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The nuclear freeze movement was an American campaign against nuclear weapons based around an ostensibly moderate demand with radical implications: a negotiated and bilateral end to the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. Neither the freeze idea, nor opposition to the arms race more generally, was new in 1980 when the freeze emerged, amid resurgent allied antinuclear weapons movements across Western Europe. Astute activist opportunism, in conjunction with a series of more aggressive foreign policies from the US government, aligned to produce unusually heightened attention to national security policy in general, and nuclear weapons in particular. In this regard, the nuclear freeze movement loudly echoed previous periods of mobilization and concern, including antinuclear campaigns following the first use of weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945–1947), surrounding the long debate about a ban on testing (1954–1963), and in opposition to the deployment of antiballistic missile systems in the US (1968–1973). Although some activists are constantly trying to draw public attention to the costs and dangers of nuclear weapons, they only succeed episodically. The cyclic mobilization against nuclear weapons reflects more vigorous institutional debates about nuclear weapons strategy. Keywords: political sociology; movements; peace; United States of America

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an acute blood shortage for medical transfusions, exacerbating an already tenuous blood supply system in the United States, contributing to the public health crisis, and raising deeper questions regarding emergency preparedness planning for ensuring blood availability. However, these issues around blood availability during the pandemic are related primarily to the decline in supply caused by reduced donations during the pandemic rather than increased demand for transfusion of patients with COVID-19. The challenges to ensure a safe blood supply during the pandemic will continue until a vaccine is developed, effective treatments are available, or the virus goes away. If this virus or a similar virus were capable of transmission through blood, it would have a catastrophic impact on the health care system, causing a future public health emergency that would jeopardize the national blood supply. In this article, we identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood supply adequacy, discuss the public health implications, propose recovery strategies, and present recommendations for preparing for the next disruption in blood supply driven by a public health emergency.

An estimated 33 million people are today infected with HIV, many living in conflict or post conflict settings. The international community is increasingly recognising the effect HIV/AIDS can have on national security and conflict, both exacerbating conflict and being an obstacle to peace. The article argues for considering HIV/AIDS as a security issue and concludes four main theories on the links between HIV/AIDS, national security and conflict: 1. Uniformed personnel as a vector of HIV, 2. National security threatened by HIV/AIDS affected state institutions, 3. Increased vulnerability to HIV infection in conflict and post-conflict environments, and 4. HIV as an obstacle to peace building. These four theories are explored in the Colombian context. Of the four theories investigated it was found that 1 and 3 presented the strongest linkages between HIV/AIDS, national security and conflict. The theories 2 and 4 were less strong, mainly due to the relatively low HIV prevalence rate in Colombia. Hoy en día se estima que aproximadamente 33 millones de personas están infectadas con el virus VIH y muchas de ellas viven en países en conflicto o en postconflicto. Internacionalmente es cada vez más reconocido el efecto que tiene el VIH/SIDA sobre la seguridad nacional y sobre los conflictos, ya sea agravándolos o convirtiéndose en un obstáculo para los procesos de paz. El artículo argumenta a favor de considerar el VIH/SIDA como un tema de seguridad y en se postulan cuatro teorías principales sobre el vínculo entre el VIH/SIDA, la seguridad nacional y el conflicto: 1. el personal uniformado actua como un vector de VIH, 2. la seguridad nacional está amenazada por las instituciones estatales afectadas por el VIH/SIDA, 3. el aumento de vulnerabilidad a la infección del VIH en países en conflicto o en postconflicto, 4. el VIH como un obstáculo para los procesos de paz. Las cuatro teorías han sido estudiadas en el contexto colombiano. Se encontró que dos de ellas (1 y 3) presentaban una relación más estrecha entre el VIH/SIDA, la seguridad nacional y el conflicto. Las teorías 2 y 4 mostraron una relación menos estrecha, debido principalmente a la relativamente baja tasa de prevalencia de VIH en Colombia.

As of 2016, Medicaid accounted for nearly 20% of state general fund budgets. Optional Medicaid services such as podiatry are often subject to cost-cutting measures in periods of economic downturn, as was the case in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis. Although the cuts were intended as a cost-saving measure, research indicates that they had the opposite effect. The restriction and limitation of these services during the Great Recession resulted in both poorer health outcomes for beneficiaries, and poorer financial outcomes for state Medicaid programs. With states citing record levels of unemployment as of April of 2020 and projecting significant declines in annual revenue in 2021, the economic conditions resulting from the coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic are likely to rival those of the Great Recession. Given the historical precedent for restricting or eliminating optional Medicaid services as a cost-saving measure, it is likely that podiatric services will once again come under scrutiny. Previous efforts by state-level podiatric societies have proven successful in lobbying for the reinstatement of coverage under Medicaid by conveying evidence of the negative outcomes associated with elimination to stakeholders. The specialty must once again engage policymakers by drawing on evidence gleaned and lessons learned from past cuts of optional Medicaid services to avert counterproductive coverage restrictions intended to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic.

