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This article explores the challenges of assessing local business activity through the lens of sustainability and innovation in success metrics. Current economic realities and environmental challenges have required the adaptation of traditional assessment methods to adequately reflect all aspects of business impact. The study begins with a critical look at outdated assessment approaches that neglect the long-term perspective and focus on immediate economic results. The paper emphasizes that such methods often ignore a wide range of factors, from the social environment to the environment. The author presents a new model of metrics that balance economic progress with environmental and social responsibility. These metrics place a particular emphasis on combining data on business impact on society and the ecosystem, allowing for a more accurate and comprehensive assessment. To implement the proposed model, attention is paid to the need to create information systems capable of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data according to the new criteria. This will play a key role in providing regional political and economic leaders with the tools to make informed decisions. The article also illustrates how some regions are already successfully applying these metrics, demonstrating significant progress in their approaches to assessing entrepreneurial activity. These examples confirm the potential for achieving sustainability and well-being through the thoughtful application of these approaches. It concludes by highlighting that the shift to assessing entrepreneurial activity with a sustainable development perspective is not only important for the current state of regions, but also contributes to ensuring a better future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies highlight the urgent issue of groundwater depletion due to overexploitation. The United Nations' World Water Development Report (2023) warns that if current extraction rates persist, many regions could face severe groundwater shortages in the coming decades. A 2021 study in Nature reports that about one-third of the world's largest groundwater basins are depleting faster than they are replenished, escalating the risk of critical shortages. In Chickballapur District, excessive agricultural activity has led to an imbalance between groundwater loss and recharge. To address this challenge, a weighted overlay analysis of spatial layers in QGIS was employed to identify potential groundwater zones. This methodical approach involved mapping topographic features and integrating six spatial layers: slope, geomorphology, lithology, drainage, lineament and land use/cover. Each subcategory was ranked and scored based on expert opinion and existing literature. The Central Ground Water Board data was used to validate the resulting groundwater prospect map. The study further included an assessment of groundwater prospects across administrative units by superimposing the administrative boundaries on the final map. Calculating the percentage of land within each groundwater prospect category is crucial for effective groundwater management at the administrative level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies highlight the urgent issue of groundwater depletion due to overexploitation. The United Nations’ World Water Development Report (2023) warns that if current extraction rates persist, many regions could face severe groundwater shortages in the coming decades. A 2021 study in Nature reports that about one-third of the world’s largest groundwater basins are depleting faster than they are replenished, escalating the risk of critical shortages. In Chickballapur District, excessive agricultural activity has led to an imbalance between groundwater loss and recharge. To address this challenge, a weighted overlay analysis of spatial layers in QGIS was employed to identify potential groundwater zones. This methodical approach involved mapping topographic features and integrating six spatial layers: slope, geomorphology, lithology, drainage, lineament and land use/cover. Each subcategory was ranked and scored based on expert opinion and existing literature. The Central Ground Water Board data was used to validate the resulting groundwater prospect map. The study further included an assessment of groundwater prospects across administrative units by superimposing the administrative boundaries on the final map. Calculating the percentage of land within each groundwater prospect category is crucial for effective groundwater management at the administrative level.

