Institutional structure formation of the global green finance market

The article studies the strategic directions of the Eurasian Development Bank as an important element of the institutional structure of the global green finance market.The current differentiated global structure of green finance market institutions has been shown, and the substantive focus of organisations at two levels of the institutional structure of this market has been shown. A statistical overview of green finance institutions by country, region, type and financial instruments used has been made. The role of multilateral development banks in the structure of such institutions has been shown. The need for the formation of institutions in the green financial market segment as a necessary element of green finance has been substantiated.The structure of institutions on two levels has been given: 1) subjects – participants of the green bond market; 2) a set of institutions developing and shaping the methodology for green financial instruments assessment, standards, taxonomy, ratings. Using the global green bond market as an example, up-to-date statistics and analysis of the broader composition of issuers of green financial instruments by country, world region, sovereign and corporate participants, and development institutions have been presented. Emphasis has been placed on public issuers and the participation of multilateral development institutions in financing green economy projects in various countries. The experience of Eurasian Economic Union countries in developing green finance has been summarised and the prospects for Russia and Kazakhstan in the green finance movement have been noted.The institutions of the differentiated structure of the global green finance market identified in the study have been grouped into two levels depending on the profile of their participation in the green economy; the directions and tools for the prospective development of the Eurasian Development Bank’s green finance activities have been defined; recommendations for prospective aspects of the methodological and analytical activities of the bank in the context of the Eurasian Development Bank Strategy 2022–2026 have been proposed.The study applied an analysis of scientific literature in the field of institutional theory, green economy and green finance, statistical, comparative, factual analysis, review and analysis of information from official websites of international development institutions, government and corporate entities, international rating agencies included in the architecture of the global green finance market.

Police Labor and Exploitation: Case Study of North India

This chapter analyzes data collected over more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork with police in north India. It argues that subordinate police personnel in this decolonizing world region often experience exploitation as laborers, even as they routinely deploy excessive force and sometimes misuse their authority to intervene in everyday life. The analysis reveals an imbrication of official police rank hierarchies with broader forms of social inequality (especially socioeconomic class, religion, and caste) through observations of interactions among police personnel of various ranks and interviews with current and former officers in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. It also develops methodological concepts of “strategic complicity” and “critical empathy,” and suggests directions for future ethnographic research on policing that may help us discern the complexities of both local and global social justice movements and power relations.

Global differences in vitamin D status and dietary intake: a review of the data

Background: Internationally, concern has been repeatedly raised about the little notable progress in the collection, analysis and use of population micronutrient status and deficiency data globally. The need for representative status and intake data for vitamin D has been highlighted as a research priority for well over a decade. Aim and methods: A narrative review which aims to provide a summary and assessment of vitamin D nutritional status data globally. It divides the World into the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) major regions: the Americas, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and Asia. Emphasis was placed on published data on prevalence of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] <25/30 and <50 nmol/L (reflecting vitamin D deficiency and inadequacy, respectively) as well as vitamin D intake, where possible from nationally representative surveys. Results: Collating data from the limited number of available representative surveys from individual countries might suggest a relatively low overall prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in South America, Oceania and North America, whereas there is more moderate prevalence in Europe and Asia, and possibly Africa. Overall, prevalence of serum 25(OH)D <25/30 and <50 nmol/L ranges from ~5% to 18% and 24% to 49%, respectively, depending on FAO World region. Usual intakes of vitamin D can also vary by FAO World region, but in general, with a few exceptions, there are very high levels of inadequacy of vitamin D intake. Conclusions: While the burden of vitamin D deficiency and inadequacy varies by World regions and not just by UVB availability, the global burden overall translates into enormous numbers of individuals at risk.

Intersexual and intrasexual selection for neck musculature in men: Attractiveness, dominance, and actual fighting success

Countless organisms are equipped with physiological armor that reduce damage from opponents. Because humans have sustained a long evolutionary history of hand-to-hand combat, selection would have been placed on morphological structures which reduce rotational acceleration to the head and increase the likelihood of victory. Grounded in over 60 years of sports performance theory and recent theoretical work in evolutionary biology, geometric morphometric analyses revealed that larger neck musculature in professional combatants (N = 715) was associated with greater real-world fighting success, after for adjusting for allometry (Study 1). Because sexual dimorphism emerges from selection on morphological structures that improve men’s fighting success, we then discovered that the human neck is the most sexually dimorphic feature of human anatomy when compared to 91 other anatomical features (N = 6,068; Study 2). This male-biased sexual dimorphism held after controlling for these 91 allometric measurements, and held across every world region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North, Central, and South America). Because human psychological systems consequently evolved to attend to men’s secondary sexual characteristics, we discovered that men (N = 564 stimuli) with larger neck musculature (Study 3: geometric morphometrics; Study 4: physiological neck strength; Study 5: photorealistic stimuli) are rated (N = 772 raters) as stronger, more masculine, and higher in fighting ability and short-term attractiveness, after accounting for allometry. Combined, our research introduced a new secondary sexual characteristic to the biological, anthropological, and psychological sciences: the human neck.

