scholarly journals On the frontline—Sustainability and development research amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Author(s):  
Andrea Gatto ◽  
Carlo Drago ◽  
Matteo Ruggeri

Abstract COVID-19 outbreak has exposed the world population to a condition of unprecedented public health and global health vulnerability. Preliminary and projected consequences have exhibited their harmfulness for socio-economic, environmental and political systems. In this framework, development and sustainability turn focal policy targets to limit the humanitarian and ecosystems impacts of the pandemic and stimulate mitigation, preparedness and adaptation to change. This work aims at furnishing a prompt array of key tools to analyse, comprehend and disentangle the sketched issues. For this scope, it is conducted a bibliometric analysis for depicting and mapping the early scholarship response on the relationship between the 2019 Coronavirus, sustainability and development within the pandemics discourse. The research finds a relevant bulk of early publications and geographical insights, principally published on environmental and economic policy, global and public health journals by US, UK, Chinese and Italian scholars. Exploiting a multiple correspondence analysis and a validated cluster analysis, the investigation detects a conceptual structural map made up of clusters of issues – environmental health, socio-economic and medical/technical topics, that can be related to the different phases of the Coronavirus. The outputs confirm the need for rapid sustainability action within the development policy to contrast the pandemic.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Stefani ◽  
Gabriele Prati

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U- shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e. primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located. Traditional beliefs are linked to a complementary division of private versus public sphere between sexes, while egalitarian attitudes are associated with a more equitable division. Both conditions strengthen fertility. Instead, as in the transition phase, intermediate levels of gender ideology’s support are associated with an overload and a difficult reconciliation of the roles that women have to embody (i.e. working and nurturing) so reducing fertility. The present study has contributed to the literature by addressing the inconsistencies of prior research by demonstrating that the relationship between gender ideology and fertility rates is curvilinear rather than linear.


Author(s):  
Milad Zandi ◽  
Saber Soltani ◽  
Mona Fani ◽  
Haniye Shafipour ◽  
Samaneh Abbasi

SARS-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for the recent pandemic in the world. It has been recently recognized as a challenge for public health and a significant cause of severe illness in all age groups. Young children and older people are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, children usually present mild symptoms compared to adult patients. The relationship between age, severity, and COVID-19 transmission is compared to determine whether there is any reasonable relationship between age and COVID-19. It should be mentioned that some risk factors may increase the probability of developing severe COVID-19 by advancing age, such as pathophysiological changes in the respiratory system, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 expression in the nasopharynx, and smoking. Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection is independent of age, but the mortality rate of COVID-19 depends on age.


2021 ◽  
pp. 17-42
Author(s):  
Paolo Boffetta ◽  
Zuo-Feng Zhang ◽  
Carlo La Vecchia

Neoplasms continue to dominate globally as one of the major sources of human disease and death. There are multiple modifiable causes of cancer and understanding their attributable risk factors for each cancer is of importance. This chapter covers the role of cellular and molecular mechanisms as well as the experimental and epidemiological approaches as determinants of the main cancers. Even if major discoveries in the clinical management of cancer patients will be accomplished in the near future, the changes will mainly affect the affluent part of the world population. Promising approaches focused on prevention of the known causes, reducing its consequences, notably in resource-constrained settings are highlighted.


Author(s):  
Marie Prášilová ◽  
Pavla Hošková

Population numbers on Planet Earth grow steadily. The most rapid increase took place over the 20th century when the number of world population rose from 1.6 billion up to 6 billion. Demographic revolution affect the process of changes. The paper has paid attention to the relationship between natality and mortality in various parts of the world. It indicates the differing behaviour in the African countries where the demographic revolution has not been finished so far. Population numbers on the Planet Earth are being forecast for 2050 applying the exponential smoothing methods. The outcomes of statistical procedures are being compared with the UN prognoses and they do not indicate large differences in confidence intervals predictions. The adaptive procedures selected have been found suitable and satisfying for the population numbers forecasting purposes. Most rapidly the population of Africa numbers will grow until 2050, the number of Europeans will cover 7.55 % of the world population only.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-241
Author(s):  
Thanjavur S Ravikumar ◽  
Rakesh Kakkar ◽  
Vinoth Kumar Kalidoss