With 76% of the total main workforce in agriculture and more than 50% small and medium landowning households, the village provides an important case study for understanding agrarian resilience. The conceptualisation of resilience has been majorly confined to a system or a territorial boundary. Agrarian resilience too is commonly assumed to be driven by forces within the agriculture and the rural. i.e. land ownership remains constant, the labour of the peasantry is spatially limited to agriculture, the capital is generated within agriculture and the networks and skills of the peasantry is also confined to agriculture. This has underscored the role of factors and processes working outside the agriculture in conceptualising agrarian resilience. While the primacy of the agrarian processes cannot be denied, there are often processes working outside an agrarian system that can also enable resilience. i.e. the rural workforce can diversify its labour outside agriculture in the urban non-farm sector, capital can also be generated from sources outside the agriculture. In this context, using the case study of a village dominated by small and medium landowning households in the Patiala district of Punjab in India, the paper shows that resilience is driven by processes both within and outside agriculture.

Este es un artículo de investigación cuyo objetivo fue identificar el nivel de conocimiento de educación ambiental en los estudiantes de primaria. El marco teórico plantea la educación ambiental como un proceso que permite entender las relaciones con el entorno, a través de la reflexión crítica de la realidad biofísica, social, política, económica y cultural, y de ahí generar actitudes de valoración y respeto por el medio ambiente (Plan Nacional de Educación Ambiental-PNEA & Gobernación de Antioquia, 2005). La investigación tuvo enfoque cuantitativo-cualitativo, descriptiva y transversal; con una muestra no probabilística de 229 estudiantes de quinto año elemental. Para obtener los resultados se les aplicó un cuestionario y se realizaron observaciones cualitativas. Según los resultados, el 77% de los niños dice clasificar los residuos; pero en la observación se detectó que no llevan esto a la práctica con los residuos escolares. Se concluye que se encuentra poca participación de los niños en acciones ecológicas que los lleven a comportamientos intencionales de protección ambiental.

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International audience; There is increasing evidence that elimination strategies have resulted in better outcomes for public health, the economy, and civil liberties than have mitigation strategies throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. With vaccines that offer high protection against severe forms of COVID-19, and increasing vaccination coverage, policy makers have had to reassess the trade-offs between different options. The desirability and feasibility of eliminating SARS-CoV-2 compared with other strategies should also be re-evaluated from the perspective of different fields, including epidemiology, public health, and economics. To end the pandemic as soon as possible-be it through elimination or reaching an acceptable endemic level-several key topics have emerged centring around coordination, both locally and internationally, and vaccine distribution. Without coordination it is difficult if not impossible to sustain elimination, which is particularly relevant in highly connected regions, such as Europe. Regarding vaccination, concerns remain with respect to equitable distribution, and the risk of the emergence of new variants of concern. Looking forward, it is crucial to overcome the dichotomy between elimination and mitigation, and to jointly define a long-term objective that can accommodate different political and societal realities.

The technological era is a dilemma in the economic growth of a region. The policy of economic development, at least, contains two main objectives to be achieved, namely growth and equity. These two goals are usually in conflict with each other. That is, if growth reaches a high level, then equity reaches a decline so that the conscious effort to create a balance is one of the goals of development. Growth to increase income per capita is an effort in progress to increase output (through the use of factors of production with or without technological change) continuously in the long run, which is always associated with population growth. Because with high output growth coupled with high population growth, the growth of output will become a new problem, so efforts to overcome unemployment are also a crucial part of development. Equitable distribution of fixed income is one of the critical issues faced by an economy. Doing a real business venture so that the rent is more evenly distributed is an essential responsibility of an economic system. The development of an economy will cause changes that are not always good due to the use of labor. This sometimes causes the number and level of unemployment to increase, along with population growth. Finally the paper considers whether there is any evidence of government expenditure, Private investment and poverty rates on Income distribution in East Kalimantan Province is Significantly influenced but Economic is not Growth.

Nearly two years since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which has caused over 5 million deaths, the world continues to be on high COVID-19 alert. The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with national authorities, public health institutions and scientists have been closely monitoring and assessing the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 since January 2020 (WHO 2021a; WHO 2021b). The emergence of specific SARS-CoV-2 variants were characterised as Variant of Interest (VOI) and Variant of Concern (VOC), to prioritise global monitoring and research, and to inform the ongoing global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO and its international sequencing networks continuously monitor SARS-CoV-2 mutations and inform countries about any changes that may be needed to respond to the variant, and prevent its spread where feasible. Multiple variants of the virus have emerged and become dominant in many countries since January 2021, with the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants being the most prominent to date. (Table 1).

Background/aim: The Covid-19 pandemic is one of those rare events that affects everyone on earth and changes our lives. The pandemic, which has killed over four million people worldwide, is putting unprecedented pressure on governments to maintain essential health and social services, as well as keep their economies running, even as the virus threatens people's daily life on every level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to discuss the short-term economic impact of the pandemic by assessing its costs using official economic data for both the world and Turkey. Furthermore, this research highlights possible economic, social, and political pathways for a postpandemic new world. Materials and methods: This study is a review article that overviews and tracks the economic development of the Covid-19 pandemic from the start, synthesizes and compares current data of reliable institutions, and provides an overall assessment. Results: The pandemic has certainly caused short-term and long-term damage to economies and living standards for many people. Although there are estimates on what this damage is, the exact degree of the damage is still unknown. However, it seems that the recovery will be gradual, long-lasting, and unpredictable due to the unprecedented uncertainty characteristic of the pandemic. Conclusion: Early economic growth projections show that there will be no ordinary recovery for the world economy since short-term countries' recovery paths are different. It is likely to remain uneven and depend on the effectiveness of the vaccination process, fiscal policy support, public health management, and hard-hit sectors' growth size in economies. Due to the uncertainty and lack of confidence, governments should ensure an equal and sustainable economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic by conducting flexible monetary and fiscal policies. However, without structural reforms, economies can not boost either in the short-term and long-term.

