during the 1930s, which was common to many countries in the less developed world. Despite many similarities with the baby boom, there are also differences stemming, mostly, from its timing with respect to the demographic transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Chicago School economist Gary Becker’s theory of fertility underpins contemporary rationalities of global population governance. Drawing on feminist critiques of biopolitics, the paper proposes reproduction as a missing link that ties Becker’s homo economicus to the aggregate question of population. It argues that Becker’s work challenged macroeconomic theories of fertility by figuring reproduction, and hence population patterns, as governed by the personal utility-maximizing decisions of individuals. It further examines how his approach to fertility inaugurated reproductive decision-making as a regulatory node of population quality, one also tied to a particular sex, race and class politics. Finally, the paper briefly analyses the relationship between Becker’s contribution and today’s focus on women’s reproductive and productive decision-making in population governance in the context of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the extent and nature of age-misreporting in the Mosaic data, currently one of the largest historical census microdata infrastructures for continental Europe. We use demographic measures known as the age heaping indexes to explore regional, periodic and sex-specific patterns of age misreporting across 115 Mosaic regional datafiles, from Catalonia to Moscow, during Europe's demographic ancien régime and thereafter. The paper's second significant contribution is the comparison of Mosaic-based results to those derived from two other big census data projects—IPUMS and NAPP. Beyond this exploratory data analysis, we also investigate possible sources of variation in age heaping across Mosaic data by examining how it relates to variability in socioeconomic, institutional, and environmental conditions. Overall, our systematic inquiry into quality of age reporting in Mosaic consolidates the project's potentially transformative role in comparative historical family demography and suggests some avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary populist political rhetoric often makes use of a concept of a 'forgotten people' or a 'silent majority', who are constructed as a subset of population and often utilized as an electoral base by populist leaders, particularly in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The concept emerged in the Twentieth Century and has undergone substantial re-configuration alongside other cultural emerges of the past fifty years. Among them is the re-configuration of the 'forgotten people' from being positioned to perceive themselves as a stoic, hard-working, domestic and normative middle-class to a group figured through a racial or ethnic 'authenticity' yet called upon to perceive themselves as vulnerable, precarious and at risk to both intellectual elites and marginalized groups including particularly migrants. Using cultural studies approaches, this paper examines some of those shifts in Australian and United States political discourse, how the concept of vulnerability is imputed for political ends, and the value of a more nuanced investigation of the affectively felt attachment to populist discourse among supporters as a form of identity practice. The paper aims to provide a more nuanced framework for scholarly understanding of, and intervention in, contemporary western populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-nineteenth century, Iceland's small population under Danish rule tried establishing itself as part of Europe's civilized and progressive population. The production of racist texts and images that emphasized Iceland's natural place with 'progressive' European nations reflect Iceland's relationship with colonialism and the anxieties of being categorized with colonized others. The paper focuses on plaster casts of Icelandic faces, which were a part of collections meant to showcase racial diversity in the late nineteenth century in France and Spain. The analysis of the making and commercialization of the busts reflects one of the multiple ways Iceland was engaged in a world of imperialism and colonialism, underlining Iceland's ambiguous status in mid-nineteenth century Europe as a marginal European country. This status shaped Icelandic identity during the 19th and twentieth century, characterized by a strong need to position themselves as civilized subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we respond to the useful comments made by J. J. Bissell 2017, on our paper Garnett et al 2015. We use this opportunity to explain in more detail our use of agent based modelling of historical processes, and how it can raise interesting and thought provoking questions that could be answered by additional historical research. In this case, questions around the possible relationship with the size of the British banking sector and the formation of new banks. We also take the opportunity to present further data on on the possible reasons for the rise and fall in the population of British banks, and suggest that the 'tipping point' might not have been such a radical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, population ageing is one of the most pressing social and policy issues faced today. Over the next two decades, Australian society will face dramatic increases in the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over, as the baby boomers move into older age and fertility levels remain low. Yet population ageing is not a surprising or new trend—demographic changes in the age profile of a population tend to occur incrementally rather than suddenly. As a demographer and geographer, Graeme Hugo drew attention to this trend in Australia’s population more than three decades ago. Throughout Graeme Hugo’s vast breadth of work over the past 40 years, there has been a consistent thread of demographic analysis and academic thought associated with the ageing of Australia’s population. This paper focuses on Hugo’s