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We study sales dynamics of grocery chain stores during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemics in Italy. We document a sustained growth in revenues for storable products, such as food staples and household supplies, arising right before restrictions to mobility were introduced, and protracted throughout the whole lockdown period. We further look into the revenue surge, by disentangling the role of different types of stores. We find that the increase has been driven by the dynamics of smaller outlets, located in urban areas, closer to the city center, while hypermarkets faced a drop during the lockdown period, plausibly related to their more peripheral position. We also exploit both the remarkable granularity of scanner data, and the staggered implementation of restrictions across Italian regions to causally identify the short-term effects of mobility constraints on outlets' sales. According to our estimates, large grocery stores in areas subject to lockdown measures earned revenues around 10 percent lower than their control group's.

This paper asks both whether it is possible to identify a clear shape or trajectory to human history as a whole and what significance or meaning we can attach to such a trajectory. It will argue that modern historical research within many different disciplines does indeed allow us to identify some striking shapes to the history of our species. It will also argue that those shapes are full of meaning for understanding the nature and significance of our strange species. Finally, it will end with some speculative ideas about how human history may evolve in the distant future in an attempt to see if we can perhaps glimpse what human history will look like when the human story has ended., Historical Social Research Vol. 48, No. 1 (2023)

Objective:To compare and evaluate the prevalence of food and beverage marketing on the livestreaming platforms Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming, as well as examine growth of food and beverage marketing on these platforms over a 17-month period of data collection.Design:Cross-sectional data were analysed across three livestreaming platforms and six food and beverage categories: alcohol, candy, energy drinks, snacks, sodas and restaurants.Setting:Stream titles of livestreamed events as well as corresponding hours watched on Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming.Participants:None.Results:There were significant differences between the use of food and beverage brand mentions in stream titles across all three studied platforms (P < 0·05), as well as hours watched across platforms (P < 0·05). Energy drinks dominated food and beverage brand mentions across platforms, followed by restaurants, soda and snacks. All platforms demonstrated growth over the 17-month data collection period. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both immediate and sustained growth across all platforms, with the greatest impact observed on the Twitch platform.Conclusions:Food and beverage marketing as measured through stream titles is widely prevalent across the three most popular livestreaming platforms, particularly for energy drinks. Food marketing on these platforms experienced growth over the past 17 months which was accelerated substantially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future work should assess the sustained impact this growth may have on marketing practices and eating behaviour.

Novel diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals are increasingly becoming a central part of personalized medicine. Continued innovation in the development of new radiopharmaceuticals is key to sustained growth and advancement of precision medicine. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in multiple fields of medicine to develop and validate better tools for patient diagnosis and therapy, including in radiopharmaceutical design. In this review, we first discuss common in silico approaches and focus on their utility and challenges in radiopharmaceutical development. Next, we discuss the practical applications of in silico modeling in design of radiopharmaceuticals in various diseases.

espanolEl objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los contactos que tuvieron lugar desde la primera parte de la Edad del Bronce en el Egeo, el Mediterraneo oriental, el Levante y el Oriente Proximo con la isla de Creta y que incluyen la movilidad de gentes, objetos e ideas. Para ello es esencial rastrear en el registro arqueologico los hallazgos de la cultura material y las influencias que se detectan dentro de este sistema de redes de relaciones que se inicia en ese momento e incluso antes. Creta presenta determinadas caracteristicas que favorecen el desarrollo de un crecimiento sostenido, que permite la generacion de excedentes por encima del nivel de subsistencia a lo que se anade una situacion geografica unica al sur del Egeo y en el centro de un sistema de redes que conectan Anatolia, el Oriente Proximo, Egipto y Grecia continental. Por lo tanto, este sistema de redes favorece la movilidad de gentes y el intercambio de objetos, materias primas, innovaciones tecnologicas e ideas que llegan a la isla e impactan en sus elites favoreciendo el surgimiento del sistema palacial. EnglishThe aim of this paper is to analyse the interactions that took place from the Early Bronze Age onwards within the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant and Near East with the island of Crete including the mobility of people, objects and ideas. In this regard, it is essential to scrutinize the material culture and influences coming through these interactions in order to evaluate the data available as to date. The island of Crete, in the Bronze Age, presents several characteristics that favoured the development of a sustained growth: agriculturally advantageous territory capable of regional intensification and generation of surplus plus an excellent geographical situation, in the centre of an interaction network between Anatolia, Near East, Egypt and the Aegean. Thus, the interaction network, the mobility of people and the exchange of objects, undoubtedly had an impact in the inhabitants of the island, especially in the different elite groups producing the transmission of ideas and creating a form of cultural transmission.

