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Copyright of Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural & Agribusiness Economists is the property of Polish Association of Agricultural & Agribusiness Economists 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.)

As a result of significant advancements in living conditions, individuals have redirected their attention towards physical exercise. Skiing, as a widely popular sport, necessitates the real-time maintenance of correct posture during movement. Therefore, we present a dynamic skiing motion capture and human posture detection model that leverages wireless device tracking. Primarily, personnel tracking is enabled through the construction of service base stations and the utilization of wireless device tracking technology. Subsequently, a human posture detection model is formulated in the form of human posture key points, employing the image information of each frame obtained via wireless devices. Finally, we introduce a spatio-temporal Transformer structure that facilitates the detection and recognition of human posture in consecutive frames. Our results demonstrate that our approach can precisely locate and track the position of skiing personnel. Compared to the latest Blip and Conformer methods, our technique yields F values that surpass them by 1.20% and 4.51%, respectively. Moreover, our model can achieve convergent model parameters and accomplish training objectives more efficiently, thus enabling posture detection and dynamic capture of skiing personnel via image and video information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is among the top public health concerns around the globe. Migrants, especially forced migrants, could be at higher risk of acquiring and transmitting AMR during their journeys or in host countries. There is limited understanding regarding migrants' living conditions and the wider factors contributing to their risk of acquiring infections, and behaviors around antimicrobial use, and AMR development. In this study, we aimed to explore transit experiences, living conditions, and antibiotic use of migrants living in the United Kingdom. Methods: We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews with 27 participants and identified five themes regarding migrants' journey and their living conditions during transit and after arriving in the United Kingdom, their access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and their use of antibiotics. Results: Migrants, particularly forced migrants, experienced unfavorable living conditions, poor access to WASH, and challenges in accessing healthcare, which further contributed to health conditions like urinary and skin problems. Isolation and difficulty in accessing healthcare played significant roles in migrants' perceived need for storing and using antibiotics as a safety net. Conclusion: The findings highlight the need for coordinated and multilevel interventions to address these challenges and contribute toward tackling AMR and improving the health of this population group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic areas are special in terms of their geographic type, population size, production mode, etc. Scientific assessment of rural residents' livelihood resilience and exploration of its influencing factors are significant for tapping the potential of rural residents' livelihood resilience and promoting sustainable rural development. This research takes the villages in the western Sichuan ethnic area as the study area and, based on the sustainable livelihood framework and the analysis framework of rural residents' livelihood resilience, constructs an evaluation index system of rural residents' livelihood resilience and explores the factors affecting its evolution using the OLS parameter estimation method. The results found that: (1) Annual per capita income and livelihood diversification of key livelihood factors of farm households have improved under the rural revitalization strategy. (2) Skill training opportunities, loan opportunities, living conditions, non-agricultural work experience, and traffic accessibility had the most significant impact on livelihood resilience, and were the dominant forces in enhancing the rural residents' livelihood resilience. (3) There was a divergence of livelihood resilience among different types of rural residents, and those with low altitude, low dependency ratio, strong labor endowment, and high literacy had a higher livelihood resilience; furthermore, the mean value of livelihood resilience of tourism-led rural residents was higher than that of non-tourism-led rural residents under different livelihood strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine the incidence of over-education in Spain and to analyse the role over-education plays on an individual's income distinguishing by gender. Following Freeman's perspective, we can confirm over-education is due to an oversupply of qualified labour. We study over-education applying different matching techniques based on propensity score methods with microdata drawn from the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC, 2009–2019). Our results show that the incidence of over-education has increased over time and there exist huge differences by gender. Findings also demonstrate that over-education presents a negative effect on income. In fact, the real annual average earnings from over-educated women (men) can be approximately 7,000 (5,000) euros less than the average earnings of women (men) who were not over-educated. Policy implications are discussed in the light of the empirical results of our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Animal hoarding is a human psychiatric disease, characterized by a compulsive collection of animals, which generally produces a deep suffering for both animals involved and hoarders themselves. Here, we sought to analyze and profile 29 animal hoarders, who lived within urban and rural areas of the Lazio region (Italy), according to sex, age, job, living