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have emerged as an accelerator of economic growth with a sizeable contribution in job creation, innovation development, and reduction of regional disparities in most world economies. This paper investigates the influence of external and internal factors affecting the growth of MSMEs in poor-performing Bihar state, India. The objective of the study is to identify the major deep-rooted causes for the inability of MSMEs to compete in developing states and identify potential solutions. The study is based on an empirical database; it tested various dimensions of MSMEs barriers in their potential growth. The target group included MSMEs of Bihar state, India, using a sample of 450 entrepreneurs. The paper adopted a multistage stage sampling and multivariate analysis technique. The results showed that there are twelve major potential barriers, both endogenous and exogenous, faced by MSMEs, such as availability of raw materials, financial issues, labor force challenges, technology inefficiency, power/electricity scarcity, poor marketing, competition, knowledge-related challenges, government and administration problems, infrastructure inefficiency, etc. The findings show that these barriers affect the promotion and growth of MSMEs in developing regions. In future, it is suggested to focus on the implementation of good governance that helps to remove effectively the major barriers of MSMEs in underdeveloped states, such as Bihar, India.

Trade openness continues to have the potential to influence many parts of today’s society, including religion, transportation, lifestyle, language, and international relations; however, its ability to impact environmental quality is the primary issue for environmental policy guidelines. In response to an increasing interest in finding the dynamic association between trade openness and environmental quality, the current study explores the trade openness- environmental quality nexus in the ten most open Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries for the years 1991 to 2018. By taking CO2 emissions and ecological footprint as environmental indicators, a novel methodology “quantile-on-quantile (QQ)” is used to indicate how different quantiles of trade openness asymmetrically affect the quantiles of environmental indicators by providing an adequate pattern to comprehend the overall dependence structure. A negative openness-CO2 emissions association is dominant in seven out of ten selected OIC countries (i.e., Suriname, Malaysia, Jordan, UAE, Libya, Brunei, and Qatar). On the other hand, a positive impact of trade openness on ecological footprint is dominant in eight out of ten selected OIC countries (i.e., Oman, Jordan, UAE, Libya, Bahrain, Brunei, Qatar, and Kuwait). The outcomes indicate that the asymmetric strength of openness-induced environmental quality differs with countries at both upper and bottom quantiles of data distribution that need specific attention in contending trade and environment policies in OIC countries.

There has been an increase in the use of renewable energy sources over recent years, which has led to a strand of literature examining the determinants of renewable energy consumption. However, most of the research used linear estimation models while reviewing the determinants of renewable energy consumption and ignored the indirect effect of democratic institutions on renewable energy consumption. With the use of a panel threshold model, this paper demonstrates that democratic institutions play a significant role in renewable energy consumption. In countries in which the democratic rights of people are preserved better, higher economic growth leads to increased use of renewable energy consumption; however, there is a negative association between economic growth and renewable energy consumption in less democratic countries. Increased trade openness leads to lower growth rates of renewable energy consumption in less democratic countries, while increases in real oil prices lead to increased renewable energy consumption in less democratic countries but play no significant role in more democratic countries. The findings of this paper suggest that democratic institutions are vital in channelling economic resources (economic growth) to renewable energy, and increased trade openness is associated with lower rates of renewable energy deployment in less democratic countries.

In this article, the authors reflect on social consequences of the deagrarianization process, based on their study conducted in the Blaszki commune in central Poland. The study shows deagrarianization in the making, as the region is prone to land being concentrated among the largest farms and to the deactivation of the majority of smallholders. Our research indicates how farmers specialize, quit livestock farming, and endure work overload. It also shows attitudes among younger farmers, who in most cases reject farming as their future career. Among the social consequences of deagrarianization, we note the erosion of community life, conflicts between entrepreneurial farmers and smallholders, and growing distrust. We then reflect on the deagrarianization process's roots, which lie in anti-peasant prejudices and the modernization paradigm in Polish social sciences and in the public sphere.

Background Concerted effort to control malaria has had a substantial impact on the transmission of the disease in the past two decades. In areas where reduced malaria transmission is being sustained through insecticide-based vector control interventions, primarily long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), non-insecticidal complementary tools will likely be needed to push towards malaria elimination. Once interruption in local disease transmission is achieved, insecticide-based measures can be scaled down gradually and eventually phased out, saving on costs of sustaining control programs and mitigating any unintended negative health and environmental impacts posed by insecticides. These non-insecticidal methods could eventually replace insecticidal methods of vector control. House screening, a non-insecticidal method, has a long history in malaria control, but is still not widely adopted in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aims to add to the evidence base for this intervention in low transmission settings by assessing the efficacy, impact, and feasibility of house screening in areas where LLINs are conventionally used for malaria control. Methods A two-armed, household randomized clinical trial will be conducted in Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to evaluate whether combined the use of house screens and LLINs affords better protection against clinical malaria in children between 6 months and 13 years compared to the sole use of LLINs. Eight hundred households will be enrolled in each study area, where 400 households will be randomly assigned the intervention, house screening, and LLINs while the control households will be provided with LLINs only. Clinical malaria incidence will be estimated by actively following up one child from each household for 6 months over the malaria transmission season. Cross-sectional parasite prevalence will be estimated by testing all participating children for malaria parasites at the beginning and end of each transmission season using rapid diagnostic tests. CDC light traps and pyrethrum spray catches (PSC) will be used to sample adult mosquitoes and evaluate the impact of house screening on indoor mosquito density, species distribution, and sporozoite rates. Discussion This study will contribute epidemiological data on the impact of house screening on malaria transmission and assess the feasibility of its implementation on a programmatic scale. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov PACTR202008524310568. Registered on August 11, 2020.