Over recent decades, tourism has undergone rapid growth, contributing to economic growth. Moreover, recent studies have included environmental variables in their analyses, although they tend to use a country-level approach despite the fact that tourism development takes place at a regional level. This study analyzes the relationship between tourism, economic growth, and the environment in Spain during 2004–2021, using an innovative approach that analyzes the data at a regional level. The hypothesis is that tourism affects economic growth and the environment. Using econometric analysis through CS-ARDL and causality analysis, the short- and long-term relationships of the three analyzed variables have been identified, adjusting these estimates according to the presence of cross-dependency between the regions. The results verified the positive effects of tourism on economic growth, and the adverse effects of carbon dioxide emissions on tourism. Theoretical and policy implications are suggested, and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Agricultural land‐use change is an important driver of pest population dynamics, and can alter source–sink dynamics and the concentration‐dilution effects of the landscape. Understanding the effects of land use on pests at both landscape and regional levels is essential for the development of sustainable pest management strategies given the large changes occurring in cropping systems in China. At the landscape level, we investigated the impacts of landscape composition and edge density on pheromone trap catch of codling moth (Cydia pomonella) in apple orchards, in Aksu, Xinjiang, China. At the regional scale, we conducted a meta‐analysis using data from studies performed across the Aksu area in recent decades, to assess the relationship between trends in codling moth abundance and the area of apple cultivation. RESULTS: Both extensive planting of apple and large areas of annual crops in the landscape increased the abundance of codling moth, whereas the presence of secondary host plants (peach, pear, walnut, plum, and apricot) had a negative effect. Seminatural habitats and landscape edge density did not significantly affect codling moth abundance. The responses of different generations of codling moth to landscape factors were varied. At the regional level, codling moth occurrence was positively correlated with the expansion of apple production areas. CONCLUSION: Expansion of apple cultivation increases the abundance of codling moth in agricultural landscapes. We recommend decreasing the area devoted to monocultures of apple when designing agricultural landscapes and increasing plantings of secondary host crops to dilute and reduce the abundance of codling moth. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific literature has begun to analyze the capacity of tourism as a development instrument, although until now, it has relied on a country level focus. This innovative work analyzes the relationship between tourism and development at a regional level, establishing the hypothesis that tourism affects different dimensions of development (human development, poverty, and income inequality) and, furthermore, that differences exist at a regional level within the same country. Regional data from Spain are used for the 2004–2021 period, applying the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test to analyze the relationships between these variables in global terms while also disaggregating between touristic and non‐touristic regions. The results only verify that tourism has a positive effect on improving human development in regions of high tourism intensity. These results suggest the need for tourism policies that are linked to the regional administrative level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern conditions in Ukraine require a rethinking of approaches to the formation of rights, restrictions, responsibilities, real estate accounting, and assessment of factors influencing these processes. Therefore, the article aims to identify the factors affecting the formation and use of the multi‐purpose cadaster as a multi‐level information system, which allows it to form a systemic environment and develop the theoretical and methodological foundations of the territorial development of regions. As a result, it is established that the multi‐purpose cadaster is a modern information system that forms the basis for the implementation of the European land administration system, provides land and real estate management, taking into account spatial, urban, environmental, and investment factors, and the level of stakeholder interaction at the regional level. Finally, the relevance of the research consists in the fact that military actions, the consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic, deforming economic transformations, imbalances in regional ties, and social imbalances have a negative impact. In such conditions, the development and implementation of a multi‐purpose cadaster at the regional level are of particular importance, taking into account the impact of spatial, urban, environmental, and investment factors and European experience in implementing land relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of dynamic events have taken place in recent years, leading to an uncertain global and national situation. One of these is the signing of the European Green Deal, which attempts to make Europe a climate-neutral continent. This, in turn, has further worsened the situation of some European countries, including Bulgaria. The presence of three active coal mining complexes in the country largely exposes it to serious challenges in the transition stages and hinders the finding of appropriate methods and instruments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The aim of the study is to explore the main socio-economic challenges in the transition to a low-carbon economy at a regional level and to present some of the author's views on limiting the negative impacts on regional development. The analysis of the available data shows that the sustainable dimensions of the three coal mining regions is highly threatened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Spain has enacted two national laws on historical and democratic memory (in 2007 and 2022), alongside numerous laws at the sub-national level. The significance of these laws goes beyond their symbolic value; they not only contribute to collective memory but also acknowledge the plight of victims. This paper aims to analyze the factors influencing regional regulations on historical and democratic memory in Spain. Our focus will be on the drafting processes, exploring the political factors that shape their approval in different regions. Additionally, we will investigate regions that have yet to enact memory laws to understand the reasons behind the absence of such legislation.

The article examines the prospects and development strategies of the restaurant industry at the regional level in Ukraine. Despite the challenges caused by military actions, the restaurant industry in Ukraine has shown remarkable resilience, as recent years have seen predominantly positive dynamics in the growth of new establishments. This indicates that the industry is recovering and is able to continue its development. The Ukrainian foodservice market has characteristic regional features. In some areas, the structure of visitors and target audiences changes, also the demand for restaurants in different segments shifts. There is an increasing demand for simpler and cheaper dishes, as well as a rise in the popularity of delivery services. In some regions, difficulties arise with the supply of key products for specialized establishments, leading to an increase in prices. In regions close to the combat zone, the foodservice market faces significant challenges, particularly due to shelling, infrastructure destruction, while in other areas, it recovers more quickly than in others. The development of the restaurant industry is crucial for the growth of the economy and the well-being of the population. Therefore, it is more important than ever to focus on promising areas for the development of the industry and with it to work out new strategies, considering modern challenges.