conditions and reasons of the patients behind such a pathological disorder. We also outlined the number and different animal species for each case analyzed. The animal hoarding phenomenon severely impacts human health, animal welfare and the environment worldwide, thus calling into question thoughtful strategies to be implemented, aimed at better coping with such a social issue. In this respect, the establishment of an animal hoarding observatory at a national level able to coordinate actions to be jointly taken might be encouraged, to establish an effective and adequate strategy to recognize this phenomenon, and to safeguard animal health. The hoarding of animals is a psychiatric disease, characterized by a compulsive collection of animals, with a relevant impact upon the care and welfare of animals, as well as on human society. In Italy, there are neither substantial reports nor information shared about such a phenomenon, making it difficult to draw a clear picture of the hoarder profile. Therefore, in the present work, we sought to detail 29 cases of animal accumulators in Italy, who lived within two areas of the Lazio region, and accumulated a total of 1080 animals from 2019 to 2022. In line with other international studies, we observed a prevalence of middle-aged (in their fifties) women, who lived mainly alone in a high level of social and health degradation. Most of the hoarded animals exhibited severe signs of dehydration and malnutrition, muscle hypotrophy, dermatological injuries, and behavioral disorders. Animal hoarding is not yet fully understood nor recognized as a psychosocial disorder, although it produces a deep suffering for the hoarder themselves, as well as corresponding family members, and the animals accumulated. Therefore, given the crucial impact of animal hoarding upon human and animal welfare, cross-cultural networks aimed at properly raising awareness of the problem could be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we analyzed the effectiveness of rural living environment improvements and upgrading mechanisms. Our results are conducive to consolidating and expanding the results of the 3-year action plan focused on comprehensively promoting the improvement in rural living environments in the new development stage. Based on the policy theme–effectiveness assessment–improvement path research framework, we analyzed the effectiveness of rural living environment improvements in Chongqing with the help of policy text analysis and structural equation modeling, explaining the mechanisms and proposing the pathways for these improvements, taking the policy theme as our guide and the six projects as the focus. The results showed that the rural living improvement in Chongqing focused on five major themes：infrastructure, economic development, living conditions, public services, and industrial development, with the number of relevant documents accounting for 18.9%, 16.3%, 19.8%, 25.6%, and 19.4%, respectively, of the total. From 1997 to 2020, the literature content showed phases in its characteristics from element supply, to structural improvement, to functional enhancement. The remediation effectiveness was higher in the main urban area, followed by in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, then the Wuling Mountains area, with comprehensive values of 2.70, 2.42, and 2.41, respectively. The effectiveness of housing remediation was highest in the first- and secondclass areas, whereas the effectiveness of biological resources recycling and regional culture remediation was higher in the third-class areas. The rural living environment improvement projects interacted with and promoted each other, and infrastructure development strongly contributed to the advancement of other projects. Therefore, the relevant departments should establish a systematic working idea for focusing on the goals, simultaneously implementing multiple measures, and coordinating governance to improve the quality of the rural living environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2009, Portugal ratified the UN CRPD and a turn to a rights‐based approach in disability law and policy has intensified since. It thus becomes important to understand whether these legal changes are furthering the social inclusion of adults with intellectual and complex disabilities. Method: Questionnaires were applied to a stratified sample of 127 adults with intellectual and complex disabilities attending social care and vocational training programmes across the country. Results: Participants reported low rates of social participation, and many (49%) were found to live below the poverty line. High rates of discrimination and violence and feelings of loneliness and sadness were also reported, which can be strong indicators of the oppression that many of them daily endure. Conclusion: Adults with intellectual and complex disabilities in Portugal face exclusion, discrimination, and violence. The poverty and isolation in which many of them live compounds their (de)citizenship status in Portuguese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of large-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa on local livelihoods is controversial. Little consensus exists about whether mining is a 'blessing' or a 'curse' for affected communities. This article estimates the impact of mine proximity on local socioeconomic outcomes. It does so by linking georeferenced survey data to mine locations, to determine whether living near a mine results in systematically better or worse scores on measures of lived poverty, development infrastructure and access to basic household services. The data (from Afrobarometer Round 6) spans 19 countries, 148 large-scale mines, and 4,796 households. The analysis shows that the average effects of proximity to a mine are modest compared with cross-national and urban-rural differences in living conditions. Mining is not consistently a 'blessing' or a 'curse' for affected local communities in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-standard