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This article comments on a paper by professor Assar Lindbeck on the slowdown of productivity growth in industrialized western nations. Lindbeck's paper adopts a broad and ambitious target. It is partly, though not entirely, in the growth-accounting mould, and presents a reasonably exhaustive quantitative breakdown of the causes of the slowdown.The longer term factors in Lindbeck's paper were also discussed inthearticle.Firstishigher inflation, causing more uncertainty, tax distortions and demand restraint as a result of anti-inflation policies.Second is thedeclining profitability, resulting from increased international competition, and causing lower growth and lower investment.Andthirdis the tendency to factor immobility, resource misallocation and inflation, as a result of private agents' recognition of government's commitment to full employment. There is also a link between capital-labour substitution and capital productivity growth. For there are indications that the latter has also declined, perhaps further than labour productivity growth, though given the measurement problems it is difficult to say. But if it has done so, then the question of causality becomes even more confused. The slowdown in productivity growth can itself be the unexplained exogenous variable which then slows the rate of capital-labour substitution.

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the existing literature on the phenomenon of non-marriage or staying unmarried in Asian countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, as well as European and American countries such as Spain and the US, and explores the trends, characteristics as well as reasons behind such a phenomenon. Through analysis, the present study found that there is a growing trend of postponed marriage and parenthood as well as an increasing proportion of individuals who exhibit no enthusiasm towards matrimony or parenthood in the aforementioned countries. To some extent, non-marriage or postponed marriage has become a prevalent trend in developed countries and even some developing countries. Japan, South Korea, and several developed countries in Europe and America have exhibited this phenomenon since the middle to late 20th century, with a relatively long history. The emergence of this phenomenon in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other developing countries in Asia, however, was relatively late, exhibiting a gradual development process. The current marriage landscape in China is characterized by a growing number of non-marriage individuals and a significant level of marital stability. In terms of reasons for staying unmarried, the marriage rates in the aforementioned countries can be attributed to various factors at macro, meso, and micro levels. In China, the phenomenon of non-marriage is closely associated with a range of factors, including diverse values and attitudes towards romance and marriage, marriage squeeze, education expansion, and the rise in females' economic and social status. The emphasis in future research should be placed on predicting the phenomenon of non-marriage, with a specific focus on exploring the reasons for advocating non-marriage, examining the internal mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, analyzing the consequences of non-marriage, and proposing corresponding countermeasures while establishing the public identity towards marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the paper "Cash, Paper, and Electronic Payments: A Cross-Country Analysis," by David B. Humphrey, Lawrence B. Pulley, and Jukka M. Vesala, published in the November 2, 1996 issue of "The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking." He states that the writers expand on the payments system framework to consider cross-country variation, but suggests that if countries are idiosyncratic with basic cultural factors causing differences in the payment systems rather than the countries being at different development stages, then cross-country comparisons can give misleading forecasts. He comments on differences between the U.S. and several European countries concerning noncash transactions.