This work analyzes the dynamic relationship existing between tourism and economic growth through the use of different indicators to measure tourism activity, according to regional data from Spain taken from 2004 to 2021 that are linked to the NUTS‐2 level of the nomenclature of the territorial units for statistics of the European Union. This is an innovative approach as compared to the majority of existing works analyzing this relationship at a country level. However, it is widely recognized that the contribution of tourism to growth takes place in the form of regional development. By introducing the notion of distance between the dynamic trajectories of the different regions, an analysis of hierarchical clusters was performed, enabling the identification of regional groups having similar behavior in terms of tourism performance and economic growth. In this work, it has been established that the impact of a region's total (national and international) tourism, in terms of both number of tourists and tourism expenditure, is the most appropriate indicator for tourism analysis at a regional level. Furthermore, it identifies the characteristics that are found in tourist regions having a higher level of economic growth, from a tourism perspective: high tourist spending, hotel accommodation, motivation for leisure, longer average stay, the region's orientation towards the tourism industry, and, mainly, the impact of international tourism. Therefore, those responsible for tourism destination management should implement policies that favor the arrival of tourist flows with these characteristics if they intend to promote tourism as an instrument for greater economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of public administration at the regional level was considered in the context of the subject «Innovative Management». The development of local self-government is of great importance for Ukraine and its population. The territorial community is the main subject of local self-government, which has its own functions and powers. The main role in management is performed by local self-government bodies that interact with state administrations. Regional military administrations have become key in the system of coordination and management of military issues at the regional level. The public plays a significant role in military administration and ensuring national security through active participation in public administration.

The article analyzes the domestic historiography devoted to the problem of preparing and holding elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. Special attention is paid to modern Russian research. If in the Soviet period the main attention of historians was focused on the activities of the Bolshevik Party in relation to the Constituent Assembly, then since the 1990s. the range of studied problems has expanded significantly, new sources have been introduced into scientific circulation. A major researcher of various aspects of the history of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly is Doctor of Historical Sciences L.G. Protasov. His detailed work became the basis for many modern researchers. Every year interest in the history of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly does not weaken, and the list of problems considered by historians is increasing. The author identifies several areas of modern research: the election activities of political parties in preparation for the elections, the peculiarities of the electoral process in the regions, the attitude of individual politicians to the Constituent Assembly, the specifics of historical sources directly related to the elections, the attitude of certain categories of the population to the Constitution, as well as the consequences of the dispersal of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. The author concluded that, despite the available variety of studies, a number of issues require further development, including the work of election commissions on the ground, violations in the election procedure, the activities of political parties and their representatives during the elections. The regions of the Central Industrial District of Russia remain poorly investigated.

The article analyzes the institutional and technological features of the calculus (representation) and predictive assessment of the balance of labor resources for regional economic systems.The review is carried out in the general context of the particular tasks of developing egional strategies: goal-setting, analysis and forecasting.The theoretical and practical experience of the laboratory of mathematical methods of data analysis of IPRE RAS and St. Petersburg EMI RAS (until 2018) in the framework of the direction “Economic and mathematical methods for state regulation of socially oriented economies at the regional level within the framework of innovative development models” is presented.

The article examines the main theoretical aspects of state regulation of the development of the social infrastructure of agro-industrial production. The purpose of the article is to develop directions for improving state management approaches to the development of the social infrastructure of the agricultural sector on the basis of decentralization. A sharp drop in agricultural production and productivity was caused by the pandemic and post-war crisis and the instability of the macroeconomic situation in the country. The deepening of the crisis also occurs due to slow and limited reforms of certain aspects of agrarian policy. The importance of state support reorientation for the development of the agricultural sector from the production sector to the improvement of social infrastructure have been justified. It has been proved that the strategic aspects of agricultural development should be based on the principle of rational use of financial support. This approach is based on the possibility of substituting financial support for agricultural production by focusing resources on the development of social infrastructure. Shifting the priorities of state support for agriculture directly from the production of agricultural products and supporting prices for agricultural products to financing the development of social infrastructure is the need of the hour and corresponds to the intention of Ukraine's entry into international integration structures. Ensuring the technological competitiveness of an agricultural enterprise should be supported by the state through the introduction of investment and innovative development of the the agrarian sphere infrastructure and the implementation of mechanisms for technical and technological re-equipment of enterprises. A new paradigm of rural development have been considered. It is based on the expansion of the powers of local self-government bodies and the use of multi-level governance with the active involvement of public representatives in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most settlements of Ukraine there are no existing programs for municipal solid waste management (MSW) and schemes for sanitary cleaning of settlements, there are no registers of waste generation, treatment and disposal and disposal sites, which leads to the formation of landfills, deteriorating sanitation settlements and increase the level of environmental danger in the region. The article presents the results of research that indicate that the existing structure of the MSW management system in Ukraine at the regional level (on the example of Zhytomyr region) is imperfect. It is characterized by fragmentation, disunity and heterogeneity. The peculiarity of the system is the lack of interaction between government agencies, environmental services and the local community, which does not provide a sufficient level of control over the sanitary condition of territories, as well as collection, transportation, disposal and disposal of solid waste. The aim of the study is to strategically analyze the preconditions for the implementation of municipal solid waste management systems to increase the level of environmental safety in the united territorial communities through the introduction of environmental logistics and crowdsourcing mechanisms. The methodological basis for assessing and selecting methods and ways to improve the environmental safety of the study region by improving the waste management system (hereinafter - waste management) is a systematic approach that allows analysis of the problem and ensures search efficiency for management decisions. The SWOT and PEST analysis identified the strengths and weaknesses of the existing waste management system and the prerequisites for the implementation of a modern system of solid waste management. The increase in the number of business structures that are ready and able to implement modern methods of waste disposal and identified the availability of modern innovative management methods in public authorities and local governments. However, the low efficiency of the existing waste management system, the lack of communication and coordination of actions between stakeholders in solving the problem pose a threat to maintaining the environmental security of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than ever, the world needs Education for Sustainable Development. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets are at the core of the 2030 Agenda. Their scope and ambition have been strengthened in relation with the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. The three dimensions of Sustainable Development (environmental, social, economic) are now integrated in a transversal way. The Objectives meet all the challenges of Sustainable Development, such as climate, biodiversity, energy, water but also poverty, gender equality, economic prosperity, peace, agriculture, and education.