living conditions among migrant workers have become a structural feature all over Europe. Although this has attracted the attention of many scholars, there is a lack of studies on the complex relations between various stakeholders in governing housing. This study fills this gap by analysing this housing issue from a governance network perspective. Through an analysis of policy documents and interviews with twenty-one stakeholders, we investigated institutional and strategic complexities. The results show that decision-making is complicated by unclear institutional accountability patterns and the diverging strategic interests of various stakeholders. The interrelationship between the loosely defined institutional setting (structure) and the varying interests of involved actors (agency) has led to a policy impasse that is difficult to breach. We argue that a reconsideration of existing accountability patterns is needed to reduce sub-standard housing conditions among migrant workers in the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We indirectly analyze the residential environment for long‐staying internationals in Seoul, Korea, by extending the image–satisfaction–loyalty mechanism widely used in tourism, specifically by examining the internationals' satisfaction and loyalty. We consider residential difficulties, sociodemographics, and survey years along with image as exogenous variables and evaluate satisfaction not only in terms of its absolute but also its relative level, which is the difference between absolute satisfaction (AS) and previous expectation. Tourism studies have measured loyalty using individuals' intention to recommend to another and their own revisit intention, but we evaluate the revisit intention with place attachment/hometown perception, which is more suitable for long‐staying residents. The variables are measured with 2016–2018 data from an annual quality of life survey for Seoul residents (n = 5279 individuals) and analyzed with structural equation modeling. Our results show that the conventionally used AS is associated only with recommendation intention, but the relative satisfaction (RS) both with recommendation intention and hometown perception. Regarding the exogenous variables, AS is substantially affected by image and RS is somewhat strongly influenced by residential difficulties. However, image is the principal determinant of loyalty level, whether recommendation intention or hometown perception. These findings confirm the applicability of the image–satisfaction–loyalty mechanism not only to short‐staying inbound tourists but also to long‐staying international residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the films of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, known as the border trilogy, The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), Ulysses' Gaze (1995) Eternity and a Day (1998), are discussed in the context of border sociology. Although many of his other films have been the subject of various academic studies, it has been observed that these films have not been studied in the context of sociology, especially border sociology. Especially today, the fact that borders, migration and refugees are increasingly encountered requires focusing on the border trilogy. In the study, the main themes in the trilogy were determined by considering the literature of border sociology. In this framework, many themes, from kinship communities divided by modern borders, to forms of border violence, from the living conditions of refugees to the perspective of host societies, have been identified and interpreted in the context of the relevant literature. As a result, in the border trilogy, we see how borders are tools of injustice, violence, exclusion, nationalist hatred and obstacles to living together. Therefore, we can say that Angelopoulos does not look at the border, the refugee and the foreigner from a nation-state or nation-community perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the large-scale implementation of China's ex situ poverty alleviation relocation (ESPAR) policy, China's poverty-alleviation migrants (PAMs) have increased significantly in a short period of time. The majority of the literature has indicated that the changes associated with resettlement in, for example, livelihood, living environment, and living standards have improved the lives of the PAMs. However, a few researchers have studied PAMs' subjective well-being (SWB) after relocation. Taking the PAMs in Anshun City, Guizhou Province of China as an example, this work used interviews and questionnaire surveys to investigate the well-being of PAMs under three resettlement models––resettlement in nearby villages and townships, resettlement in county seats, and resettlement in cities. Through a multiple linear regression model, we analyzed the SWB level and influencing factors of PAMs, and the differences in SWB under different resettlement models. The results show that: (1) the overall SWB level of PAMs is relatively high; (2) living conditions and public services, livelihoods and housing, lifestyle, and social networks all have significant impacts on the SWB of PAMs; and (3) the SWB levels of the migrants resettled in county seats is the highest, followed by resettlement in cities, and resettlement in nearby villages and townships. We also put forward relevant guiding suggestions, hoping to provide references for the sustainable development of future ESPAR projects. Moreover, we hope that this work has guiding significance for improving the mental health of PAMs and constructing healthy living cities for PAMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small‐scale fisheries are crucial for improving livelihoods by providing fisher employment, and food security. As part of their work, fishers frequently move to different fishing communities to catch and trade in fish. This paper analyses the living circumstances of artisanal fishers and discusses their mobility patterns, lodging arrangements, and the difficulties