This article discusses the ten research papers compiled for the Journal of Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) Special Issue, which has the express purpose of laying new groundwork for the understanding of business model innovations in emerging markets. Altogether, the papers delineate a new organizational framework for doing business in emerging markets and for optimizing gains from emerging market innovations. This Special Issue defines and clearly differentiates emerging market innovations (EMIs) from developed market innovations (DMIs) and provides a generalizable framework. The proposed framework corresponds to the process whereby developed market firms do business in emerging markets, capitalize on the innovative potential therein, reap the benefits and drawbacks of reverse innovations back to developed markets, and, finally, continually refine and optimize their innovation strategies. This study offers crucial managerial guidance through discussion on marketing to the Bottom-of-Pyramid (BoP), the importance of Grassroots Innovation (GRI), the necessity of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies, and the role of employees in open innovation. Lastly, this Special Issue posits conceptual and methodological limitations and future research direction to capture the emerging market phenomena entirely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local development planning (i.e. development planning of municipalities and cities) in all countries has always played an important social role. For this reason, in the last couple of decades, this area is regulated by adequate national laws, which differ in many ways due to insufficiently developed scientifically based local development theory. According to this, in the presently constituted first vision of the theory, two local planning systems were identified. The first system with a long tradition is called a partial system since the state with its development interests is exclusively responsible for all local and overall social development in a certain country. The second, new system, is called an integrated system and in it, both state and the most influential social forces, which have fought hard for such a role, participate together as partners. The integrated system has numerous advantages when compared to the partial system of local planning and is therefore, especially in developed countries, the reason for switching from partial to integrated system. This scientific paper has been created to support this, especially because of the insufficiently developed local planning theory, with the goal to contribute to the development of the local integrated development systems and the projection of its general implications on the local government, its nation state as well as the international community. In this paper, adequate research methods, primarily integrated, were used and the obtained results imply that when using this system, positive fundamental social changes are caused, which, especially in the less developed countries, facilitate faster and more efficient catching up with the developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Stanovništvo is the property of Demographic Research Center of Institute of Social Sciences 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.)

Copyright of Proceedings of the Faculty of Economics in East Sarajevo / Zbornik Radova Ekonomskog Fakulteta u Istočnom Sarajevu is the property of University of East Sarajevo 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.)

Background: This study involved a scoping review to explore factors influencing dental hygienist demand and supply in high-income countries. Methods: A six-stage scoping review was conducted with separate search strategies tailored to four databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Google) plus a targeted scan of dental hygienist organization websites. This yielded 2,117 unique citations, leading to 148 articles included in the review. Results: Nearly half of the articles (47%) focused on the United States, with 11% on Canada. Most articles (91%) were in English, alongside 13 in Korean and one in French. Journal articles comprised 62% of the publications, followed by reports/working papers (11%) and websites (11%). Other types included conference abstracts, policy briefs, and presentation slides. Content-wise, 47% were original research, with analysis articles (14%), commentaries (11%), and reviews (8%) also present. The articles were coded into three main categories: workforce characteristics/projections, factor-specific analyses, and workforce opportunities. The articles on workforce characteristics covered demographic, geographic, and employment aspects of dental hygienists, along with projections for supply and demand using simulation modelling and geospatial analyses. Factor-specific articles investigated the (1) working environment, (2) policy/regulatory/training environment, (3) job/career satisfaction and related human resource issues, and (4) scope of practice. The third key category of articles highlighted opportunities for expanding the workforce through alternative models in different sectors/settings (e.g., public health, primary care, long-term care, hospitals, mobile outreach, and non-clinical roles including research, education and leadership) and for a range of vulnerable or underserved populations (e.g., geriatric and pediatric populations, persons with disabilities, those living in rural/remote areas, Indigenous peoples, and incarcerated people). Conclusions: This review provides a comprehensive documentation of the current state of the dental hygienist workforce, compiling factors affecting demand and supply, and highlighting opportunities for the dental hygienist workforce in Canada and other high-income countries. The findings offer a foundation for future research, highlighting the need for more focused and rigorous reviews and underscoring the necessity of high-quality studies to verify the effectiveness of various interventions and policies. This is crucial to address dental hygienist workforce challenges and ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of oral health care delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of economic instruments within environmental policy has become a challenging topic for policymakers, governments and scholars. Environmental taxes have emerged as a prevailing preference in developed countries to promote sustainability. Recently, a particular focus has been given to waste generation and disposal, shifting the attention from greenhouse gases to another important source of environmental pollution. This paper investigates the effect of national environmental taxes and policies on industrial waste. A fixed effects model is used for 