At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a new coronavirus, called SARS–CoV–2, was reported in China and later in other parts of the world. First infection reported in Germany by the end of January 2020 and on March 16th, 2020 the federal government announced a partial lockdown in order to mitigate the spread. Since the dynamics of new infections started to slow down, German states started to relax the confinement measures as to May 6th, 2020. As a fall back option, a limit of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was introduced for each district in Germany. If a district exceeds this limit, measures to control the spread of the virus should be taken. Based on a multi–patch SEAIRD–type model, we will simulate the effect of choosing a specific upper limit for new infections. We investigate, whether the politically motivated bound is low enough to detect new outbreaks at an early stage. Subsequently, we introduce an optimal control problem to tackle the multi–criteria problem of finding a bound for new infections that is low enough to avoid new outbreaks, which might lead to an overload of the health care system, but is large enough to curb the expected economic losses.

African nations share a common situation in that they pollute little in terms of CO2s globally speaking, but at the same time global warming may have terrible consequences for the continent, set to face a sharp population increase. They have now access to few energy resources, which is conducive to their poverty. New renewables belong to the future (solar, wind, geo-thermal), whereas old renewables – wood coal – are a thing of the past. The coal or oil and gas dependent giants must start energy transformation, as must the many countries relying upon traditional biomass. The use of wood coal is simply too large for the survival of the African forest. Under the COP21, African countries have right to financial assistance, especially for more electricity to connect its rural and also many urban people to heating, air-conditioning and the electronic high ways. Without the COP21 promises, decarbonisation will be impossible in Africa, and thus its large need for more energy will lead to more CO2:s.Keywords. COP21 Agreement, African energy diversity, new and old renewables, coal or oil and gas dependency, Super Fund.JEL. A10; A22; A23; B10; E10.

The COVID-19 global pandemic dramatically spurred the implementation and use of telemedicine, but also highlighted some significant disparities and gaps in our health care systems. These include limited access to care among segments of the population, uneven distribution of quality by geographic location and socioeconomic status, unabated cost inflation, rampant inefficiency, and substantial incidence of medical errors, inappropriate or ineffective care. It is time we think about optimal systems of care to meet the challenges of the future.

The paper aims to examine the effects of financial technology (Kisan Credit Card and ATM) on India's Poverty and empirically analyze the influence of financial technology on poverty scores. We consider data from twenty-two Indian states for three fiscal years, i.e., from 2018 to 2020. The current study uses panel data analysis to test the hypothesis. Results suggest a negative association between financial technology (Kisan credit card and ATM) and its influence on the poverty score in India. The current study suggests that the government should pay more attention to expanding financial technology, including increasing economic growth and financial stability and eliminating poverty by investing in infrastructure that would enhance banking services.

Smart farming has started taking a dynamic shape in the society , where the farmers are adopting smart farming with increase in the use of technologies like artificial intelligence , remote sensing for cultivation of crops with proper knowledge and information gained through digital market , satellite , farm mapping and climate condition to understand and make correct use of resources , controlling soil ,nutrient , saving water and use of less fertilizers in growing crops . Greenhouse , vertical farming , horticulture have entered the urban sector at a rapid pace to meet the demand of the growing society , smart agriculture has helped us to limit our dependence on water , soil and other chemical fertilizer . Today we produce more fresh , healthy and organic food . We have been successful in countering the climate influence over the food sector and reducing the greenhouse emission caused by agricultural sector or make it to zero emission , with promotion of vertical and indoor farming in the urban , semi urban and rural region, the government have encourage farmers to adopt smart farming what we require is to provide training and knowledge on technology use along with many resources available at a reasonable price for the farmers . Keywords: Smart Farming, farmers, vertical farming, artificial intelligence, remote sensing, technologies, climate, resources

Though infrastructure investment has been shown to enable growth in many countries, it appears not to be the case for many African countries and consequently is failing to help bridge the economic growth shortfall of the continent. Why is that, and how could it be reversed? We address this matter by using a Panel Threshold Regression of real economic growth on major infrastructure types, of 42 African countries, from 2000 to 2015. We find that electricity, water, transport and, to a lesser extent, information and communication technology investments have identifiable thresholds for these countries, with upper- and lower-middle-income countries being nearer to these thresholds than low-income countries. Furthermore, we find infrastructure quality to have more economic impact than infrastructure access for resource-endowed countries that use high intensity production form than for less-resource-endowed ones that deploy low intensity production form. And both infrastructure access and quality have more economic impacts for landlocked countries than for coastal countries. Overall, our findings suggest several lessons on how African countries can deploy infrastructure funds much more productively, going forward.