It is a well known fact that economic development and distance to the equator are positively correlated variables in the world today. It is perhaps less well known that as recently as 1500 C.E. it was the other way around. The present paper provides a theory of why the ‘latitude gradient’ changed sign in the course of the last half millennium. In particular, we develop a dynamic model of economic and physiological development in which households decide upon the number and nutrition of their offspring. In this setting we demonstrate that relatively high metabolic costs of fertility, which may have emerged due to positive selection towards greater cold tolerance in locations away from the equator, would work to stifle economic development during pre-industrial times, yet allow for an early onset of sustained growth. As a result, the theory suggests a reversal of fortune whereby economic activity gradually shifts away from the equator in the process of long-term economic development. Our empirical results give supporting evidence for our hypothesis.

In the field of congenital heart surgery, tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) are a promising alternative to traditionally used synthetic grafts. Our group has pioneered the use of TEVGs as a conduit between the inferior vena cava and the pulmonary arteries in the Fontan operation. The natural history of graft remodeling and its effect on hemodynamic performance has not been well characterized. In this study, we provide a detailed analysis of the first U.S. clinical trial evaluating TEVGs in the treatment of congenital heart disease. We show two distinct phases of graft remodeling: an early phase distinguished by rapid changes in graft geometry and a second phase of sustained growth and decreased graft stiffness. Using clinically informed and patient-specific computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, we demonstrate how changes to TEVG geometry, thickness, and stiffness affect patient hemodynamics. We show that metrics of patient hemodynamics remain within normal ranges despite clinically observed levels of graft narrowing. These insights strengthen the continued clinical evaluation of this technology while supporting recent indications that reversible graft narrowing can be well tolerated, thus suggesting caution before intervening clinically.

A country's economy, in terms of productivity, poverty reduction and sustainable development, is related to its progress in innovation; therefore, it is of special interest to analyze and compare the indicators that measure innovation capacity. This study examines the evolution of innovation in Peru in recent years. A systematic search was conducted for data related to innovation indicators from the competitiveness rankings of the World Economic Forum, Ricyt, Indecopi, Sunedu, OECD, Concytec, Consejo Privado de Competitividad, among other organizations that evaluate global or regional performance. The results indicate that, during the last decade, Peru has shown some improvements in innovation; the number of patents granted has shown sustained growth, especially in universities; however, most of the indicators have not shown regular behavior, and some even showed drops. Likewise, Peruvian performance is still limited, especially when compared to other countries in the region such as Chile and Colombia, South American partners in the Pacific Alliance. In conclusion, despite Peru's remarkable macroeconomic growth in recent years, as well as the increased budget allocated to STI, the legal framework for intellectual property, the PCT system, university reform with research incentive policies, among other factors, Peru's performance in innovation has not reached the expected values, nor has it shown sustained and regular growth.

Education is fundamental to learning and is a pre-requisite for development. It is also imperative for sustained growth and development of a nation. There is still a long way to go for India in achieving Goal 4 and 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals quality education and gender equality by 2030. Despite several government initiatives and literacy programmes, a gender gap in literacy of 17% still persists. A collective effort is required to address these gaps , as women constitute two-thirds of the illiterate population in India. The present study has been conducted to assess the outcome of an adult literacy programme ‘Each One Enable One’ by undergraduate students at a college of the University of Delhi, targeted at women from poor socio-economic backgrounds residing in the neighbourhood of students. The study was conducted across 11 districts of Delhi, the Capital city of India, using a sample of 150 women. The results have revealed that literacy programme led to statistically significant gains in the overall literacy scores of women in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic and enhanced self-confidence of women. The study has highlighted the positive outcome of the Each One Enable One Program and has provided evidence for the need to upscale such initiatives.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the sustained growth of the state sector in the Chinese economy shows that Chinese model is very different from state capitalism, even more from liberal...

China is an intellectually overwhelming paradox within development thinking. On the one hand, it is regarded as an economic powerhouse pushing forward decades of sustained growth, which even during...