34 countries across Europe from 2004 to 2022. The results suggest that environmental taxes and energy policies reduce industrial (hazardous and non-hazardous) waste. However, environmental tax reforms should take into consideration the deterioration in environmental quality, the increase in economic costs and undesirable social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1 billion people (approximately 15% of world population) live with disability. Also, about half of these people lack access to healthcare facilities. Therefore, providing timely healthcare services, especially rehabilitation, is of great significance for these people. The goal of the study was to determine the objectives and policies in the field of rehabilitation in middle- and high-income countries and compare them with Iran. Materials & Methods Based on available databases, a comprehensive review of documents, papers, and books was performed in the field of rehabilitation related to high- and middle-income countries. Results Due to a lack of coordinated services, inappropriate access, unplanned distribution, unclear service delivery levels, neglect of health promotion and prevention levels, lack of a transparent referral system, unclear insurance system, and weak financial resources, the need for a national program with a service integration approach is strongly felt. The review of the rehabilitation programs and documents in other countries help us to design a conceptual framework of the rehabilitation service model, which is based on three principles: Removing barriers and developing access to healthcare services and programs; strengthening and developing rehabilitation using technology, community-based support, and rehabilitation services; and promoting comparable international data collection on disability and supporting research on disability and related rehabilitation services. Conclusion The national rehabilitation program, with a service integration approach, provides a good platform for fair access to rehabilitation services for all people with disability. In this program, the health system is the most important reference to meet these needs. Therefore, it is suggested that this program pursue three main objectives: Fair promotion of the healthcare services of rehabilitation for recipients, improving the response to the needs of rehabilitation service recipients, and reducing the financial and social risks of service recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Demographic changes in all industrialized countries have led to a keen interest in extending working lives for older workers. To achieve this goal, it is essential to understand the patterns of retirement and specifically what characterizes individuals who continue to work beyond retirement age. Thus, the aim of this paper was to contribute to the international body of empirical knowledge about individuals who continue in the workforce after retirement age. We present evidence from Denmark and examine what characterizes individuals who continue in the workforce after retirement age and investigate the likelihood of continued work after retirement age while controlling for a set of socio-economic and lifestyle factors. Methods: The study population consisted of 5,474 respondents to the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (CAMB) 2021 survey, divided into two groups. The first group included subjects (n = 1,293) who stayed longer in the workforce even though they had the possibility to retire. The second group consisted of subjects who had retired full-time at the time of the survey (n = 4,181). Survey data was linked to register data to provide a broader dataset. In order to investigate the heterogeneity between the two groups in terms of important socio-economic, work-related and health-related variables, t-test, Mann-Whitney U (Wilcoxon Rank) test, and chi-square tests were employed. Further, to examine the probability of an individual working after retirement age a logit model with step-wise inclusion was utilized. Results: Overall, individuals who continue to work even though they could retire tend to be wealthier, healthier, and males compared to individuals who are retired full-time. Further, there are more older workers who have partners and are co-habitants than retirees. The likelihood of continuing in the workforce past retirement age is affected by several work-related factors as well as life-style factors. The likelihood of working past retirement age decreases by years spent in the workforce (marginal effect of -0.003), if you have a partner (-0.080) and if your partner is outside of the workforce (marginal effect of -0.106). The likelihood increases by health (marginal effect of -0.044 of moving from excellent/very good health to good health or to fair/poor health, physical working capability (marginal effect of -0.083 of moving from no/some problems to severe problems or cannot work at all) and income (marginal effect of 0.083 from moving from the lowest income-quantile to higher quantiles). Conclusion: These results are in line with the previous literature and suggest the importance of designing retirement policies that tailor the transition toward retirement according to specific characteristics of both the individual and the segment of occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EU Green Deal and US Green New Deal strategies indicate that green growth is at the center of the policy agendas of many developed countries and regions. The green growth is a key element in achieving sustainable development. Green growth is an economic growth strategy that prioritizes human development while guaranteeing that natural resources continue to provide environmental services to the current and future generations to achieve their sustainable development. There are many definitions of green growth, and many indicators and measures have been developed to assess green growth results for countries. The paper aims to analyze green growth indicators and measures and develop a case for a comparative assessment of green growth achievements in the Baltic States. The Baltic States were ranked based on their achievements according to specific dimensions of green growth, and policy recommendations to promote green growth were developed based on conducted research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary mobile communications markets, various agents or players interact to pursue welfare. Regulatory policies enacted by governments in certain markets aim to maximize social welfare. However, some countries, both least developed and developing, often adopt successful models from developed nations without local market validation. Therefore, network economics serves as a pertinent framework for analyzing such policies. This paper introduces