Urban disaster risk management and reduction requires the development and periodic updating of regional building inventories. However, the development of such inventories can be very cost-intensive and time-consuming, making this a challenging task, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. This article discusses a mixed-mode building inventory data collection framework using a rapid and cost-effective remote survey technique that can be deployed in various geographic contexts. A key component of the proposed approach is an inter-rater reliability analysis of data collected from traditional sidewalk surveys and remote surveys for a small subset of buildings in the considered building portfolio, which is used to assess the suitability of the remote survey for the location(s) considered. The framework is demonstrated by developing a regional database of school buildings in the Central Sulawesi region of Indonesia. The database consists of 2536 school buildings from 454 elementary and high schools in the Palu, Sigi, and Donggala regions, susceptible to earthquake-induced ground shaking, tsunami, liquefaction, and landslides. The developed database can be used in pre-event/long-term risk analysis and management, post-event/near-real-time loss estimation, and regional-level decision-making on school assets and related policies. The database has been made available for public use and can be readily harmonized with similar databases for other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key element of the European Union's (EU) attempt to foster citizens' EU identification is its goal to improve citizens' quality of life via its Cohesion policy (CP). Although recent findings demonstrate that the allocation of CP money positively affects sub‐national parties' positions on EU integration and CP, we still do not know if sub‐national parties actually talk about CP issues in their manifestos. Using a unique data set based on manually coded 812 manifestos written by 95 different parties in 47 regions in Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2016, it is argued that several party‐level characteristics are decisive for sub‐national parties' emphasis of CP issues. Even though sub‐national parties emphasize CP issues only to a small degree, the results of multilevel mixed‐effects Tobit regressions show that it is particularly regional government parties which emphasize CP issues when drafting their regional election manifestos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the study in the article is the e-commerce market in Europe. The aim of the article is to analyze the regional features of e-commerce in Europe using the main development indicators of e-commerce. The paper uses the method of desktop research, i.e. the analysis of available data, which is to obtain and study information that is already in the form of reports, statistics and research. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 on the development of e-commerce in Europe was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At different stages, all countries of the world are going through the demographic ageing process, with the most diverse economic and social implications. Romania has entered this process since the communist period, as a result of both the demographic transition and the transformations imposed by the demographic and economic policies implemented by the state. After 1990, the transition period has accelerated the increasing pace of this phenomenon, especially through increased migration, declining fertility and changes in the labour market. The regional economic, social and demographic gaps inherited from the past were accentuated after the fall of the totalitarian regime, so that the population ageing has intensified and it is experienced differently at the territorial level. This study aims at identifying the determinants of the increase in population ageing, along with the decrease in the share of young population, across the eight development regions of Romania, during the 1995- 2018 period.