Tourism has made a significant contribution to Thailand's economy, bringing considerable tourism revenue to Thailand every year, and driving the sustained growth of related industries. This study focused on the factors that affect the performance of the hotel industry of Chiang Mai in Thailand, taking De Chai Hotel Group, a local large-scale hotel group, as a case study, and discussed the impact of COVID-19 on it and its countermeasures. This study also put forward relevant suggestions as a reference for the hotel industry to formulate management strategies and future development. JEL classification numbers: L25, L83. Keywords: Tourism, Hotel industry, Performance, COVID-19.

PurposeIdentifying if aid flows have contributed to economic growth or growth divergence between a sample of Asian and African countries is the purpose of this paper. Using data over the period of 1980–2015, the paper attempts to establish whether aid, in any of its forms, has played a role in economic growth in these countries.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive literature analysis over the past 70 years sets the scene for the paper. A panel data fixed-effects model is applied for each sample (Africa and Asia) between 1980 and 2015. Both theoretical predictions and empirical studies are used to derive the independent variables selected for modelling.FindingsThe findings strongly suggest that aid flows in both the Asian and African samples have no relation at all to either long-run growth paths or growth divergence. However, there is a suggestion in the case of the Africa sample that governance decline may well be the primary source of growth divergence.Research limitations/implicationsThis result cannot be generalised because it only focuses on six countries but as demonstrated in the paper, other possible samples (from both regions) actually make no difference to the results. It could also be argued (given the comprehensive literature analysis presented here) that it is not essential to have a theoretical relationship between aid and growth because aid is given to different countries with very different characteristics, needs, governance and policy environments.Practical implicationsDonor countries must play a more supervisory role to ensure aid flows are directed to the right channels in recipient countries. Aid should be given to countries which have a certain degree of macroeconomic stability and “good” policy to ensure effectiveness. They also need to pay attention to the sectoral distribution of aid as do recipient countries to better allocate aid flows to productive sectors that contribute to both short- and long-term growth.Social implicationsThese are not given much emphasis in this paper.Originality/valueMost aid–growth studies are based on a large number of countries from different regions with different characteristics or on a single country case. This paper compares between two samples of countries sharing the same characteristics to overcome the heterogeneity problem. This paper is based on a more protracted time series from 1980 to 2015 to capture more accurately the impact of foreign aid on economic growth.

In most developed countries, high growth firms (HGFs) are disproportionately responsible for net job creation, yet there is little information about how well such firms sustain their performance over time. Using GMM on a panel of 79,200 Romanian SMEs from 2000 to 2012, this paper evaluates the extent to which HGFs register stable and sustained growth over time, accounting for a variety of definitions for “high growth” that have been used in academic and policy literatures. Our results indicate that high growth SMEs are unable to maintain high growth rates for long, but do register lower volatility in growth rates and higher chances of survival. Identification of HGFs and results regarding growth volatility and persistence vary significantly with the specific definition of “high growth” used, as well as with the specific variable used to measure growth (e.g., revenue, employees, profit, productivity). Our findings have direct implications for growth policies and programs that depend on identifying HGFs.

The object of this research is the cities of Russia, while the subject is the dynamics of regional capitals by population size in post-Soviet period. The goal is to determine the types of dynamics and patterns of their territorial distribution. The typology considers the decline in population size in 1990s – 2010s and its subsequent restoration. In the course of research, the author processed statistical information based on population size of the cities and socioeconomic characteristics of regions of the Russian Federation. The areal approach was applied for determination of large territories with certain types of dynamics of the cities. The author is first to carry out classification of the dynamics of population size in post-Soviet Russia, highlighting the following four parts: extended restoration, incomplete restoration, stable growth, stable decline). The areas with most widespread types are defined. It is concluded that after a decline in 1990s – 2010s, in a relatively large part of regional capitals of Russia (about 42%), the population exceeded the size of 1991 by 2020. The dynamics of population size of regional capitals of national entities looks more favorable than the dynamics of regional capitals of the counties. A large monolith area of incomplete type of restoration covers the majority of Volga Region, Central Non-Black Earth area, part of Central Black Earth area and Northeastern European Russia. The type of extended restoration has two main monolith areas, one of which covers a part of Central Black Earth area and South-West, while another – the majority of Ural and Western Siberia, and a part of Eastern Siberia. Socioeconomic characteristics of the region, which reflect the level of its development and well-being, have correlational ties with dynamics of a regional capital, but do not fully explain the origin of areas of particular type of dynamics.