a novel scheme based on constrained optimization problems, where the constraints represent multilevel economic game equilibria within a system model involving three agents: the central planner, the mobile network operator, and the mobile data users. These agents strategically optimize their payoff functions by considering benefit factors and decision variables such as the subsidization factor, pricing, and data consumption. To this end, a three-stage dynamic game is proposed to model the players' interactions, employing the backward induction method to ascertain the subgame perfect equilibrium from the Nash equilibrium. A case study is presented, demonstrating a 31.16% increase in social welfare between scenarios involving no adoption of the subsidization factor and its adoption at the optimal value when the central planner enacts it to other players in the game, even if they do not necessarily attain maximum payoff values. In countries aligning with this proposed model, social welfare is maximized through a subsidization scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic banking is among rapidly-growing components in the world's financial system. Within its institutions, continuous criteria of efficiency facilitate the evaluation of the impact of the reforms and policies on the banks' performance. In this paper, we employ the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) method for estimating the efficiency of Islamic banks in developed and developing countries. MARS is a well-known efficient method for the flexible modelling of high-dimensional data. Unlike previous work, using a nonparametric technique of such a robustness instead of parametric approaches contributes to the improvement of the various estimates, which provides investors with accurate and timely information they can immediately react upon for a better decision-making in turbulent times. On the one hand, the results of the experiments show that, in the emerging region, there is evidence of a strong linkage between Islamic banking efficiency and gross domestic product. On the other hand, in the developed region, the efficiency is rather based upon Sharia Supervisory Board and board committees. These outcomes confirm previous works showing that governance-related variables have a significant positive effect on Islamic banking efficiency. Furthermore, the overall MARS-based predictions reveal that Islamic banks operating in developed countries are relatively more efficient than their counterparts in emerging countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-border data flow brings new growth and opportunities for the development of digital economy, but disordered cross-border data flow may damage national security, public interests, enterprise interests, and data sovereignty. At present, the unified rules for global regulation of cross-border data flow have not yet been formed. The existing rules are mainly led by developed countries like Europe and the United States. There is huge room for improvement in the international legal protection of cross-border transmission of personal information. This paper introduces the privacy protection mechanism of personal information data under the digital trade environment in China, that is, the privacy protection framework under the background of big data, cloud computing, and the cloud service selection method of data life cycle privacy protection. At the same time, we combined with many problems existing in the cross-border transmission of personal privacy information in China and compared with foreign advanced experience, and this paper puts forward China's response path to clarify the obligations of data controllers and exporters, improve the responsibilities of regulators, improve the legislation of cross-border data flow, and improve the operability of the law; we vigorously carry out international cooperation and actively participate in the formulation of international rules, so as to further protect the rights and interests of personal privacy information protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since global warming worsens with economic development and emitted CO2 is one of the main greenhouse gases, it is important to understand the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth. The paper applies a new panel cointegration test with cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks to examine this relationship in developed and developing countries, respectively. The results indicate that the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" does not hold in either group. For developing countries, there is neither linear nor quadratic long-term equilibrium relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth. For developed countries, the quadratic relationship does exist between CO2 emissions and economic growth, whereas the linear one does not. A half of these countries have inverted U-shaped curves, while the other half have U-shaped curves. Besides, most of these countries are still on the rising stage of the curve. This paper gives new insights for policymakers to keep a balance between sustainable economic growth and suitable environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the sustainability of the environment is a very much concerning issue for developed countries, the drive of the paper is to reveal the effects of nuclear, environment-friendly, and non-friendly energy, population, and GDP on CO2 emission for Italy, a developed country. Using the extended Stochastic Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework, the yearly data from 1972 to 2021 are analyzed in this paper through an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The reliability of the study is also examined by employing Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) estimators and also the Granger causality method which is used to see the directional relationship among the indicators. The investigation confirms the findings of previous studies by showing that in the longer period, rising Italian GDP and non-green energy by 1% can lead to higher CO2 emissions by 8.08% and 1.505%, respectively, while rising alternative and nuclear energy by 1% can lead to falling in CO2 emission by 0.624%. Although population and green energy adversely influence the upsurge of CO2, they seem insignificant. Robustness tests confirm these longer-period impacts. This analysis may be helpful in planning and developing strategies for future financial funding in the energy sector in Italy, which is essential if the country is to achieve its goals of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Economica is the property of University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Economics 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.)