contributions to academic thought and policy on Australia’s ageing population and the challenges associated with this for both service delivery and health policy as Australian society moves into an unprecedented era of population ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationships between population growth, energy needs, and environmental sustainability in Africa. To do so, we take Nigeria as an illustrative case and set-up a multivariate framework incorporating total population, electricity demand, per capita income and the amount of CO2 yearly emitted by the power and heating sector over the largest period: 1971–2018. Results confirm the existence of a one-way causality from population to electricity consumption, per capita income, and CO2 emissions without feedback. Besides, a unidirectional link running from electricity consumption to economic growth is depicted, congruent with the electricity-led growth hypothesis. Finally, electricity consumption is found to be a substantial environmental pollution-enabler in Nigeria. The provision of affordable electricity should be balanced by a trend from fossil-fuel supply to sustainable energy resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes use of two sets of Census outputs for Northern Ireland – counts by (i) output areas (OAs) and (ii) 100 m grid cells. Population surfaces are derived from OAs using a kernel smoothing approach and the accuracy of these surfaces is assessed using the 100-m grid square product. The key contribution of this paper is in pulling together the benefits of a gridded population data source with local regression procedures to provide a more detailed assessment of surface modelling accuracy than possible in any previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mass killings of 1965–1966 in Indonesia marked a watershed in its history. The consensus estimate of lives lost is 500,000. In this paper, demographic and geographic methods are used to characterize the violence in Central Java, one of the worst-affected provinces. The findings provide a portrait of the violence and its dynamics. This portrait highlights the likely complicity of a diverse array of political opponents of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The findings also provide evidence supporting Clifford Geertz's three-aliran (cultural "stream") model of Javanese society, with the complex interplay of the three aliran and the Indonesian Army in the political realm producing the violent outcomes of 1965–1966. In this manner, this study builds on prior work by Hefner, Jay, Lyon, Mortimer, and Ricklefs on the cultural and social underpinnings of the violence. It also builds on more recent work on the neighboring province of East Java in which the role of two of the three alirans was found to be a significant factor, underlining the importance of the intersection of culture, geography, and politics in understanding this violent episode in Indonesian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Colonial railways eased settlement and altered the economic activity of the surrounding areas. Thus, they provide a good testing ground for the impact of settlement expansion. By taking advantage of unique territorial population data and digitized historical colonization maps in the Constantine region, this paper assesses the effect of railways on the indigenous population in Algeria during the colonial years. The indigenous population growth and density are first analysed in a cross-section multivariate regression framework that permits controlling for various forms of settlement. As a robustness check to the results, the paper implements differences-in-differences combined with a propensity score matching methodology that allow analysing the impact in relatively isolated areas where the infrastructure arrived later. The main conclusion of the paper is that, if settlement did have a positive effect on the indigenous population growth – as many historians tend to argue – it was channelled through railways only after 1900, when cereal cultivation improved, and the trade policy changed. The lack of significance before the 1900s is most likely explained by geographic-specific factors that limited the potential effects of railways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) passed the 'Students Without Legal Immigration Status Policy', commonly known as the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. While the policy assured undocumented students' admission to schools on paper, it remains to be fully implemented. In addition, given the discursive connection between immigration status, race, and criminalization, the TDSB has instituted procedures that further illegalize undocumented students including a more onerous and dangerous enrolment procedure. This paper examines the role of schools as border zones for undocumented immigrants in Toronto. It argues that bureaucratic processes and criminalizing rhetoric based on race actively exclude undocumented migrants from the school site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the finite population mean in stratified random sampling by using two auxiliary variables. This paper proposed a ratio-cum-product exponential type estimator of population mean under different situations: (i) when there is presence of non-response and measurement errors on the study as well as auxiliary variables; (ii) when there is non-response on the study and auxiliary variables but with no measurement error; (iii) when there is complete response on study variable but there is presence of non-response and measurement error on the auxiliary variables and (iv) when there are complete response and measurement error on study as well as auxiliary variables. The expressions of the bias and mean square error of the proposed estimator have been obtained up to the first degree of approximation. The proposed estimator has been compared with usual unbiased estimator, ratio estimator and other existing estimators and the conditions obtained to show the efficacy of the proposed estimator over other considered estimators. Simulation study is carried out to support the theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population growth has had a significant impact on society, economy and environment, which will challenge the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Spatially accurate and detailed population distribution data are essential for measuring the impact of population growth and tracking progress on the SDGs. However, most population data are evenly distributed within administrative units, which seriously lacks spatial details. There are scale differences between the population statistical data and geospatial data, which makes data analysis and needed research difficult. The disaggregation method is an effective way to obtain the spatial distribution of population with greater granularity. It can also transform the statistical population data from irregular administrative units into regular grids to characterize the spatial distribution of the population, and the original population count is preserved. This paper summarizes the research advances of population disaggregation in terms of methodology, ancillary data, and products and discusses the role of spatial disaggregation of population statistical data in monitoring and evaluating SDG indicators. Furthermore, future work is proposed from two perspectives: challenges with spatial disaggregation and disaggregated population as an Essential SDG Variable (ESDGV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on the evolution of the relationship between population and economic growth from Hume to New Growth Theory. In this paper, we show that there were two main views on the subject. There were those who assumed that the relationship between fertility rate and income was positive. On the other hand, there were those who raised the possibility that this linkage did not occur, and they emphasised that an increase in income did not necessarily lead to having more children. Following from Hicks’ methodological precept,the paper will show that their position on the issue was related to a socio-economic fact: the sibship size effect. We show that those who took the view that an increase in income leads to the desire to have more children did not take into consideration the sibship size effect, while those maintaining that there existed a negative relationship introduced into their utility function a sibship size effect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on interview and ethnographic data to describe donor accounts of blood donation in England, and how this contrasts to their responses when invited to also participate in two associated public health research studies. Donor views about usual blood donation combine the general, if flexible, theme of altruism with powerful notions of the social collective, giving rise to the sense that they are making tangible, physical ties and constructing a social body through the act of donation. However, their accounts of research participation are more open and ambiguous. At the core of this is the sense that they do not know what exactly they are ‘giving’, since the research is ultimately about collecting information, rather than substance. Equally, the donor-participants are not sure who they are giving it to, since they have no sense of the social collective that potentially might benefit from the research. The paper argues that the concept of ‘the population’ in public health is not only a term that is alien and abstract for the blood donors, but increasingly is a post hoc category for large-scale epidemiological studies. As a result, rather than supporting the obvious assumption that individual bodies make up populations, in practice, particular population renderings determine the nature of individual bodies. In so doing, the need to address ideas of ‘the social’, as distinct from ‘the population’, is increasingly unnecessary in much of public health research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of spatial data has become a key factor in numerous public sector processes. However, recent evidence suggests that the seemingly obvious benefits of spatial data use and sharing often stay beyond reach. This paper examines whether the performance of spatial data in inter-organisational processes depends on the structural characteristics of the process involved. Process structure here refers to the way in which tasks are divided and coordinated between the organisations in a process chain, and to the allocation of the spatial data handling tasks in that process. Spatial data performance describes the level of access, use and sharing of spatial data in the process. The paper presents the results of a comparative case study of inter-organisational public sector processes in the fields of urban planning, flood management, population registration, environmental permit delivery and road safety monitoring. The findings suggest that spatial data performance in inter-organisational processes depends on the interplay between the structural characteristics of the process. Unfragmented processes with embedded activities that are related to spatial data are apparently linked to a high level of spatial data performance, while fragmented processes without centralised coordination, or processes in which the spatial data-related activities are separated from the actual process, seem to relate to lower levels of spatial data performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New migration flows to Mexico are challenging long-established sociocultural configurations. So far, most studies on immigrants in Mexico have focused on singular ethno-national groups rather than paying attention to the intermingling of people. This paper presents an examination of diversification processes occurring in Guadalajara, Mexico. We contend that these are particularly strained because of the continuing frictions with which the country has to deal due to its already-existing diversity. The many forms of discrimination and racism that many Mexicans are subjected to by their co-nationals are often extended to new arrivals. The increasing complexity of migrant inflows challenges established forms of prejudice in everyday interactions. We argue in this paper that the use