they encounter as they carry out their work. This paper is based on a study that involved 385 artisanal fishers in the fishing community of Elmina in the Komenda Edina Equafo Abirem (KEEA) Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana. The results show that there are not many suitable places to stay for fishers when they travel from home to other fishing locations, and the few places that do offer affordable lodging also lack toilets, bathrooms and drinkable water. The paper also reflects on the gendered dynamics of these and related issues of insecurity for women in this case study. District authorities whose economies are heavily dependent on fishing ought to collaborate with private housing developers and the state to build affordable lodging facilities with standard household amenities like water, toilets and baths in fishing destinations to address the housing issues faced by fishers while travelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly high numbers of migrants around the globe have led migration scholars attempting to understand determinants of migration aspirations for many years. This study specifically looks at migration aspirations from two angles, (1) migration under conditions of a continuum of crises, in this case the (civil) war in Syria and precarious lives in Turkey, highlighting uncertainty and temporality entailed in crisis and (2) the role of family in migration aspirations. So far, scholarship primarily focuses on individuals in countries of origin and on voluntary migrants. Migration aspirations of forced migrants who have found refuge in another country are far less studied. Their situation, however, differs from voluntary migrants in distinct ways. Second, although the literature emphasizes the role of family for migration aspirations deep-level empirical inquiries are rare. Based on a survey among around 1,900 Syrian refugees in Turkey, this article addresses these gaps and explores the role family plays for migration aspirations among forced migrants. We take a close look by exploring how geographical family networks relate to migration aspirations and interact with other characteristics. We find that staying in Turkey seems to be the most likely option for participants at the time of the survey, but we also identify a substantial degree of uncertainty regarding migration aspirations. Furthermore, participants' aspired places of living depend on the location of family members, above and beyond other characteristics. Moreover, (trans-)national family networks enhance or diminish effects of other determinants of migration aspirations such as perceived living conditions in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies (DT) supported the design and implementation of solutions addressing new needs and living conditions. We describe Design for Emergency, a digital open design platform developed to ideate solutions for people's fast-changing needs in the pandemic, to analyze how DT can affect human-centered design processes during emergencies. We illustrate how DT: i) helped quickly collect and analyse people's needs in different countries, visualize such data, and identify design directions and problem spaces; ii) facilitated the creation of a virtual network of stakeholders and an open-innovation digital platform; iii) inspired the ideation of solutions responding to people's changing needs and affected their implementation. We discuss the implications of adopting DT in designing for and during emergencies, as well as their current and future potential to promptly respond to emergency situations through a human-centered approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we argue that the way of operating for the social well-being, the psychophysical health, the safety and protection of passengers and crew of civil flights, is the core of the work of flight and cabin personnel, an essential socio-professional category. This is the actual job of the cabin crew category and what distinguishes the know-how of the flight crew. Although its public image - from foundational myths to fetish-images - transits between the figures of the on-board service provider or an etiquette wrapped in "charm", such socially constructed ideas and imagery do not resist a more detailed analysis and characterization. Risky, dangerous, or emergency situations, as well as the definition, ranking, and implementation of appropriate measures for each case, are part of the core of this vital activity. These critical reflections were elaborated from an action-research with the Social Inquiry into the Living and Working Conditions of Flight and Cabin Crew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Fomento Social is the property of ETEA 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.)

Smart City Platforms are complex Information and Communication (ICT) projects where information from the physical and virtual world converge with the ultimate goal to provide better living conditions to the city's citizens. The architecture of these platforms has been approached as an evolution of similarly large ICT projects and as a consequence the already established architectural patterns have been reused. Among them is multitenancy, a software architecture pattern that emerged in an effort to optimize the use of compute resources and minimize the operational cost of large-scale deployments. At the same time, the size and complexity of Smart City Platforms makes observability one of the key capabilities a Smart City Platform must offer in order to ensure its operational requirements are met. From the perspective of system complexity in general and observability in particular, the applicability of the multitenancy architecture pattern in Smart City Platforms is debatable as the benefits it brings may not outweigh the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) 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 Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press 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.)