Genomic Characterization of Endemic and Ecdemic Non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica Lineages Circulating Among Animals and Animal Products in South Africa

In Africa, the burden of illness caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica is disproportionally high; however, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) efforts are overwhelmingly concentrated in world regions with lower burdens. While WGS is being increasingly employed in South Africa to characterize Salmonella enterica, the bulk of these efforts have centered on characterizing human clinical strains. Thus, very little is known about lineages circulating among animals in the country on a genomic scale. Here, we used WGS to characterize 63 Salmonella enterica strains isolated from livestock, companion animals, wildlife, and animal products in South Africa over a 60-year period. Genomes were assigned to serotypes Dublin, Hadar, Enteritidis, and Typhimurium (n = 18, 8, 13, and 24 strains, respectively) and sequence types (STs) ST10 (all S. Dublin), ST33 (all S. Hadar), ST11/ST366 (n = 12 and 1 S. Enteritidis, respectively), and ST19/ST34 (n = 23 and 1 S. Typhimurium, respectively; via seven-gene multi-locus sequence typing). Within-ST phylogenies were constructed using genomes sequenced in this study, plus publicly available genomes representative of each ST’s (i) global (n = 2,802 and 1,569 S. Dublin and Hadar genomes, respectively) and (ii) African (n = 716 and 343 S. Enteritidis and Typhimurium genomes, respectively) population. For S. Dublin ST10, a largely antimicrobial-susceptible, endemic lineage circulating among humans, animals, and food in South Africa was identified, as well as a lineage that was likely recently introduced from the United States. For S. Hadar ST33, multiple South African lineages harboring streptomycin and tetracycline resistance-conferring genes were identified. African S. Enteritidis ST11 could be primarily partitioned into one largely antimicrobial-susceptible and one largely multidrug-resistant (MDR) clade, with South African isolates confined to the largely antimicrobial-susceptible clade. S. Typhimurium ST19/ST34 strains sequenced here were distributed across the African S. Typhimurium ST19/ST34 phylogeny, representing a diverse range of lineages, including numerous MDR lineages. Overall, this study provides critical insights into endemic and ecdemic non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica lineages circulating among animals, foods, and humans in South Africa and showcases the utility of WGS in characterizing animal-associated strains from a world region with a high salmonellosis burden.

Major Impact of Massive Migration on Spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains

Dissemination of epidemic Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains is a global concern, and any world region may be at risk of their introduction. This is a well-known cliché, but the reality is more nuanced. Based on the analysis of East-Asian and Euro-American lineages of M. tuberculosis, three conclusions can be drawn. First, an ordinary human exchange is not sufficient for wide dissemination of an M. tuberculosis strain in a new location. In contrast, a massive influx of migrants dramatically changes the population structure (both human and the pathogen’s). Second, an emerging strain can emerge in its area of origin, but it will not necessarily be successful elsewhere. Third, a strain should be sufficiently prevalent in its country of origin to be efficiently imported to a new location. Summing up, the virulence of M. tuberculosis strains is conditional, but it is not an absolute feature, and the role of human migration in their spread is crucial.

History and scientific background on the economics of abortion

Background Approximately one quarter of all pregnancies globally end in abortion, making it one of the most common gynecological practices worldwide. Despite the high incidence of abortion around the globe, the synthesis of known economic outcomes of abortion care and policies is lacking. Using data from a systematic scoping review, we synthesized the literature on the economics of abortion at the microeconomic, mesoeconomic, and mesoeconomic levels and presented the results in a collection of studies. This article describes the history and scientific background for collection, presents the scoping review framework, and discusses the value of this knowledge base. Methods and findings We conducted a scoping review using the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews. Studies reporting on qualitative and/or quantitative data from any world region were considered. For inclusion, studies must have examined one of the following outcomes: costs, impacts, benefits, and/or value of abortion-related care or policies. Our searches yielded 19,653 unique items, of which 365 items were included in our final inventory. Studies most often reported costs (n = 262), followed by impacts (n = 140), benefits (n = 58), and values (n = 40). Approximately one quarter (89/365) of studies contained information on the secondary outcome on stigma. Economic factors can lead to a delay in abortion care-seeking and can restrict health systems from adequately meeting the demand for abortion services. Provision of post-abortion care (PAC) services requires more resources then safe abortion services. Lack of insurance or public funding for abortion services can increase the cost of services and the overall economic impact on individuals both seeking and providing care. Conclusions Consistent economic themes emerge from research on abortion, though evidence gaps remain that need to be addressed through more standardized methods and consideration to framing of abortion issues in economics terms. Given the highly charged political nature of abortion around the world, it is imperative that researchers continue to build the evidence base on economic outcomes of abortion services and regulations.

Book review: Gunn G.C. Overcoming Ptolemy: the Revelation of an Asian World Region. Lexington Books, 2018. XXXIV, 289 p.

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INTERNATIONAL PREVALENCE OF CONSULTATION WITH A NATUROPATHIC PRACTITIONER: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

Objectives: Naturopathy is a traditional medicine system informed by codified philosophies and principles, and an emphasis on non-pharmacologic therapeutic interventions. While naturopathy is practiced by approximately 75 000 to 100 000 naturopathic practitioners in at least 98 countries, little is known about the international prevalence of history of consultation with a naturopathic practitioner. This study reports a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies describing the global prevalence of history of consultation with a naturopathic practitioner by the general population. Setting: The included literature was identified through a systematic search of eight databases between September and October 2019, as well as the grey literature. Participants: Studies were included if they reported the prevalence rate of consultations with a naturopathic practitioner by the general population Interventions: Survey items needed to report consultations with a naturopathic practitioner as defined in the country where data was collected, and not combine naturopathic consultations with other health services or only report consulations for illness populations. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary measures used for the analysis was consultations in the previous 12-months. Other prevalence timeframes were reported as secondary measures. Methods: Meta-analysis of prevalence data was conducted using random effects models based on individual countries and World Health Organisation (WHO) world regions. Results: The literature search identified eight manuscripts summarizing 13 studies reporting prevalence for inclusion in the review. All included studies had a low risk of bias. Meta-analysis of the included studies by world region found the 12-month prevalence of history of naturopathy consultations ranged from 1% in the Region of the Americas to 6% in the European and Western Pacific Regions. Conclusions: There are up to 6-fold differences in the prevalence of naturopathy consults over 12-months between and within world regions, which may be driven by a range of policy, legislative and social factors.