of superdiversity as a lens to study diversification processes allows us to better understand the changing dynamics currently taking place in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Census showed that Scotland's population had increased and part of this increase is due to inward migration. Among the in-migrants, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of black and minority ethnic people living in Scotland, notably those with a ‘black’ ethnicity. So, the ethnic geography of Scotland is changing and this appears to be due in part to significant numbers of asylum seekers and refugees who have been housed in Glasgow in recent years. This paper reports on two research studies carried out with refugees to explore their decision-making processes and the reasons why many have opted to stay in Scotland. Among the important factors identified are education (with children settled in schools), the availability of housing, a sense of loyalty to cities like Glasgow for accepting them, and the absence of obvious onward destinations. Some onward migration has taken place, but the numbers who have chosen to remain have had an important effect on the ethnic make-up of the country. The paper seeks to extend our understanding of the long-term implications of refugee decision-making for Scotland's ethnic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multilevel modeling is an important tool for analyzing large-scale assessment data. However, the standard multilevel modeling will typically give biased results for such complex survey data. This bias can be eliminated by introducing design weights which must be used carefully as they can affect the results. The aim of this paper is to examine different approaches and to give recommendations concerning handling design weights in multilevel models when analyzing large-scale assessments such as TIMSS (The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). To achieve the goal of the paper, we examined real data from two countries and included a simulation study. The analyses in the empirical study showed that using no weights or only level 1 weights sometimes could lead to misleading conclusions. The simulation study only showed small differences in estimation of the weighted and unweighted models when informative design weights were used. The use of unscaled or not rescaled weights however caused significant differences in some parameter estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, American researchers have brought intellectual, financial and labor resources to understanding minority underrepresentation in engineering, including through studies of persistent racial and gender discrimination in higher engineering education. This paper considers prevailing standards for legitimate and significant research in this area and the persistent stigma associated with the study of small populations. The preference among many engineering education research producers and consumers for the 'large-n' brings with it presumptions about human differences including ideas of race, gender, disability and other categories by which subjects are customarily sorted for analytic purposes. This paper asks how such epistemic preferences enact power, showing how taxonomic inclinations may prevent incisive understanding of demographic privilege in U.S. higher technical education. We offer an illustrative contrast to such studies, describing a qualitative research project on underrepresented minorities in U.S. engineering schools, called 'Learning from Small Numbers'. This project shows the analytic value of intersectional, Queer, and Disabilities Studies theories to interrogate inequity in engineering education. We argue that the reflexivity and indeterminacy supported by these theories illuminates the ruling relations of academic social sciences overall, while also reflecting on our own research preferences. There is no feature of an investigative project, including definitions of subject populations and choice of research methodology, that is not actively chosen by researchers, and it is the profound social consequences of these choices in equity-focused engineering education research that we want to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding barriers to access to essential health services is critical for devising effective strategies to improve access and align such strategies with national health and development policy objectives. However, while considerable empirical evidence exists on correlates of HIV prevalence and populations at risk of contracting HIV, there is very little such evidence on access to antiretroviral therapy. This paper addresses this gap through a cross-sectional analysis of coverage of antiretroviral therapy and its correlates across 47 counties in Kenya. It considers health-sector and social factors, and applying instrumental variables to address error-in-variables and reverse-causality issues regarding HIV prevalence. Poverty was the most robust and — statistically and substantially — significant determinant of treatment coverage. The gap in treatment coverage between the poorest and richest counties amounted to about 40 percentage points and has not narrowed between 2012 and 2015. Health sector capacities independently played a role and exacerbated the poverty gap. For Kenya, the results suggest that policies on expanding treatment access need to be differentiated across counties to greatest effect and to align the HIV/AIDS response with national health and social policy objectives. Regarding global HIV/AIDS policies, the findings suggest a need to recognise “people left behind” owing to socio-economic and specifically poverty-related barriers to access to services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projections of the future size, composition, and distribution of the populations of the Arctic states and regions are useful for policy makers in planning. This paper presents and analyzes the most recent population projections done for the Arctic states and regions. Global population growth is projected to continue increasing from the current total of 7.4 billion to 10 billion in 2055. The