In the period of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867-1914) the agrarian population of banal Croatia reacted to their changing living conditions with revolts and riots roughly once in a decade. The abundant historigraphical coverage has identified two basic causes in the background of these tensions: some of a social nature such as the years of low yields and the increase of peasant duties, and some stemming from the growing national consciousness of the peasantry and the emotions thereby stirred up. Alongside these causes, the present paper intends to include a third source of conflict that has rarely been analysed so far: namely the modernising intervention of the state, whose presence, with a force that had not been experienced previously, resulted in a profound subversion of the rural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweden's Animal Welfare Act of 1988 stated that regulations and directives within the law should be in favor of animals' wellbeing, protect them against unnecessary harm, allow them to express their natural behavior, and prevent behavioral disorders. However, ethological studies present several welfare problems found in animals held legally in factory farming settings. By using one of Sweden's most commonly slaughtered animals—the pig—this paper scrutinizes how politicians consider different interests while debating animal living conditions in factory farms. The results demonstrate an overall absence of discussions addressing welfare problems in Swedish pig farming. When such welfare issues are addressed, they are often overlooked in favor of interests that cannot directly be associated with animal welfare. Political claims of having the best animal welfare legislation in the world are used when arguing for decreasing as well as enhancing the living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaving differences and variances aside, the ultimate intention of social states or welfare regimes, acting with the humanitarian pursuit of social policy, is to offer a standard, decent living condition to those under its banner. In this sense, welfare states often undertake constitutionally binding commitments to citizens and implement minimum, fair social policies not to undermine the citizens' living conditions below the level of "worthy of human dignity." Whereas these policies, introduced against any social risks to adversely affect one's welfare, should be implemented equally for everyone, states may also adopt positive discrimination while implementing these policies for groups denoted as fragile or disadvantaged that are likely to be more affected by social risks to retain their welfare within "humane" standards. However, the effect of in-kind or cash social transfers within the mentioned policies to the aforementioned groups often remains veiled. Moreover, debates go on about targeting of these transfers. The present descriptive survey research attempted to measure the effectiveness of social policies aimed at improving the living conditions of individuals by contributing to their welfare. We surveyed 582 Burdur-based individuals who could be denoted as disadvantaged due to some tangible reasons. Our findings demonstrated that the participants had worse health status, higher disability rates, and severe housing health-related problems compared to the general population. We also discovered that the participants considered poor had much more inadequate living standards and welfare than those not. The participants' poverty - calculated based on their income levels - was 54.7% before receiving social assistance and became 39.5% after being opted for social assistance. In other words, we figured out that social assistance reduced the participants' poverty by 15.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the burden on the collapsing health system in northwest Syria. The situation was exacerbated by the low rates of adherence to preventive measures and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. In this study, we systematically analysed studies related to Risk Communication and Community Engagement programs, and community awareness in northwest Syria in order to determine the most widespread prevention methods, the community's perspectives and knowledge of epidemic prevention, and the factors that prevent effective community engagement and uptake of COVID-19 prevention precautions in an area that has been suffering from the scourge of conflict for more than ten years. Based on the research findings, low adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures is mainly due to external factors related to socioeconomic status, scarcity of resources, and poor living conditions. Therefore, this study suggested that integrated multi-sectoral humanitarian programs that address these factors holistically are more effective than solely public health interventions in involving the community to become an active part of the Risk Communication and Community Engagement programs and ensuring their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the physical and social living conditions of school-aged children in IDPs’ camps in Plateau State, Nigeria. Specifically, it determined socioeconomic/demographic characteristics of the children; their physical and social living conditions. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. The population comprised 948 6-12year-old children in the two IDPs’ camps in Plateau State. A random sample of 50 percent of the population (474) was selected. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Frequencies and percentages were used for data analysis. Findings on socio-economic characteristics of the children showed that there were more male children (55.30%) than female children (44.70%), and up to 85.90% of them had less than ₦10,000 as their household monthly income. The physical living conditions of the children showed that more than half (51.30%) of them lived in small-sized dwellings, 65.40 percent had inadequate room/tent ventilation and 81.40 percent of the children had 6-10 persons living in a room. There were no nets on the children’s dwelling doors and a greater percentage (60.50%) of the children had an average number of 4-6 clothes. Furthermore, the main source of water was well water (85.40%) and firewood (94.90%) was the main type of fuel for cooking. Findings on social living conditions of the children showed that majority of them lived near some basic social amenities such as health centers (82.30%), schools (99.20%) and markets (83.30%). In addition, a good number (77.40%) of the children obtained formal education. It was recommended that government at different levels should equip IDPs’ camps with adequate facilities to enable satisfactory conditions of hygiene and access to social amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The definition and analysis of disadvantaged neighborhoods have been rethought in recent years, with the goal of trying to surpass the monolithic identification of all marginal neighborhoods and move towards an analysis of the social, urban, and national circumstances that create marginal neighborhoods in a particular country under specific historical circumstances. This paper offers a micro-historical case study that allows us to examine the social consolidation and civic engagement of a marginal urban community residing in the HaTikvah neighborhood, next to the city of Tel Aviv, during the period between the mid-1930s and the early 1950s. It argues that the residents' identifications and actions stemmed from an intersectional marginality that was composed of their low socio-economic status, their ethnic origin as Oriental Jews, the geographic location of the neighborhood, and its lack of municipal status. Taking into consideration the circumstances of British Mandatory rule and the processes of the consolidation of the Jewish national society in Palestine as a European society, this paper unveils the struggles of the community vis à vis various institutions for the purposes of recognition, the improvement of living conditions, and, subsequently, the preservation of the fabric of life in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-home sensor systems supported by machine learning are increasingly used to enhance communication between those living with long-term conditions such as dementia and healthcare professionals and carers who support them. Perspectives from the sociology of infrastructures are used to explore the development and deployment of such a system of smart care, drawing on interviews with researchers and developers, healthcare professionals and service users, and carers. The analysis finds that labor of various forms is required to manage the production of useful sensor data, including parsing the reasons for missing data and organizing appropriate actions in response. The analysis highlights active processes of deriving meaning from that data in ways that participants find useful, ethical, and sustainable. The conclusion emphasizes the usefulness of an infrastructural approach in order to recognize the heterogeneous forms of labor involved in developing ethically sensitive, person-centered forms of remote-monitoring-enabled care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on the significance of the Coopers' 1828 stay at La Lorraine farm near Berne, exploring ownership details and the potential influence of the farm on Cooper's later work. Topics include the ownership history of La Lorraine, the layout of the farm, and the Coopers' living conditions during their stay, alongside speculation about the farm's impact on Cooper's literary endeavors, particularly his novel "The Headsman."