The field of crisis and disaster studies has proliferated over the past two decades. Attention is bound to grow further as the world negotiates the prolonged challenges of the Covid‐19 pandemic. In this review, we provide an overview of the main foci, methods, and research designs employed in the crisis and disaster research fields in the period of 2001–2020. The review documents that the focus and methods used have not changed much over time. Single case studies and exploratory research prevail, the focus has shifted from preparedness to response, and methodological diversity is limited, but gradually increasing. Future challenges are to understand transboundary crisis management and creeping crises. Advancing the field calls for our community to put more effort in drawing lessons beyond the single case to uncover comparable and universal patterns that connect between events or phases, which help to theorize the multifaceted nature of crisis and disaster management

The contributions of the agricultural sector to economic growth of developing countries of which Ghana is no exception cannot be overemphasized. Despite the sector being the mainstay of the Ghanaia...

Changing demands of the agricultural sector, due to male out-migration, have been shown to influence power dynamics and livelihood strategies within households, communities, and broader society. These shifts have led to a rise in women’s agricultural engagement in Nepal. In hypothesizing the outcomes of what has been defined as the feminization of agriculture on the women left behind, the existing literature has created a (dis)empowerment binary. Based on field work conducted in Chitwan, we initially confirm that women do experience that increased agricultural engagement presents both the potential for an increased burden and an opportunity for empowerment. Our research then goes beyond this binary, by utilizing the concept of inevitability, revealing both the micro and macro level nexi of migration, agriculture, and gender in relation to the feminization of agriculture in Nepal. By underscoring the double inevitability of both male out-migration itself and women’s roles within their households we argue we can more accurately represent our informants’ lived realities and thereby provide an alternative to the (dis)empowerment binary for future research. This includes the recognition of a relational nature of the feminization of agriculture phenomenon, which is often overlooked in the current discourse.

Non-communicable diseases are a challenge to public health worldwide. Decades ago, the consensus was that non-communicable diseases were the problem of developed and wealthy nations. However, recent studies indicate that developing countries are on the edge of emerging increases in non-communicable diseases due to various factors such as the consumption of unhealthy food, lack of physical activities, poor access to primary healthcare services, and loosened policies on tobacco use. Non-communicable diseases cause increased mortality and have significant financial impact due to treatment costs. The conditions also decrease the capacity and productivity of the human workforce in the community who cannot adequately contribute when under treatment in the late stages of the disease. Multiple societal and economic factors contribute to poor outcomes from non-communicable diseases including increasing globalization and urbanization. The two countries reviewed, Afghanistan and Ghana, have worsened population health due to aforementioned factors. In low and middle-income countries such as Afghanistan and Ghana, the unparalleled progression of globalization and urbanization and lifestyle factors have contributed to fast track the prevalence and progression of non-communicable diseases. This literature review aims to overview the impact of non-communicable diseases in Afghanistan and Ghana and suggest potential strategies to improve overall population health outcomes.

In the last 3 decades, developing economies continuously have increased their manufacturing industries with an impressive growth rate. Rising the trend of globalization, these underdeveloped economies are receiving economic growth at the cost of environmental degradation. In this context, this study investigates the impact of globalization and human capital on carbon emissions (CO2) in the 78 developing economies from 1990 to 2016. Our findings based on robust system generalized method of moments (GMM) indicate that human capital and political globalization significantly reduce environmental degradation while economic, social, and overall globalization decrease the environmental quality. Furthermore, our empirical results support the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. However, globalization (without interactive term with human capital) appears to have no significant association with CO2 emissions, while (with an interactive term) it appears to have a significant negative influence on environmental quality. Moreover, our results are robust to various robustness checks; I have performed for scrutiny the consistency of our findings. This study also offers useful policy implications for stakeholders, policymakers, and governments for promoting environmental sustainability.

The research of the fundamental problem for ensuring the institutional resilience of the national security of the Republic of Moldova during the COVID-19 pandemic consists of the analysis of the geopolitical coordinate of the international events that determines the process of transforming the regional and international security environment. COVID-19 pandemic phenomenon can be considered a multi-dimensional global crisis in which the foreign policy actions of the great powers and regional powers have intensified in order to influence the reconfiguration of the geopolitical architecture of the international security system and the security complex structure in different regions of the world. The main idea of the subject proposed for scientific examination consists of investigating the impact of the geopolitical context of the regional security environment during the global pandemic generated by the new type of COVID-19 Coronavirus on the process of ensuring national security of the Republic of Moldova. Profifi ling fifi rst the examination of the political-military cooperation relations between the Republic Moldova and the North Atlantic Alliance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to the elucidation of the opportunities provided by the Alliance to increase the level of the institutional resilience of the national security and defense system of the Republic of Moldova, which needs further substantial support of the development partners, by ensuring the adjustment of the national security components to the Euro-Atlantic standards that will strengthen the capability and interoperability degree in the national security and defense field, thus discouraging possible menaces and counteracting current risks and threats.