The article introduces new methodological foundations for analyzing the current ethno-social and ethno-confessional situation in various constituents of the Russian Federation, namely an ethno-social and confessional monitoring based on systematic, selective, and process approaches. Modern ethnic and confessional processes manifest the transformation of traditional social institutions and communications in traditional economy and social organization as a result of state policy. The structural and functional method made it possible to identify the historical context of the impact that religious organizations produce on traditional social institutions. The authors tested a systematic approach to the analysis of the ethnosocial and ethno-confessional situation on three levels: 1) interstate (macro) level in the transboundary zones of southern Russia), 2) regional (mega) level of the fractal and network social organization, 3) micro level within the boundaries of sample polygons. The article also focuses on the problems of secondary analysis of historiographical sources about the history of state national and confessional politics in the XIX – early XXI centuries. It introduces basic definitions used in regional ethno-social monitoring. The topic needs further integrated and applied research.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the degree of second victim syndrome and the desire for supports among nurses working in regional hospitals in China. Background: The evidence on the prevalence of second victim among health care workers remains inconsistent and has rarely focused on the regional level. Methods: A quantitative, descriptive, survey‐based, online, cross‐sectional study was conducted among 1,194 nurses in three regional hospitals. Results: A total of 918 (76.88%) nurses, who reported have had experienced patient safety incidents, were selected for the final analysis. The mean score for the Chinese version of the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (C‐SVEST) was (65.58 ± 10.05). Psychological distress (15.91 ± 2.99) and practice distress (15.26 ± 4.32) had the highest score. The mean score for the desired form of support was (4.29 ± 0.614). The option 'the opportunity to get guidance and suggestions for future work' was rated the most desired. Conclusion: Nurses working at the regional level reported a similar degree of second victim experience and support desire, while the prevalence was much higher. Implications for Nursing Management: The second victim phenomenon has become increasingly complex and challenging and deserves more attention. Not only Safety‐I but also Safety‐II approaches are suggested to integrated to patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has been a host country to migrants for decades through its attractive immigration policy. To enrich the literature, this article analyses the impact of immigration on the Canadian labour market at the regional level. For this purpose, 10 provinces of Canada have been selected for this study with the data spanning over 12 years from 2006 to 2017. Through the empirical analysis, the article finds there is a significant negative impact of immigration on the native employment level. Whereas the opposite results are found on the national level and the impact on the income of native workers is found to be negative and significant. The employed natives are also found to be migrating to other states at a higher rate in regions where immigration is higher. These results show that natives employees in the labour market tend to migrate and immigration hence offsetting the wage effects on the regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity and its maintaining mechanism (community assembly) shift along resource availability gradients at local and regional levels. It is necessary to identify key natural factors shaping community assembly or diversity patterns, so that understanding the patterns of diversity and assembly along these factors across local to regional scales. In this study, we investigated the six local sites of plant community in Qinling Mountains region. Based on the relative importance of environmental factors in shaping the phylogenetic diversity, a complex resource availability gradient was established to assess taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and assembly patterns along it at local or regional scale separately. Phylogenetic analyses and the biodiversity index were estimated along environmental gradients as well, to assess the difference between change tendencies along natural environmental and resource availability gradients. We found that 1) elevation was the most important regional-scale environmental predictor of phylogeny of community; 2) taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity studies showed similar patterns along both resource and elevational gradients at regional scale, and that diversity at local scale may differ regardless of gradients; 3) at the regional level, phylogenetic structures revealed convergent tendencies along the elevational gradient across different species pools. Phylogenetic assembly patterns along the elevation gradient at the local scale differed from the patterns at the regional scale, with consistent clustering tending to overspread along the resource availability gradient. In conclusion, resource availability shaped community assembly at the regional level. Local patterns of diversity influenced regional patterns differently because of variation in the colonization history or assembly process. Owing to varying assembly patterns along simple environmental gradients, it is vital to establish a complex resource availability gradient to dissect the real assembly mechanism or biodiversity patterns operating in local to regional-scale processes. These findings may provide valuable reference about forest restoration and management.