The aim of our paper is to construct a multidimensional financial inclusion (FI) index to measure the level of FI in 91 countries across different income groups. In order to address our research problem, we use the principal component analysis method. This approach addresses the criticism of the arbitrary selection of weights and reflects the degree of financial inclusion in depth. The data are drawn from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Access Survey (FAS), the World Development Indicators (World Bank) and the Global Findex Database during the period of 2004–2020. This paper is the first to consider so many indicators of financial inclusion (13 indicators), belonging to three different dimensions of FI, in order to take into account the maximum number of aspects related to this concept. In addition, unlike previous work, this paper considers both developing and developed countries, which makes it possible to identify differences between them. The proposed index has some advantages. First, it is robust, comparable across countries and has good predictive power in tracking household microeconomic indicators (accounts and savings). It is also well correlated with macroeconomic variables such as literacy rate, poverty, GINI index, real interest rate and employers. Second, our results clearly show that, as a country's income level grows higher, its level of financial inclusion also grows higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the relative weight of pull and push factors affecting rural-urban migration in Turkey. Data are from the 1970, 1980, and 1985 censuses. "The results of this study indicate that, for the Turkish case, the effects of migration on urban growth had been contrary to those found in the developed countries, but that, as Turkish development increased over the time period 1965-85, the effects of migration increasingly came to resemble those of developed countries.", (excerpt)

Carbon footprints (CFs) are the measure of extent of green house gases (GHGs) emitted from any organization or activity. Reporting of extent of CFs in terms of CO 2 e from educational campus may be considered as a first step towards sustainable educational practices. The present study employs a bottom up approach where CFs due to consumption of resources from each academic department is evaluated separately and net is obtained by adding contributions from individual departments. This method has the advantage of avoiding the potential overlaps in the calculation. Hence this approach to calculate carbon footprints can lead to their precise CF evaluation. In order to justify above hypothesis, CF evaluation was carried out at Shikshana Prasarak Mandali's Sir Parashurambhau College, Pune for three consecutive years starting from 2015 to 2016. The average carbon footprints over the study period were 3630.57 ± 296.79 tones CO 2 e per year with per capita emission of 0.81 ± 0.06 tones CO 2 e. The emission density determined from the average value was found to be 0.0361 ± 0.0029 tCO 2 e m−2 of the campus. It was observed that emission sources classified as scope-1, scope-2 and scope-3 contribute 28%, 48% and 25% respectively to total emission. Out of all the emission sources identified, apart from human contribution through respiration, electricity (35%), biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste, stationary paper, 7%, use of chemicals in the laboratories (5%), paper for official purpose (12%), LPG (3%) and transport (27%) were main contributors. As this is a multi faculty college, science faculty contributes almost 62%, commerce 9% and arts 11% of the total emission. • Present paper highlights carbon footprints from an Indian HEI using bottom up approach. • A questionnaire based survey was used to arrive at departmental and net footprints. • Carbon footprints of HEI in India are much less as compared to developed countries. • The carbon footprints of Indian HEIs are expected to grow at 5–6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of electrical and electronic waste (EEW) management is present in developing countries as well as in developed countries. Inadequate EEW management leads to exposure of hazardous materials into the environment. In this paper a theoretical EEW management model is developed. Additionally, the use of quality practices and quality management systems for EEW management improvement is addressed. For every element of the developed model, an appropriate quality practice is suggested. The proposed quality practices are generic in nature in order to provide a broad framework for future research on specific EEW management system segments. In sum, the paper provides a solid basis for future research in the domain of quality practices and EEW management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Background: Racial disparities in pain management have been observed in the USA since the 1990s in settings such as the emergency department and oncology. However, the palliative care context is not well described, and little research has focused outside of the USA or on advanced disease. This review takes a cross-national approach to exploring pain management in advanced disease for people of different racial and ethnic groups. Methods: Mixed methods systematic review. The primary outcome measure was differences in receiving pain medication between people