International modernism has brought new solutions to urban greenery, primarily aimed at improving the living conditions of the inhabitants. Currently, much more is expected of green areas, and at the same time, various impacts influence their modifications. The article focusses on changing approaches to the issue of green wedges design resulting from the socio-political transformation and the changes in approaches to city planning priorities. We selected Warsaw for detailed research, where the evolution of this approach can be clearly observed. The study showed the changes in the size, layout and function of one of the most important green areas and residents' expectations. The formulated conclusions and threads may be helpful in spatial policy, spatial planning and urban design in various cities with an open areas structure similar to Warsaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Eutrophication poses a mounting concern in today's world. Ceratophyllum submersum L. is one of many plants capable of living in eutrophic conditions, therefore it could play a critical role in addressing the problem of eutrophication. This study aimed to take a first genomic look at C. submersum. Results: Sequencing of gDNA from C. submersum yielded enough reads to assemble a plastome. Subsequent annotation and phylogenetic analysis validated existing information regarding angiosperm relationships and the positioning of Ceratophylalles in a wider phylogenetic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In light of the harsh living conditions facing Lebanon today, the Lebanese are prompted more and more to join specific groups that might defend their lost rights amidst a failing system that does not care about their concerns and fears. In addition to feeling oppressed and persecuted, the Lebanese view themselves as victims of others injustice, which justifies the use of violence (verbal or physical) as an escape from the state of anxiety and insecurity surrounding them. This study projects an intervention plan based on studies in social psychology, emphasizing that providing opportunities for communication with others contributes to crystallizing friendship and increasing the level of mutual sympathy between individuals and groups, despite their differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past two decades, international development non-government organizations (INGOs) have proliferated in the global North. In Canada, there are ∼1350 registered INGOs—of which, 950 were established in 2000 or later, 1192 receive no federal government funding, 1202 have annual revenues under CAD one million dollars, and 709 have no full-time employees. This new wave of Small and Medium Organizations (SMOs) epitomises the decentralisation of global development as private aid has surpassed Official Development Assistance funding. Yet, recent studies suggest SMOs have a short lifespan and fail to progress beyond service provision representing the first evolutionary stage of INGO maturation. Our study combines surveys (n: 95) and interviews (n: 18) with Canadian SMOs to explore growth aspirations along with their challenges and strategies to increase revenue. Our results show that nearly all Canadian SMOs desire organisational growth, and pursue diverse funding sources and innovative strategies to increase revenue. However, for SMOs, growth means doing more of the same thing—they are committed to improving the living conditions of their target population—which contradicts best practices to scale up INGO impact and may necessitate alternative organisational evolutionary guides for SMOs operating in this emerging development niche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current global scenario is characterized by epidemics and various types of disasters, severely impacting communities' health, living conditions, and economic stability. Especially during such crises, the requirement for essential necessities becomes critical. Existing solution guidelines involve receiving donated items from public agencies through an offline system to provide assistance to victims. However, this implementation faces several limitations, such as a lack of understanding of people's needs in specific areas, leading to mismatches between assistance and actual requirements. Additionally, donators lack adequate information, resulting in further discrepancies between donated items and the victims' genuine needs. The available geospatial platforms primarily support surveillance and monitoring of epidemic or disaster situations but fail to address the management of needs related to donation and receipt. Through an extensive review of the literature and related research, it was identified that a geospatial platform specifically dedicated to donation management has not yet been developed. To address this gap, this research proposes the creation of a novel geospatial platform using data analysis and visualization methods, complemented by the integration of geofencing technology. By employing such an approach, the geospatial platform will play a pivotal role in enhancing disaster and epidemic assistance. It will facilitate efficient data processing and visualization, overcoming the limitations faced by the current offline system. Emphasis will be placed on improving the management of needs concerning donation and receipt, thereby mitigating mismatches between assistance and actual requirements. Consequently, this platform is expected to significantly enhance the effectiveness and targeting of aid distribution during times of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the thermodynamics of vernacular architecture offers a novel perspective beyond traditional residence research, paving the way for sustainable residential development. In this context, a historic dwelling in Wentang