Este artigo examinou o processo de desenvolvimento regional do sudeste do Pará, identificado como a parte do Estado pertencente à região de referência denominada Centro Norte do Brasil. A metodologia utilizada foi o Índice de Desenvolvimento Regional e, como recorte temporal, os anos de 2000 a 2010. Os principais resultados apontam para uma região onde o município de Marabá se destaca como lugar central, mas Parauapebas e Tucuruí também têm destaque, de formas e intensidades diferentes. De modo geral, todos os municípios avançaram no conjunto dos indicadores. A região tem aptidão para crescimento sustentado em uma economia de base exportadora, necessitando investir em agregação de valor ao produto regional, fixar os ganhos e internalizar seus benefícios. Do ponto de vista do capital social, ocorreram melhoras no período analisado, havendo, porém, espaço para o fortalecimento do empoderamento da sociedade organizada. Palavras-chave: Desenvolvimento Regional. Centro Norte. Sudeste do Pará. Índice de Desenvolvimento Regional.

The rapid and sustained growth in use of public space closed-circuit television (CCTV) is well-documented. However, there are mixed findings as to the efficacy of CCTV in public places as a crime prevention or crime control measure. Analysis and exploration of findings from a national online survey of local councils across Australia conducted (by the Australian Institute of Criminology) in mid-2014 was conducted and is reported here. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the determinative factors in local councils’ decisions to install and maintain CCTV, the corresponding mechanisms of the network, and the prevalence of evaluations of public space CCTV systems across Australia. The findings illustrate a need for greater consideration of the objectives of CCTV which align with the purpose and perceived benefits of the systems, as well as the coverage and operational framework available to support ongoing implementation. Moreover, robust evaluations which assess the benefits of CCTV for deterrence, reduction or investigation of crime in demographically and geographically diverse areas is needed.

A partir de la historiografía más destacada, este artículo revisa la historia económica de la región antioqueña durante el periodo 1760-1810, mostrando los cambios más significativos de las estructuras y, en particular, de las relaciones dinámicas entre los diferentes sectores económicos. Teniendo presente la diferenciación y especialización de las distintas regiones neogranadinas, se evidencian las particularidades del caso antioqueño, caracterizado por el crecimiento sostenido de la población, el acelerado proceso de mestizaje, la descomposición de la institución esclavista y el predominio de población libre y multiétnica. Este agente económico permite comprender el desarrollo de la minería aurífera en manos de los llamados mazamorreros, cuya capacidad de consumo explica la proliferación de personas dedicadas al comercio, así como la creación de un mercado interno.

Can an economy achieve sustained growth without significant improvement in institutional quality? What are the differences in the driving forces of short- and long-term growth? This paper tries to ...

Purpose Constant or decreasing returns and increasing returns to scale are two kinds of mechanism in economic growth. The goal of supply-side structural reform is to promote the establishment of the mechanism with increasing returns to scale. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach This paper argues that the overall economic structure of the developing economy has been divided into the sector of constant or decreasing returns to scale and the sector of increasing returns to scale due to the dual economic structure. Among them, the supply-side structural reform is mainly to reduce the sector of decreasing returns to scale and increase the sector of increasing returns to scale. Based on the hypothesis of such two-sector economic structure in the supply side of developing economies and on the industrial data, this paper empirically tests the returns to scale of China’s supply structure. The result suggests that so far the sector of constant or decreasing returns to scale dominates the supply structure of China’s economic growth, which results in the state of decreasing returns to scale in China’s overall economy. Findings Therefore, to realize the long-term sustained growth and transformation of the development pattern of China’s economy, the authors must carry out the supply-side structural reform, vigorously develop the modern industrial sectors characterized by modern knowledge and technology, and promote the development of an innovation-driven economy. Originality/value Besides, the authors must accelerate the transformation from traditional industrial sectors to modern industrial sectors, actively promote China’s industrial structure toward rationalization and high gradation, as well as build a modern industrial system so as to facilitate the formation of the mechanism of increasing returns to scale and accelerate the transformation of the driving force of China’s economic growth.

A recent surge in sensing platforms for sports has been accompanied by drastic improvements in the quality of data analytics. This improved quality has catalyzed notable progress in training techniques, athletic performance tracking, real-time strategy management, and even better refereeing. However, despite a sustained growth in the number of para-athletes, there has been little exploration into the accessibility and data analytics needs for adaptive sports. We interviewed 18 participants in different roles (athletes, coaches, and high-performance managers) across six adaptive sports. We probed them on their current practices, existing challenges, and analytical needs. We uncovered common themes prevalent across all six sports and further examined findings in three groups: (1) blind sports; (2) wheelchair sports; and (3) adaptive sports with high equipment. Our study highlights the challenges faced by different adaptive sports and unearths opportunities for future research to improve accessibility and address specific needs for each sport.