During the first wave of this COVID-19 pandemic, India’s performance was relatively superior among the countries that had their first cases in January 2020. We grouped these countries as ‘January Cohort’ and analysed their relative performance (IJCH, April 2020), supporting India’s management. Fast forward to the present, India’s performance is woefully lacking, accounting for 30% of daily cases and 31% daily deaths with 18% of the world population [Worldometer Coronavirus database, June1,2021). On this same day, 50% of the countries worldwide (110 of 222) reported no deaths and 25% (57) without any daily new cases. Thus, we have faltered with a series of public health missteps despite a good start. The latest and the most remarkable failure of India is the vaccination, despite being the world’s foremost producer. Many of the poor performers initially in the January Cohort, such as UK and USA, focused on ‘vaccinating their way out of the pandemic’ since the roll out of vaccines in December2020. The results are in display starting February 2021- to date, with cases/ deaths on decline in these countries, while India is in a reverse direction. On June 1st, UK reported no COVID-19 deaths and USA had about 31% decline of 14-day moving average.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-311
Author(s):  
Rico Rico ◽  
Siti Fatimah ◽  
Muzahid Akbar Hayat

Hong Kong, one of the global financial centers, was plunged into chaos for almost two months straight from June to July 2019. For eight weeks, demonstrations by the Hong Kong people have been going on and on until they become violent. The demonstration was intended to deny the proposed extradition law, which would allow Hong Kong prisoners, including foreigners, to be extradited to China. The extradition bill is also called to threaten the freedom of local people, to threaten democracy and law in the Hong Kong region. The different political systems between China and Hong Kong make the relationship both vulnerable. As a special region in China, Hong Kong needs to get the attention of the Chinese government by conceding its rights and upholding its systems so that demonstrations need not be too worried. Hong Kong people are making a variety of attempts at demonstration and even some social communication strategies are used to reject the traditional bill. The method used in this study is qualitative deskriftive with case studies of direct observation of sites and several demonstration articles in Hong Kong. As a result of this study, several unique strategies of Hong Kong's demonstrations have been carried out to maintain a message being delivered by another group that the Hong Kong government has even brought attention to the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 006 (03) ◽  
pp. 492-504
Author(s):  
Misnilawaty Sidabutar

The world population, as well as Indonesia, is aging and this demographic transition influences saving, investment, and capital flows. By looking at data from 1973 to 2017, this paper finds two things. First, the relationship between age groups and saving exhibits the inverted U-shape, but only old dependency impact negatively on investment based on 104 countries’ data. The capital flows represented by current account is deficit in the young dependency, but surplus in the old dependency. Second, demographic transition in Indonesia induced an increase in savings by a higher rate than investment and caused current account surplus in this period.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Rohmanur Izzani

Anemia is one of the health problems in the world especially in developing countries and it is estimated that 30% of the world population suffers from anemia. Anemia is one of the health problems that often occur in pregnant women and young women. According to WHO (2013), the prevalence of anemia in the world reaches 40–88%. According to Riskesdas (2013) got anemia patients in adolescent girls amounted to 2.7%. One cause of high rates of anemia in adolescent girls is the lack of awareness of consumption of Fe tablets during menstruation. Consciousness of Fe tablet consumption during menstruation can not be separated from information and knowledge, because of knowledge is one of several factors that influence one's consumption behavior. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between knowledge with adolescent attitudes about consumption of Fe tablet during menstruation on students of Faculty of Public Health Unair Surabaya. This research was analytic with cross sectional approach. The samples were 50 respondents taken by simple random sampling technique. The instrument used a questionnaire. The result of this research was chi-square statistic test with significance level α = 0,05 or 95%. Statistical test results obtained p value = 1 < α = 0.05. The conclusion of this research is that there is no significant relationship of knowledge with attitude of Fe tablet consumption during menstruation on students of Faculty of Public Health Unair Surabaya.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Erick Burhaein ◽  
Nevzat Demirci ◽  
Carla Cristina Vieira Lourenço ◽  
Zsolt Németh ◽  
Diajeng Tyas Pinru Phytanza

Since its appearance at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 in Wuhan (China), the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly worldwide. The outbreak was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Home confinement, travel restrictions, the closing of venues for exercise and recreation, and the cancellation of indoor and outdoor events including sport have been characteristic features of the public health responses around the world. The result has been a reduction in the levels of physical activity experienced by large numbers of the world population of all ages. This has caused considerable alarm for physical activity professionals around the world. In response, this position statement makes a case for the importance of continuing to embrace regular physical activity alongside the existing public health strategies that are being implemented in the management of the effects of the virus internationally. To be consistent with these policies this activity should always be away from others (application of social distancing) and preferably outdoors. Some potential benefits specific to the current situation, are suggested by reference to existing knowledge about the significance of exercise in the maintenance of a healthy immune system. However, these recommendations need to be viewed primarily within an unchanging context of the long-term value of healthy levels of physical activity for population well-being and quality of life. This has been made the more important on account of the potential harmful effects of the current reduced levels. Some recommendations for appropriate dosage and types of PA for those with different conditions are provided.


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