from different racial and ethnic groups. Five electronic databases were searched. Two researchers independently assessed quality using JBI checklists, weighted evidence, and extracted data. The quantitative findings on the primary outcome measure were cross-tabulated, and a thematic analysis was undertaken on the mixed methods studies. Themes were formulated into a conceptual/thematic matrix. Patient representatives from UK ethnically diverse groups were consulted. PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed. Results: Eighteen papers were included in the primary outcome analysis. Three papers were rated 'High' weight of evidence, and 17/18 (94%) were based in the USA. Ten of the eighteen (56%) found no significant difference in the pain medication received between people of different ethnic groups. Forty-six papers were included in the mixed methods synthesis; 41/46 (89%) were based in the USA. Key themes: Patients from different ethnically diverse groups had concerns about tolerance, addiction and side effects. The evidence also showed: cultural and social doctor-patient communication issues; many patients with unmet pain management needs; differences in pain assessment by racial group, and two studies found racial and ethnic stereotyping. Conclusions: There was not enough high quality evidence to draw a conclusion on differences in receiving pain medication for people with advanced disease from different racial and ethnic groups. The mixed methods findings showed commonalities in fears about pain medication side effects, tolerance and addiction across diverse ethnic groups. However, these fears may have different foundations and are differently prioritised according to culture, faith, educational and social factors. There is a need to develop culturally competent pain management to address doctor-patient communication issues and patients' pain management concerns. Trial registration: PROSPERO-CRD42020167890. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the size of the digital economy in 38 countries between 2005 and 2018 and conducts an empirical study on this foundation. The results show that the digital economy has a significant role in promoting highquality economic development, primarily through industrial digitalizaion. Further research shows regional heterogeneity in the impact of the digital economy, which is greater in developed countries. Analysis of the underlying mechanisms shows that the digital economy promotes high-quality economic development in both developed and developing countries by improving technological efficiency and technological progress. However, the effect of technological progress in developing countries is clearly weaker than that in developed countries. In addition, scale efficiency in developing countries are not strengthened by the digital economy. Therefore, high-quality economic development requires the digital transformation of traditional industries and promoting their integration with digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each practical action in rural areas should be based on a comprehensive, new, and innovative theoretical paradigm. For nearly three decades, the global economic system has embraced rural entrepreneurship as a "productive" and innovative strategy in rural development in many countries, including both underdeveloped and developed countries. At present, we have large companies, which due to government development interventions, are replaced with small- and medium-sized businesses under inflexible and extreme entrepreneurialism. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to shed light on the prevailing entrepreneurship practice and discourse, criticize them, and finally introduce a new paradigm known as "paradigm of rural prosperity" (PRP). In this work, Aram Ziai's theory of skeptical post-development was used, along with Campbell Jones and André Spicer's critical theory of entrepreneurship and Rosenqvist's theory of the conceptualization of rurality and rural environment called "hermeneutical realism". The present paper attempts to base the paradigm of rural prosperity on three pillars of analysis and explanation: (a) rural embodiment, (b) neoliberalism, and (c) concept of sustainability. Although some case studies in Iran have been used as empirical evidence, this paper argues that the paradigm of rural prosperity is universal in nature and can be used in any geographical and cultural context to provide new rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In recent years, more and more studies have proved that lipid metabolism plays an essential role in breast cancer’s proliferation and metastasisand also has a specific significance in predicting survival. Methods: This paper collected data from 725 publications related to lipid metabolism in breast neoplasm from 2012 to 2021 through the Web of Science Core Collection database. Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace were used for the scientometrics analysis of countries, institutions, journals, authors, keywords, etc. Results: The number of documents published showed an increasing trend, with an average annual growth rate of 14.49%. The United States was the most productive country (n = 223, 30.76%). The journals with the largest number of publications are mostly from developed countries. Except for the retrieved topics, “lipid metabolism” (n = 272) and “breast cancer” (n = 175), the keywords that appeared most frequently were “expression” (n = 151), “fatty-acid synthase” (n = 78), “growth” (n = 72), “metabolism” (n = 67) and “cells“ (n = 66). Discussion: These findings and summaries help reveal the current research status and clarify the hot spots in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent construction (IC) has emerged as a new approach to transforming the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry through the integration of advanced information technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, due to its interdisciplinary nature, the relevant documents on IC are diverse and fragmented. To provide a comprehensive understanding of research progress and future opportunities in IC and to offer suggestions for both developing and developed countries, this study employed VOSviewer and Gephi to conduct a comparative review of relevant literature from the 21st century. A keyword search of Web of Science (WOS) identified 2788 relevant documents which were subjected to an overall co-citation and co-authorship analysis. To illustrate the differences between developing and developed countries, China, a representative developing country, was taken as the candidate to be compared with developed countries via a co-occurrence analysis. Differences between China and developed countries in the three sub-directions of IC, research foundation and domain knowledge transformation; information perception, fusion, and decision making; and embodied AI, were qualitatively discussed. Finally, four future research directions were suggested: (1) data fusion and decision-making, (2) improving the accuracy and efficiency of knowledge representation, learning, and utilization, (3) the establishment of large, pre-trained models in the field, and (4) embodied AI for taking actions according to the decisions made. This paper provides an overview of the relevant literature and the IC context for practitioners and scholars in the AEC industry in countries with different levels of development, as well as suggestions for the future development of IC. The findings of this study can serve both academia and industry in promoting IC in the AEC industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper extends the institution theory to examine the relationship between high-performance work system (HPWS) and organizational performance (OP), and analyzes how country of origin interacts with performance measures and industrial affiliation in moderating the HPWS–OP relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The paper collects data of 60,142 firms and establishments in 252 studies published up to December 2021 and employs meta-analysis techniques to test hypotheses on the role of country of origin in moderating the HPWS–OP relationship in conjunction with performance measures and industrial affiliation. Findings: The paper finds that, firstly, there is a positive relationship between HPWS and OP, but the relationship is much stronger in developing than advanced countries. Secondly, the relationship is stronger when OP is measured in operational than financial term in both developing and advanced countries, but the moderating effect of performance measures is stronger in developing than advanced countries. Thirdly, the relationship is stronger in service than manufacturing industries in developing countries, but no such variation is found in advanced countries. Originality/value: The study for the first time unveils the important role of country of origin in interacting with performance measures and industry affiliation to condition the HPWS–OP relationship, and provides a coherent explanation based on institutional theory. The study sheds fresh light on the HPWS–OP relationship, and has important implications for managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing evidence of racial and institutional discrimination on minoritized communities and its negative effect on health, there are still gaps in the current literature identifying health disparities among minoritized communities. This review aims to identify health barriers faced by relatively less studied migrant subgroups including documented temporary foreign workers and refugees residing in high-income Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries focusing on the structural origins of differential health outcomes. We searched Medline, CINAHL, and Embase databases for papers describing health barriers for these groups published in English between 1 January 2011 and 30 July 2021. Two independent reviewers conducted a title, abstract, and full text screening with any discrepancies resolved by consensus or a third reviewer. Extracted data were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis. Of the 381 articles that underwent full-text review, 27 articles were included in this review. We identified housing conditions, immigration policies, structural discrimination, and exploitative labour practices as the four major emerging themes that impacted the health and the access to healthcare services of our study populations. Our findings highlight the multidimensional nature of health inequities among migrant populations and a need to examine how the broader context of these factors influence their daily experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to