Village, Qimen County, Anhui Province, China, was analysed. Through simulations of the dwelling's indoor thermal environment using Phoenics software, it was found that enlarging horizontal and rooftop windows can significantly boost indoor air circulation. Such alterations not only diminish the dwelling's energy demands but also elevate the indoor living conditions. The findings underscore the value of passive natural ventilation, suggesting its efficacy in addressing humidity and temperature concerns in traditional Huizhou interiors, especially when active technological interventions are disregarded. This thermodynamicallyinformed approach to renovation, grounded in climate adaptability, furnishes both theoretical insights and practical implications for the refurbishment and design of classic Huizhou residences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real income distribution comparisons are of interest to policy makers across European countries. Nowadays, a crucial component of income inequality remains the discrepancy between men and women, often called the gender gap. Since the gender gap is related to the whole distribution of incomes in a population, popular single metrics are not adequate, and previous studies applied the relative distribution method, a non‐parametric approach to the comparison of distributions. Here, we propose a parametric approach for estimating the relative distribution. Then we extend it to assess the impact of selected covariates—related to the personal characteristics of the samples—on the existing gender gap in both countries. In more detail, models for income were fitted to empirical data from Poland and Italy, from the European Survey of Income and Living Conditions (wave 2018). Afterwards, their parameters were employed to obtain the estimates of relative distribution characteristics. The methods applied in the study turned out to be relevant to describe the gender gap over the entire income range. Finally, the results of the empirical analysis are discussed to reveal similarities and substantial differences between the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of how entrepreneurial a region or country is, has generally been shaped by a narrow view of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship. In the case of Germany, this has led to a characterization of Germany as not being particularly entrepreneurial. Such a view is at odds with the remarkable, high-performing family business, widely held to be the backbone of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the interpretation prevalent in entrepreneurship literature is problematic due to a too narrow operationalization of the entrepreneurship concept. As Zahra (2007; 2014) emphasized, context matters for entrepreneurship, especially on a local or spatial level. One particular organizational manifestation of entrepreneurship, family business, may be congruent in specific spatial and institutional contexts but not in others. Other geographic and institutional contexts may be congruent with the contrasting startups. Thus, an important and novel contribution of this paper is to analyze the geography of family business as distinct from startups: two ends of the entrepreneurship continuum, embedded in different kinds of entrepreneurial ecosystems. We generate innovative maps working with official data, showing the distinct distribution of both kinds of entrepreneurship in different ecosystems. These findings are connected with spatial effects, living conditions and lead to recommendations for policy measures. The paper focuses on Germany, because startups as well as family business are prevalent and can be found in all regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology innovation improves efficiency, gives society new and enhanced goods and services through economic reform, and raises their living conditions. This study examined the impact of economic reform on technological innovation using the system generalised method of moments and panel quantile regressions to account for simultaneity and reverse causality. The empirical findings conclude that economic reform significantly impacted technological innovation in 79 nations from 1995 to 2017. More importantly, we verify the positive effect of economic reform on technological innovation by addressing endogenous and robustness checks via various methods and sub-samples. Furthermore, the mechanism of this relationship was explored. Therefore, the research findings offer an alternative method for national "gove'nments to promote innovation output by reinforcing government effectiveness, financia" sec'or development, and the degree of democracy transparency. Finally, economic proposals are discussed based on the findings and estimation strategies. The study examines the impacts of economic reforms on technological innovation in a panel of 79 economies over 1995–2017. Using GMM and panel quantile regressions, empirical findings indicate that economic reforms promote technological innovations. The positive effect of economic reforms on innovation operates through government effectiveness, financial development, and democracy. Intellectual Patent Protection Act controls inadequate competitiveness and preserves a fair market climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of adequate and transparent wages at EU level has been identified as a key pillar for ensuring decent working and living conditions and for building fair and resilient economies and societies. However, as our analysis shows, the implementation of such a reform still faces major challenges, both institutional in terms of the diversity of national minimum wage regimes and levels, and economic and organisational, which may have negative consequences if not addressed effectively and coherently. Against this