The number of households experiencing fuel poverty is thought to have risen by at least 600,000 in the UK because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The concentration of fuel poor households in poor quality, energy inefficient accommodation that they have little power to improve means they are particularly negatively affected by the retreat into the home brought about by successive lockdowns and restrictions. For many such households, the home is not the place of sanctuary that it needs to be at a time like this. However, our empirical research into the lived experiences of fuel poverty reveals additional consequences for fuel poor households, chiefly associated with restricted access to third spaces and other disruptions to their usual coping strategies. Based on our evidence, we highlight three key considerations for policy on fuel poverty in the era of Covid-19: the need to rapidly upgrade the energy performance of the existing housing stock; the need to address the additional financial hardship faced by fuel poor households; and the need to prioritise access to third spaces and high-quality public spaces while restrictions last. This paper develops the concept of energy poverty by considering the role of spaces outside the home as part of the overall experience of energy poverty and the range of ways in which policy makers can mitigate its impacts.

Humans in their increasing numbers and wealth are changing ecosystems through accelerated consumption of food, natural resources and energy which continue to cause significant damage to the planet. Using 'stunting in children' as a case study, we show how the traditional siloed (specialist) approaches have failed to reduce stunting world-wide. Despite significant effort, traditional approaches fail to appreciate the interconnectedness of the multiple factors that underpin stunting. We will not improve the lives of the millions of children living in poverty by doing the same things we have always done, rather we need to adopt approaches that recognise the interconnectedness of all the component parts and apply One Health methods designed to solve these intractable problems.

The reality of climate change and biodiversity collapse is irrefutable in the 21st century, with urgent action required not only to conserve threatened species but also to protect human life and wellbeing. This existential threat forces us to recognise that our existence is completely dependent upon well-functioning ecosystems that sustain the diversity of life on our planet, including that required for human health. By synthesising data on the ecology, epidemiology and evolutionary biology of various pathogens, we are gaining a better understanding of factors that underlie disease emergence and spread. However, our knowledge remains rudimentary with limited insight into the complex feedback loops that underlie ecological stability, which are at risk of rapidly unravelling once certain tipping points are breached. In this paper, we consider the impact of climate change and biodiversity collapse on the ever-present risk of infectious disease emergence and spread. We review historical and contemporaneous infectious diseases that have been influenced by human environmental manipulation, including zoonoses and vector- and water-borne diseases, alongside an evaluation of the impact of migration, urbanisation and human density on transmissible diseases. The current lack of urgency in political commitment to address climate change warrants enhanced understanding and action from paediatricians - to ensure that we safeguard the health and wellbeing of children in our care today, as well as those of future generations.

Markets for consumer financial services are growing rapidly in low- and middle-income countries and are being transformed by digital technologies and platforms. With growth and change come concerns about protecting consumers from firm exploitation due to imperfect information and contracting as well as from their own decision-making limitations. We seek to bridge regulator and academic perspectives on these underlying sources of harm and five potential problems that can result: high and hidden prices, overindebtedness, postcontract exploitation, fraud, and discrimination. These potential problems span product markets old and new and could impact micro- and macroeconomies alike. Yet there is little consensus on how to define, diagnose, or treat such problems. Evidence-based consumer financial protection will require substantial advances in theory and especially empirics, and we outline key areas for future research.

Poverty eradication is a realistic requirement for the addressing of the urban-rural development imbalance. It consolidates the achievements of the poverty alleviation, and accelerates the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In research that deals with poverty, qualitative analysis is often used to study the connection between a single influencing factor and poverty reduction, and to solve regional poverty through government measures. However, these studies usually ignore the multidimensional nature of poverty, and the fact that poverty alleviation also needs to be approached from multiple perspectives. By constructing a theoretical framework of poverty alleviation performance from the perspective of sustainable development, this study selects contiguous poverty-stricken areas in the Hunan Province, China as the empirical study area, constructs an evaluation index system from the three dimensions of economic development, infrastructure and people’s livelihood security, and selects influencing factors from three aspects of ‘population’, ‘land’ and ‘industry’. The spatial differentiation characteristics and influencing factors of poverty alleviation performance in poverty-stricken areas were studied by using the methods of entropy weight method and geodetector. The results show: firstly, in the concentrated and contiguous poverty-stricken areas of the Hunan Province, the performance of poverty alleviation in the economic development makes little difference, showing a ‘high-medium-low’ cross-distribution pattern. The poverty alleviation performance of the infrastructure presents a distribution pattern of ‘low in the middle and high on both sides. The poverty alleviation performance of people’s livelihood security has significant spatial differentiation characteristics, which all present a reunion distribution. The overall poverty alleviation performance varies greatly, showing a funnel-shaped distribution in space. Secondly, the spatial differentiation of poverty alleviation performance in the concentrated and contiguous poverty-stricken areas of the Hunan Province is the result of the combined effects of multiple factors. ‘Population’ is the dominant factor affecting the performance of poverty alleviation, ‘land’ is the basic factor that causes the spatial differentiation of poverty alleviation performance, and ‘industry’ is the key factor for the improvement of the poverty alleviation ability.

There is overwhelming evidence that human lifestyles have impacted the earth's planetary boundaries, with profound impacts for generations to come. Without concerted action to shape a better future, children will bear the burden on their health and well-being throughout their lifetimes. Yet government priorities are frequently dominated by short-term concerns, and an over-reliance on economic indicators as a measure of human progress. To give today's - and tomorrow's - children the best chance of leading flourishing lives, a new approach is needed, which overcomes the 'presentist' bias in political decision-making and values measures of well-being beyond gross domestic product (GDP). The potential building blocks of such an approach can be seen in the promising early steps being taken by several countries, including Wales and New Zealand. This paper provides an overview of these efforts in the context of the recommendations of the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission report 'A future for the world's children'.