This paper addresses the dynamics of space occupation of villages in the west of the Argentine Republic from the analysis of radiocarbon dates of La Rioja province over the last 2000 years. A bimodal curve of greater intensity was observed in the construction of social landscapes with peaks between 400 and 1000 CE and 1300–1600 CE, approximately. Processes of occupation and spatial reorganization of the east–west vector were identified associated with the use of more stable water basins in Andean environments with a predominance of arid conditions. Remarkably sustained growth was observed in general terms in Sierra de Velasco and Famatina during the period 400–900 CE. Finally, the Bermejo River Basin became the scene for the settlement of La Rioja between 800 and 1500 CE., The authors would like to thank Conicet (PUE 0125-CRILAR and PIP 11220150100307), ANPCyT (PICT 2018-02138), the National University of Cuyo (SIIP UNCuyo 06/G787), and the National University of La Rioja (UNLaR 00-07644/2018) for funding our projects.

Online learning for primary and secondary students has expanded significantly in the United States during the last two decades. In addition to the sustained growth of online learning, many schools and districts used online learning to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. As school leaders and policymakers move more students into online courses, they need information about which students succeed and struggle online. We examine the relationship between student traits and academic success in a statewide online learning program. We find that students identified with specific exceptionalities, students who identify as male, students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, and students from cities or fringe rural areas were more likely to struggle in their online courses. This information comes at a vital time as school leaders seek to determine the effects of widespread online learning, make decisions about the support students will need after the pandemic ends, and develop the best online learning approaches when in-person schooling returns.

A pesar de un crecimiento sostenido del PBI del Perú en los últimos veinte años, la pobreza monetaria aún es el principal problema económico y social. Este fenómeno se extiende a dos factores importantes: la inclusión financiera y el empleo informal, que tienen implicancias en la sostenibilidad de los mecanismos impulsores del crecimiento económico para aliviar la pobreza. Utilizando el modelo econométrico de mínimos cuadrados generalizados factibles (FGLS) con efectos fijos (FEGLS), a fin de controlar los efectos heterogéneos entre los departamentos del Perú durante el periodo 2010-2019, este documento evalúa empíricamente el impacto de la inclusión financiera y el empleo informal en la pobreza monetaria. Los resultados empíricos muestran que la expansión de la inclusión financiera beneficiaría a la reducción de la pobreza monetaria, en tanto con respecto al empleo informal se revela que existe una relación negativa: se determina que su desarrollo está asociado con la reducción de la pobreza, pero no es determinante para su alivio. Despite the sustained growth of Peru's GDP in the last 20 years, Monetary Poverty is still the main economic and social problem, this phenomenon extends to 2 important factors such as financial inclusion and informal employment that have implications for sustainability of the driving mechanisms of economic growth to alleviate poverty. Using the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) econometric model with fixed effects (FEGLS) to control for heterogeneous effects among Peruvian departments during the 2010-2019 period, this paper empirically assesses the impact of financial inclusion and informal employment in monetary poverty. The empirical results show that, the expansion of financial inclusion would benefit the reduction of monetary poverty, with respect to informal employment it is revealed that there is a negative relationship, it is determined that the development of informal employment is associated with the reduction of poverty, but it is not determining for your alleviation.

The adjustment of the regional industrial structure is closely related to the sustained growth of the regional economy and has a profound impact on social progress. The external policy conditions, the characteristics of its own innate resource, technological innovation, and talent input determine the level and status of the regional industrial structure. The level of industrial structure transformation capability is the key to achieving high-quality economic development in Shandong Province. A comprehensive evaluation of the industrial structure transformation capability cannot be achieved with a single indicator. This paper uses SPSS software and factor analysis to extract demand factors, structural factors, foreign trade factors, investment factors, and technological innovation factors that reflect the transformation capability of the industrial structure to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the transformation capabilities of the industrial structure. It also conducts a comparative analysis with the Jiaodong Economic Circle, the Provincial Capital Economic Circle, and the Southern Shandong Economic Circle, which is of positive significance for promoting the coordinated development of Shandong Province to prevent the adverse effects of economic imbalance.