background, this article aims to analyse European policies on adequate and transparent minimum wages and their usefulness in the current context, especially at the national level, assessing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moro women's participation in the Bangsamoro peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) illuminates some feats and challenges to the UN Women, Peace and Security Agenda (2000) of improving women's lives post-conflict. From interviews, secondary literature, and document analysis, I found that Moro women's participation secured legal benefits for women in the peace agreements and legitimised the Bangsamoro peace negotiation to observers. Yet consistent with the MILF's push for self-determination, the negotiating panels reserved particulars of women's rights as a post-peace agreement agenda, for discussion within the Bangsamoro. I argue that Moro women's participation in the peace talks opened the space to realise, but does not guarantee, feminist goals of better living conditions for marginalised women and sustainable peace in the negotiation's implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of windows and balconies in Layla AlAmmar's Silence Is A Sense (2021) and Rawi Hage's Beirut Hellfire Society (2018). In these two works, written by diasporic Arab writers, the two literary motifs of the window and the balcony play a significant role in framing the political, social, and cultural conditions the characters live in. The two motifs have long been recurrent in literature, carrying a variety of connotations. However, when it comes to diasporic Arab writers, windows and balconies would carry entirely new implications in the contexts of war or in diaspora. Through a close reading of the two texts, this study focuses on the representation of windows and balconies. It focuses on the role the window and the balcony play in helping characters either to connect with or disconnect from the outside world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Stephen Velychenko's book, "Life and Death in Revolutionary Ukraine: Living Conditions, Violence, and Demographic Catastrophe, 1917–1923," examines the causes of death in Ukraine during the Civil War. The book is divided into two parts, with the first three chapters focusing on living conditions under the tsars, the Ukrainian nationalist governments, and the Bolsheviks. The following two chapters explore the violence perpetrated by the Bolshevik and Ukrainian nationalist forces. The author argues that disease and malnutrition were more deadly and pervasive than attacks on civilians. While the account of Bolshevik violence is persuasive, the author's defense of Ukrainian violence against Jews is seen as a defensive polemic and fails to engage with the arguments made by historians studying Ukrainian involvement in the pogroms. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper we analyse the impact of different living conditions on the length of the femur, as a proxy for stature, of three Mediterranean samples with known historical contexts, and assess sex differentials in femur length changes. The first collection analysed is composed of 18th century plague victims who had suffered several previous starvation episodes. The second collection, from the 19th century, lived through comparatively better times. The third is from the 20th century, when living conditions were better than during the two previous centuries. We compared the femur lengths of females and males between the three collections using Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon statistical tests. The median value of male femur lengths increased over time, as expected. However, the median values of the female sample decreased in the 19th century, while the differences between the 18th and the 20th centuries samples were not statistically significant. The samples from the 18th and 20th centuries are reliable sources, but for the 19th century collection, we have assumed a possible bias in the socio-economic representativeness of the female sample. While different trends in sexual dimorphism in stature have been observed in other studies, the non-significant difference between female femur length from the 18th and the 20th centuries is unexpected, given improvements in living conditions.

Abstract Background and Aims Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is among the top public health concerns around the globe. Migrants, especially forced migrants, could be at higher risk of acquiring and transmitting AMR during their journeys or in host countries. There is limited understanding regarding migrants' living conditions and the wider factors contributing to their risk of acquiring infections, and behaviors around antimicrobial use, and AMR development. In this study, we aimed to explore transit experiences, living conditions, and antibiotic use of migrants living in the United Kingdom. Methods We conducted semistructured qualitative interviews with 27 participants and identified five themes regarding migrants' journey and their living conditions during transit and after arriving in the United Kingdom, their access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and their use of antibiotics. Results Migrants, particularly forced migrants, experienced unfavorable living conditions, poor access to WASH, and challenges in accessing healthcare, which further contributed to health conditions like urinary and skin problems. Isolation and difficulty in accessing healthcare played significant roles in migrants' perceived need for storing and using antibiotics as a safety net. Conclusion The findings highlight the need for coordinated and multilevel interventions to address these challenges and contribute toward tackling AMR and improving the health of this population group.