Recent events have highlighted the need for behavior analysis to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in service provision and in higher education. There has been a call to action issued, noting the need for cultural humility and cultural responsiveness. An opportunity exists within training programs to ensure that students of behavior analysis are instructed in ways that promote cultural responsiveness and that equip them to serve diverse populations. Additionally, more needs to be done to engineer environments where students of behavior analysis are treated with respect and compassion, and to ensure that educational environments promote the comfort and success of all students. This article outlines the initiatives of an applied behavior analysis department to gather information about DEI on the local level, identify goals, implement change, and evaluate progress toward these goals.

The devastating impacts of recent Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the immediacy of climate change impacts and accelerated social, economic and environmental change w...

Type 1 diabetes is on the rise globally; however, the burden of mortality remains disproportionate in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). As 2021 marks 100 years since the discovery of insulin, we revisit progress, global burden of type 1 diabetes trends, and understanding of the pathogenesis and management practices related to the disease. Despite much progress, inequities in access and availability of insulin formulations persist and are reflected in differences in survival and morbidity patterns related to the disease. Some of these inequities have also been exacerbated by health-system challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a clear opportunity to improve access to insulin and related essential technologies for improved management of type 1 diabetes in LMICs, especially as a part of universal health coverage. These improvements will require concerted action and investments in human resources, community engagement, and education for the timely diagnosis and management of type 1 diabetes, as well as adequate health-care financing. Further research in LMICs, especially those in Africa, is needed to improve our understanding of the burden, risk factors, and implementation strategies for managing type 1 diabetes.

In this article I argue that the scarcity of painkillers in the Global South is driven by a central asymmetry in which the health of developed countries is valued over that of the much poorer countries that comprise the rest of the world. To elucidate this point, I argue that by examining the history of various legal institutions and specific events, like the opioid crisis, that have shaped the global production of opium and production in India, one will be able to see the genealogy of the imbalance and inequality that has always affected care. I turn to the state of Kerala to explore instances in which these legal inflections live within the contemporary guidelines for palliative care, and thus constantly affect the supply and delivery of care. This also ties in with the much longer history of opium control for the growth of the global pharmaceutical industry, within which India has been uniquely placed.

With the rapid economic development and strong policy support, the targets and tasks of poverty alleviation are completed on schedule, but the foundation of anti-poverty areas is not solid and the internal motivation is insufficient. At the same time, China's agricultural trade liberalization has also penetrated in all aspects of economy, employment and society. This paper explains the current situation in detail and analyzes the relationship between agricultural trade liberalization and the prevention of return to poverty, and what strategies should be made at this stage to prevent the return to poverty at this stage.

Whistle-blowing activities around the world have generated huge interests from concerned parties such as the financial and public service, as the aftermath of its neglect often has dilapidating effects on the sustainability of economic growth and development of the nation. This is often seen in the 3rd world nations, such as Nigeria. This study aimed to examine the existing phenomenon between whistle-blowing, economic sustainability, growth and development of Nigeria. This study adopted the Theory of Planned Behavior. However, this was a literature review study that basically draws inferences from studies in this field from different continents (i.e. Europe, America, Asia and Africa). Consequently, the objective of this study was to conceptually investigate the whistle-blowing activities in Nigeria as to how it has assisted in curbing corruption in the public space in turn and improving the economic growth and development. In furtherance, this study reviewed events in African countries with close indexation with Nigeria. Therefore, this study concludes that whistle-blowing has a direct impact on sustainable economic growth and development of Nigeria. This is evident in the Transparency International index report. Lastly, this study recommends that whistleblowing policy should be properly implemented in public institutions to achieve minimum involvement of corruption in the country and that whistleblowers should be protected to encourage disclosure of corrupt acts in the public sector. This in turn will assist in the attainment of sustainable economic growth and development. Keyword: Whistleblowing, sustainable economic growth, theory of planned behaviour

In Nigeria, agriculture plays a critical role in the economy and remains the key to the country’s economic diversification plan. However, the agricultural sector is facing numerous challenges such as climate change, widespread insecurity, price volatility, poor government policies and the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the already existing problems. This paper reviews the state of the COVID 19 pandemic in Nigeria and its effects on the agricultural sector and outlines the role of commissioners of agriculture in mitigating the effects of the pandemic on farmers with a view to catalyzing sustainable agricultural development in Nigeria. When the first case of COVID-19 was reported in February, 2020, the Federal government of Nigeria took some measures to help curb the spread of the virus. Although, these measures were critical to saving lives, they also significantly caused a disruption in agricultural activities and food systems in several ways such as decline in availability of farm labour and mechanization, limited availability of agricultural inputs, decline in food imports and exports, reduction in food supply, decline in household income and food consumption, increased food insecurity, panic buying and sharp price spikes. This paper suggests that commissioners of agriculture have important roles to play to help mitigate these negative impacts on agricultural livelihoods and food systems. These include a push for a bill to integrate social protection mechanisms into the Nigerian legal framework, lobby for increased budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector, formulation of good agricultural policies and provision of adequate infrastructures, organization of these farmers into farming clusters to help stimulate agglomeration economies by integrating agricultural value chains and development strategies, and frameworks and initiatives that will ensure a seamless transition from emergency response to resilience building. Key words: Coronavirus disease, government interventions, agrarian development, food production