population of the Arctic, as defined here, is projected to have little change with a projected population increase of just 1%. However, there will be considerable variation in growth rates among Arctic regions. Alaska, Yukon, Nunavut, Iceland, Troms, the Khanty-Mansiy Okrug, and Chukotka are projected to have a substantial population increase of more than 10% over the projection period. Nordland, Finnmark, North Ostrobothnia, and Nenets Autonomous Okrug are projected to have more modest growth of between 5% and 10%. Kainuu in Finland, Karelia, Komi, Arkhangel'sk, Murmansk, and Magadan in Russia are projected to have population declines of more than 5%. Common trends seen in nearly all Arctic regions in the future are aging populations, more balanced gender ratios between men and women, increased population concentration into larger urban settlements, and the depopulation of smaller settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is one of the most mobile countries in the world due to internal migration. This study provides the first evidence of the causal impact of internal migration inflow on house price changes across 237 statistical regions in Australia from 2014 to 2019. Employing a spatial correlation approach, the paper indicates that internal migration that amounts to 1% of the initial local area population is associated with a 0.52–0.71% increase in house prices in the three most populated states of Australia. Migration inflow has a significant positive effect on house price changes in metropolitan areas of Sydney and Melbourne rather than non-metropolitan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the lack of a strong evidence base, Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs) are becoming increasingly popular as a therapeutic tool for special populations with a variety of psychological and physical conditions. This paper introduces a special series of articles which address the proposed theories and processes underpinning potential effects of AAIs. We recommend strategies for improving the evidence base of AAIs giving specific examples in special populations (e.g., children with Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD]). We consider the challenges in AAI research and suggest directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western European populations are being encouraged to reconsider their diets in light of population growth and the associated intensification of farming systems. In addition, health concerns associated with diets high in sugar, salt and saturated fat are stimulating interest in alternative foods. Including insects in human diets may be one option to help feed a growing population more sustainably, but it comes with its own challenges. This paper reflects on a pilot project introducing edible insects into primary and secondary schools in Wales, UK. Using Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque as a lens for reflection, the difficulties of introducing a novel food are considered and we provide an insight into how more sustainable, fringe practices may be framed in ways that allow them to be normalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a malaria transmission model to describe the dynamics of malaria transmission in the human and mosquito populations. This model emphasizes the impact of limited resource on malaria transmission. We derive a formula for the basic reproductive number of infection and investigate the existence of endemic equilibria. It is shown that this model may undergo backward bifurcation, where the locally stable disease-free equilibrium co-exists with an endemic equilibrium. Furthermore, we determine conditions under which the disease-free equilibrium of the model is globally asymptotically stable. The global stability of the endemic equilibrium is also studied when the basic reproductive number is greater than one. Finally, numerical simulations to illustrate our findings and brief discussions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a city there are hotspots that attract citizens, and most of the transportation arises when citizens move between their residence and primary destinations (i.e. hotspots). However, an ex ante evaluation of energy-efficient mobility and urban residential planning has seldom been conducted. Therefore, this paper proposes an ex ante evaluation method to quantify the impacts, in terms of CO2emissions induced by intra-urban car mobility, of residential plans for various urban areas. The method is illustrated in a case study of a Swedish midsize city, which is presently preoccupied with urban planning of new residential areas in response to substantial population growth due to immigration. In general, CO2emissions increase from the continued urban core area (CUCA), to the sub-polycentric area (SPA), to the edge urbanization area (EUA), where CO2emission of EUA is twice that of the CUCA. The average travel distances also increase in the same pattern, though the relative increase is more than four times. Apartment buildings could be more effective in meeting residential needs and mitigating CO2emissions than dispersed single-family houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use a partial adjustment model to analyse the relationship between employment and population growth in Irish district electoral divisions. We employ a spatial estimator to augment our partial adjustment model with a spatial lag and spatial error process. Our results indicate a dual relationship between employment and population growth, suggesting that not only do people follow jobs but also jobs follow people. This finding has implications for economic development policies, which typically focus solely on attracting jobs to a location. The results suggest that a dual-pronged approach to policy may be necessary including developing a region’s amenities to ensure that it is attractive to people and to stimulate population growth. We highlight how our analysis can be used to inform policy through the lenses of place-based and smart specialisation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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