supply increasingly individualized market demand in a short period of time while maintaining costs to a bare minimum might be considered a vital factor for industrialized countries' competitive revival. Despite significant advances in the field of Industry 4.0, there is still an open gap in the literature regarding advanced methodologies for production planning and control. Among different production and control approaches, hybrid architectures are gaining huge interest in the literature. For such architectures to operate at their best, reliable models for performance prediction of the supervised production system are required. In an effort to advance the development of hybrid architecture, this paper develops a model able to predict the performance of the controlled system when it is structured as a controlled work-in-progress (CONWIP) flow-shop with generalized stochastic processing times. To achieve this, we employed a simulation tool using both discrete-event and agent-based simulation techniques, which was then utilized to generate data for training a deep learning neural network. This network was proposed for estimating the throughput of a balanced system, together with a normalization method to generalize the approach. The results showed that the developed estimation tool outperforms the best-known approximated mathematical models while allowing one-shot training of the network. Finally, the paper develops preliminary insights about generalized performance estimation for unbalanced lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Most countries face important economic, social and environmental challenges and are strongly committed to invest in research and development (R&D) activities to help support the long-run economic sustainable growth. This paper aims to extend the previous research on macro-economic growth models and introduces endogenous variables to determine the amount of investments in R&D activities. Design/methodology/approach: The model considers four different criteria and six economic sectors and aims at finding the optimal allocation of labor across different sectors. The model also endogenously determines the amount of investments in pollution abatement activities together with energy-related R&D efforts. The paper presents an application to the case of Kazakhstan, an emerging Asian country, that aims to become one of the top 30 most developed countries in the world by 2050. Findings: The model shows the limits of the Kazakh agenda that identified too ambitious goals as the country has to go through a sociotechnical transition that involves a range of modifications in institutional structures, together with changes in user practices and the technological dimension. Kazakhstan should invest more in R&D activities able to develop sustainable energy sources to face the current electricity consumption demand and to reduce the greenhouse gas emission in the future. Originality/value: The paper provides valuable knowledge for researchers and policy makers interested in the impact of R&D on the long-run economic sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries are struggling with cost management of pavement construction and rehabilitation. This case is similar to developed countries but developing countries are suffering issues of inadequate funds. Therefore, most of the countries started usage of Pavement Management Systems (PMS) to manage the decision-making process and alternate/priority assessments for pavement construction and rehabilitation. Hence, the PMS remains the topic of research interest for various researchers. This paper evaluates the scale and effectiveness of articles published by Web of Science (WoS) Group on PMS since 1990. The data has been collected from the WoS database from 1990 till 2020. The data was processed and analyzed by Microsoft excel. This paper concludes that the trend of publication PMS articles is increasing and researchers are publications in high-quality articles on the WoS. The citation trend is also increasing but it is analyzed that the WoS is not publishing the PMS conference articles as per the collected data. This paper compiles all the high-quality papers on PMS. It will also assist the authors to find a suitable publisher based on previously published work by the publisher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was born in Slatina on December 13, 1833 and he died in Bucharest on January 24, 1909. He is one of the most prominent people in the 19th century Romania. Agricultural engineer, politician, and one of the greatest Romanian economists, Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was a strong supporter of Romania's progress and independence, both in practice, through his professional and political activity, and in theory, through the ideas he put across in his writings. Petru Sebeşanu Aurelian was an advocate of mercantilism and economic nationalism. He was especially concerned with the possible ways to reduce the economic gap between Romania and the more developed countries and considered that Romania's economy had to rely upon agriculture, and yet not neglect industry. In this paper we will try to identify the main coordinates of the paradigm within which Aurelian laid down the solutions for Romanian's modernization in his times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]