The study assesses the reliability of the description of hydrothermal conditions in the territory of Kalmykia with the use of quantitative climate indicators based on air-temperature and precipitation data that are available in databases and are widely used in climate models. The present study considers the use of the Selyaninov hydrothermal coefficient, the precipitation-evaporation coefficient, the Thornthwaite aridity index, the Köppen method, and the Holdridge scheme. Quantitative climate indicators were estimated for 1966–2017 based on data on the average monthly air temperature and total monthly precipitation at Yashkul' weather station located in the Chernye Zemli strict nature reserve, which is the most arid part of the Republic. The estimated values of Selyaninov hydrothermal coefficient for the considered period corresponded to natural zones of deserts in two cases, semideserts in 19, and steppes in 31. With the precipitation-evaporation coefficient, the climate conditions corresponded to semidesert in 45 cases and steppe in seven. The values obtained with Thornthwaite aridity index were inherent for deserts and hyperarid regions. According to the Holdridge scheme, the hydrothermal conditions matched steppe zones in 25 cases and deserts in 27. The reliability is highest for climate assessments produced with the involvement of Selyaninov hydrothermal coefficient, which indicate humid warming in Kalmykia and are supported by material collected via the observation of plant communities that form on the ameliorated lands of Priergeninskaya Plain. The presence of humid warming is also supported by estimates based on the Köppen method, the Holdridge scheme, and, to a lesser degree, the precipitation-evaporation coefficient. The assessment involving the Thornthwaite aridity index points to an intensified climate aridization, which is not in line with the modern dynamics of climate conditions in Kalmykia and is thus not reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at analysing the labour market in Romania from the perspective of interregional disparities. In this sense we elaborate some INSSE and EUROSTAT statistical data which report to this type of market. In this analysis we mainly used the method of dispersion. In order to recognize the types of positive and negative effects of the national, sectorial and regional factors upon the employed population and the number of employees.The indicators monitored in the paper were the following: employed population, number of employees, activity ratio, unemployment ratio, job vacancy ratio. The analysed period included the years between 2008 and 2017. In the Northwest Region, expressive economic growth in the last decade has not continued at a progressive rate of employment, although labor productivity has resolved. Also, employment circumstance have steadily decreased, reducing the percentage of active population. Statistical labor market data put the Northwest Region at a disadvantage compared to he EU25; however this is a reasonable position in relation to the national average., The labour market on the national but also and regional level is determinated by regress, delayed reactions, reduced flexibility in the dynamics of the economy, the inability to create new employment opportunities mainly in branches with high added value. This article tries to capture the evolutions of the rural economy of Bihor county, whilst appreciating the matters within the broader context of the six region of economic development and socio-legal context in which to place economic and social life of the rural Romanian during the post-communist period. Although with a very important agricultural potential, both at the country level and also territorial, this potential has not produced economic development, but underdevelopment, on the background of a rural subsistence economy, and this economy tends to become chronic underdevelopment, as a result of diminishing in agricultural productions without the appearance of alternative strategies for the development of services of small rural industries, rural or agricultural farming or associative systems

Provider payment reforms, such as capitation, are very contentious. Such reforms can drop off the policy agenda due to political and contextual resistance. Using the Shiffman and Smith (Generation of political priority for global health initiatives: a framework and case study of maternal mortality. Lancet 2007; 370 1370-9) framework, this study explains why Ghana's National Health Insurance capitation payment policy that rose onto the policy agenda in 2012, dropped off the agenda in 2017 during its pilot implementation in the Ashanti region. We conducted a retrospective qualitative policy analysis by collecting field data in December 2019 in the Ashanti region through 18 interviews with regional and district level policy actors and four focus group discussions with community-level policy beneficiaries. The thematically analysed field data were triangulated with media reports on the policy. We discovered that technically framing capitation as a cost-containment strategy with less attention on portraying its health benefits resulted in a politically negative reframing of the policy as a strategy to punish fraudulent providers and opposition party electorates. At the level of policy actors, pilot implementation was constrained by a regional level anti-policy community, weak civil society mobilization and low trust in the then political leadership. Anti-policy campaigners drew on highly contentious and poorly implemented characteristics of the policy to demand cancellation of the policy. A change in government in 2017 created the needed political window for the suspension of the policy. While it was technically justified to pilot the policy in the stronghold of the main opposition party, this decision carried political risks. Other low- and middle-income countries considering capitation reforms should note that piloting potentially controversial policies such as capitation within a politically sensitive location can attract unanticipated partisan political interest in the policy. Such partisan interest can potentially lead to a decline in political attention for the policy in the event of a change in government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At different stages, all countries of the world are going through the demographic ageing process, with the most diverse economic and social implications. Romania has entered this process since the communist period, as a result of both the demographic transition and the transformations imposed by the demographic and economic policies implemented by the state. After 1990, the transition period has accelerated the increasing pace of this phenomenon, especially through increased migration, declining fertility and changes in the labour market. The regional economic, social and demographic gaps inherited from the past were accentuated after the fall of the totalitarian regime, so that the population ageing has intensified and it is experienced differently at the territorial level. This study aims at identifying the determinants of the increase in population ageing, along with the decrease in the share of young population, across the eight development regions of Romania, during the 1995-2018 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pass'Santé Jeunes (PSJ), initiated in 2013, addresses high-risk behaviors among young people in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France. The program, supported by the Agence Régionale de Santé and Promotion Santé Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, combines digital resources with local partnerships to promote healthy choices among youth., Objectives: This article reviews the comprehensive health promotion approach of PSJ, aiming to identify key deployment strategies that could serve as a model for other regions or health promotion organizations., Results: PSJ offers validated health resources through a website tailored to different age groups and includes content for parents. The program employs a robust digital marketing strategy, enhancing visibility and engagement through social media. Collaborations with regional athletes have significantly increased outreach, with website traffic growing from 1,000 to 31,000 monthly visitors and social media reach exceeding 450,000 in 2023. Over 20,000 professionals have been trained or sensitized, fostering a network of local actors dedicated to youth health. The program's participatory and community-led strategies effectively mobilize various life environments to support health promotion., Conclusions: PSJ exemplifies a successful regional health promotion model. Its comprehensive approach, integrating digital tools and local partnerships, addresses the complex determinants of youth health behaviors. Ongoing evaluation and adaptation are crucial to maintaining the program's relevance and effectiveness. Future efforts should focus on bridging regional disparities, enhancing youth engagement, and ensuring long-term support for local actors to sustain health promotion activities., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The aim of research is to describe the foreign experience of open educational resources implementation in higher education on the example of Canada. The concept of open education in this country requires federal and regional support from the government. Currently, there is a number of initiatives, aimed at maximizing the development of open educational resources. An increasing number of open educational resource initiatives in Canadian universities offer free courses to both Canadians and international students. National open education initiatives include the following projects: “Open Data”, the federal government “pilot” project; support of Canadian Council of Ministers of Education within 2012 Paris Open Educational Resources Declaration; and the Creative Society of Canada. British Columbia and Alberta support open educational resources as a part of the most important open education initiatives at the regional level. However, a number of problems prevent the full development of the open education system.Materials and methods of research include discourse-analysis of domestic and foreign scientific sources, devoted to the problems of open education. The methodological basis is the study of the legal framework of open education, a retrospective analysis of the open education development process in Canadian universities and the analysis of existing open educational projects.The results of the study show that the need to implement the policy of open education imposes new requirements to the process of determining the level of educational programs development and the formation of a unified system of formal credits.Conclusion. The Canadian examination of open educational resources regulates all sectors of education and training in the country. This examination is a review of the results of open education principles implementation at the national and regional levels. The article discusses the features of both regional and foreign projects functioning. The advantages of open educational policy for different segments of the population are described.