Nigeria has one of the highest population growth rates in the world resulting to rapid urbanization and an enormous increase in the population leaving rural areas and now living in urban centres. In spite of the increased emphasis on rural development, rural-urban migration has persisted mainly due to the farmerherder conflict situation, poverty, lack of job opportunities, insecurity and gross inadequacy of social infrastructures in the rural areas. This mass migration and other factors have put Nigeria in an emergency food and nutrition insecure situation. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already an existing gap in the Nigerian food system, which led to the importation of food items to augment local production in order to meet local demand. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined efforts to achieve SDG 2 as the country witnessed not only a major disruption to food supply chains in the wake of lockdowns and movement restrictions triggered by the global health crisis, but also a major economic slowdown. The commerce, service, and agricultural sectors were the hardest hit by the spread of the virus and the effects are different along the rural-urban continuum. The vacuum created by the migration of people from the rural to urban areas led to reduction of farm yields, while the urban areas were particularly affected in terms of food supply from rural areas as a result of movement restrictions made during the height of the pandemic. More urbanised areas may be harder hit than remote rural areas if connectivity remains broken down, as most food crops are produced in the rural and semi-rural areas. This paper recommends strategies and policies aimed at reducing poverty, food insecurity and inequality across the urban-rural continuum through agricultural development. This will assist in addressing the adverse drivers of migration with particular focus on improving the social and economic conditions of rural areas. Key words: agricultural development, COVID-19, food security, rural-urban migration

Climate change is one of the major global health threats to the world's population. It is brought on by global warming due in large part to increasing levels of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity, including burning fossil fuels (carbon dioxide), animal husbandry (methane from manure), industry emissions (ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide), vehicle/factory exhaust, and chlorofluorocarbon aerosols that trap extra heat in the earth's atmosphere. Resulting extremes of weather give rise to wildfires, air pollution, changes in ecology, and floods. These in turn result in displacement of populations, family disruption, violence, and major impacts on water quality and availability, food security, public health and economic infrastructures, and limited abilities for civil society to maintain citizen safety. Climate change also has direct impacts on human health and well-being. Particularly vulnerable populations are affected, including women, pregnant women, children, the disabled, and the elderly, who comprise the majority of the poor globally. Additionally, the effects of climate change disproportionally affect disadvantaged communities, including low income and communities of color, and lower-income countries that are at highest risk of adverse impacts when disasters occur due to inequitable distribution of resources and their socioeconomic status. The climate crisis is tilting the risk balance unfavorably for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as newborn and child health. Obstetrician/gynecologists have the unique opportunity to raise awareness, educate, and advocate for mitigation strategies to reverse climate change affecting our patients and their families. This article puts climate change in the context of women's reproductive health as a public health issue, a social justice issue, a human rights issue, an economic issue, a political issue, and a gender issue that needs our attention now for the health and well-being of this and future generations. FIGO joins a broad coalition of international researchers and the medical community in stating that the current climate crisis presents an imminent health risk to pregnant people, developing fetuses, and reproductive health, and recognizing that we need society-wide solutions, government policies, and global cooperation to address and reduce contributors, including fossil fuel production, to climate change.

The universal health system (UHS) was considered a utopian idea in emerging markets until countries like India initiated its implementation. The UHS is not a new phenomenon with countries, such as Canada, Ireland and the UK, having implemented it many decades ago in their respective countries. This study revisits the entire literature on UHS till date. The extant literature analysis has resulted in five research themes and has highlighted the challenges faced during the implementation of UHS in India. The future research directions for academia and a conceptual framework of UHS implementation is also proposed. This study suggests that there is a need for more studies on policy paradigms, improving accessibility, funding models, healthcare grid, manpower mapping and audit metrics for achieving the goal of equitable UHS implementation in India.

Purpose: The goal of the paper is to analyse in which countries’ youth unemployment is statistically pro or countercyclical and how crises in the last decade have affected it. What would the plausible explanations for diverging patterns within the EU and other European countries be? In what terms is the young people’s labour market across Europe imbalanced? Methodology: The paper builds on Gontkovicova et al.’s (2015) analysis of correlations between GDP growth and youth unemployment on an annual basis by adding more indicators and considering the quarterly basis as well. The quantitative approach is enriched by qualitative insights on Southeast European countries studied within the Erasmus+ YouthCap project (CRA, 2020). Findings: Most of the countercyclical youth unemployment trends in the last 20 years are observed in Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia). From Western European countries Iceland, Denmark and Portugal are countercyclical. The most resilient countries in terms of COVID-19 are North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Iceland, which were able to reduce youth unemployment during the coronavirus crisis (Q3 in 2019 and 2020). Plausible policy reactions have been identified based on the concept of learning societies and the need for continuous education. Practical implications: The paper argues why localised policy responses could be more effective than a centralised solution. However, increased coordination and standardisation of secondary and higher education could lead to increased youth labour migration. Originality/value: The paper combines a more traditional quantitative approach to the most recent data series with the qualitative approach of identifying various micro-trends by looking at selected outlier countries.