Abstract Background The World Health Organization has recommended that all infants under 6 months should be exclusively breastfed. An understanding of the trend of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) over years and over smaller geographical areas is crucial to monitor the progress made in improving the proportions of infants’ EBF. Methods Data on infant feeding practices on 2315 mother-infant pairs from 2002 to 2014 were extracted from cohorts of women who delivered in the Moshi Municipality. Descriptive statistics were used to establish the trend of EBF up to 1, 3 and 6 months across waves (2002/2004 = wave I, 2005/2012 = wave II and 2013/2014 = wave III), to relate EBF up to 6 months to wealth quintiles and to HIV status of mothers. Results The number of mothers in waves I, II and III were 1656 (71.5%), 256 (11.1%) and 403(17.4%) respectively. The percentages of EBF up to 6 months increased from 5.5, 13.7 to 16.9% from wave I to III. Overall, across the waves, the proportion of EBF up to 6 months among the mothers in the low wealth quintile was 4, 9 and 42%, and 7, 26 and 15% for the ones in the highest wealth quintile. The proportion of EBF up to 6 months has been increasing among HIV positive mothers while fluctuating among their counterparts across the waves. Conclusion The proportion of EBF up to 6 months has been increasing in the Moshi municipality but is below the national average. While establishing trends of EBF at the national level is commendable, research to establish trends over smaller geographical areas is needed to provide a true picture that may otherwise be masked.

In the article «St. Petersburg International Economic Forum as an Instrument of the Institutionalization» examines the conditions of necessity for the international Institute development and its gradual changing from regional to global level. The results of the forums are summarized in a table.

The paper challenges the common practice of estimating Okun's law at a regional level and investigates the mathematical and statistical model valid for regional applications. Confining to the difference version of Okun's law, the paper demonstrates that if a trade‐off between output fluctuations and fluctuations in the labour market is to hold on an economy‐wide level, a completely different specification of Okunian equations ensues for regions than is currently considered in research studies on the topic. An econometric approach is proposed to provide estimates of Okunian equations compliant with the disaggregation model, and the issue is demonstrated for Italian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard-line Euroscepticism appears to be, nowadays, a persistent phenomenon of the later stages of European integration. However, it is unclear to what extent the joint effects of economic insecurities and growing numbers of immigrants play a role in determining the people's choice to actually support hard-line Eurosceptic parties with their vote. Building upon the existing body of literature on the economic determinants of voting for anti-European parties, this study brings the analysis further by breaking down the electoral performance of strictly Eurosceptic parties for different types of elections at the regional level, accounting for within-country variations otherwise lost in national-level analysis. We build a dataset including the regionally distributed results of all electoral episodes (regional, national, European) between 2007 and 2016 in Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Italy for a total of 522 elections. Methodologically, the paper adopts panel-level econometrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania, alongside of Bulgaria is among the poorer Member States EU-28. At the end of 2016, according to Eurostat, the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion was 38.8% of the country's total population, while the EU-28 average of 23.5%. At the same time, Romania has the fastest economic growth among the EU-28 member countries, which means that this growth is not evenly distributed in Romania: some regions have developed and others have not developed, have accentuated social inequalities within the country. This paper is a statistical review of poverty in Romania, which main scope is to highlight regional gaps. Our results show that both the economic and the social convergence have not been homogeneous at the level of the regions of the country, there are significant gaps between capital city and other regions of Romania.

New IT technologies have generated changes in the economic and social system, and the rapidity with which countries adopt these technologies is essential for increasing economic and social competitiveness in the future. Thus, the measuring of ITC technologies integration in the economy and society is essential, and at the level of the EU-28 countries there is a Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) that shows how a country evolves digitally compared to others. The 2017 report shows significant disparities within the EU28 regarding digitization. Although Romania ranks 2nd in the EU28 for high-speed broadband subscriptions, it is ranked the last in the EU28 from the point of view of Internet usage. In this paper, we will limit to identifying the regions in Romania with the highest percentages of Internet usage and commenting on the main causes underpinning the regional gaps. The research method used was cluster analysis that identified 3 clusters in terms of Internet usage. The data source was Eurostat. The paper have 5 sections: the first two sections describe importance of ITC tehnologies in society and the conceptual framework of the DESI, the following two sections present the empirical results of the detailed explorative analysis regarding use of Internet for the EU28 countries, with accent on Romania, the methods applied, research hypothesis, variables and statistical data used in this paper and finally there are conclusions with main results of study.

The article is aimed at monitoring the condition of the natural and economic use of land on the basis of methods for integrated evaluation as well as determining the levels of intensity of land use at the regional level. Various views on evaluation of the condition of land have been considered. As the main attributes of the intensity of land use were accepted the agro-landscape ecological stability, the anthropogenic load, the ploughness of territory, the ploughness of agricultural land, the agricultural development of territory, and the recreational capacity. On the basis of methods for integral evaluation both the subjective and the objective importance of attributes has been determined, the integral indicators of intensity of land use have been calculated. Three levels of intensity of natural and economic use of land in the districts of Poltava region have been allocated, boundaries of the quantitative values of indicators have been determined. Prospect for further research is to evaluate the intensity of natural and economic land use at the national level in order to define a strategy for the rational use and protection of land in Ukraine and to formulate the directions of development of the regional land use on the basis of system approach.

An Input-State-Output (I-S-O) framework has been recently introduced to investigate the multidimensional aspects of sustainability (namely environmental, social and economic ones) of economic systems through a thermodynamically and logically ordered scheme. This approach provides an overall view of sustainability (the three dimensions together) facilitating the convergence of information from sets of indicators without aggregating results into single numbers and, consequently, losing information. In this paper we present the application of the I-S-O framework for the 20 regions of Italy. The emergy flow, the Gini Index of income distribution, and the regional Gross Domestic Product are used as systemic indicators for input, state, and output of the systems, respectively. We observe diversity among regions in the light of very different values of the three indicators. The per capita use of resources in the North of Italy is generally 2 to 4 times larger than in the South (excluding Puglia and Sardegna); the regional GDP per capita in the North doubles that of the Southern regions. The distribution of income, that is slightly better in two regions of the north (Trentino AA and Friuli VG), some of Center Italy, and Puglia in the South, only partially reflects that North-South discrepancy. Using the same measures, the 20 Regions are included in a global overview recently produced for 99 world countries. Regional values cover a wide range of countries; nevertheless, our values tend to be more similar to those of developed countries. Based on indicator values, Regions are also categorized, which enables interpretation of this overview at both sub-national and supra-national level.

The indexes of physical volume of the labour productivity are analysed in the regional cut of Ukraine and the most problem regions are educed; the calculation of the level of the labour productivity is carried out on one busy in the real sector of economy of Ukraine from taking into account of volumes of shadow employment in a dollar equivalent in a regional cut and comparison of these levels is carried out on a regional sign; the mean regional value of the labour productivity is counted on one busy in current prices taking into account the level of shadow economy in the dollars of the USA and his comparing is conducted to the corresponding values after the countries-members of ЄС, in particular Germany; the calculation of rates of height (falling) of the labour productivity is carried out on one busy in Ukraine on a regional sign; rating of regions of Ukraine is built after the labour productivity; recommendations offer in relation to the increase of level of the labour productivity in Ukraine, in particular in a regional cut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]