Abstract P192: Depression And Anxiety Are Associated With Cardiovascular Health In Young Adults

Introduction: Cardiovascular health (CVH) declines substantially in young adulthood, and mood disorders commonly emerge during this life stage. This study aimed to examine the association between CVH metrics and 1) depression and 2) anxiety among young adults ages 18-34 years. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that young adults with depression or anxiety will have less optimal CVH. Methods: We used data from the Emory Healthy Aging Study (EHAS), a prospective cohort study of US adults that aims to understand factors associated with aging. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among participants ages 18-34 years who completed the EHAS Health History Questionnaire (n=882). We classified participants as having poor, intermediate, or ideal levels of the seven CVH metrics using definitions set forth by the AHA, with slight modifications as needed based on questionnaire items, and calculated total CVH scores (range 0-14). We defined depression and anxiety as absent, mild, or moderate-to-severe using standard cutoffs for Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) scales. We used multivariable regression to examine the association between CVH, depression, and anxiety, controlling for gender, race, age group, income, and education. Results: A total of 134 (15.2%) participants had moderate-to-severe anxiety, and 132 (15.0%) participants had moderate-to-severe depression. The mean total CVH score among participants was 10.4. Compared to those without anxiety, participants with moderate-to-severe anxiety were less likely to meet ideal levels of physical activity (PR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.44-0.90), smoking (PR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.81-0.98), and body mass index (PR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.65-0.94). Participants with moderate-to-severe depression were less likely to meet ideal levels of cholesterol (PR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.86-1.00), physical activity (PR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.30-0.69), smoking (PR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.79-0.99), blood pressure (PR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84-0.98), and body mass index (PR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.71-0.93). Stratified analysis showed that these associations appeared stronger in older young adults (26-34 years). Relative to those without anxiety, participants with moderate-to-severe anxiety had a CVH score that was 0.91 points lower (standard error: 0.18, p-value<0.01). Relative to those without depression, participants with moderate-to-severe depression had a CVH score that was 1.19 points lower (standard error: 0.18, p-value<0.01). Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are associated with CVH in young adults. Interventions to address mood disorders in this age group should consider targeting CVH behaviors such as physical activity and weight management to improve both mood and CVH.

Empirical Identification of Intra-Urban Subcentralities: A New Methodological Approach with an Application for a Developing Country

We present a new empirical approach for identifying sub-centers within urban areas and apply it to the São Paulo metropolitan area (SPMA). We use geographically weighted regressions (GWR) to overcome the limitations presented by previous methods, which rely on previous knowledge of the employment distribution and use arbitrary threshold values and band sizes. We find three SBD in 2002 and only two in 2014, suggesting that SPMA is polycentric but presents only one business core that concentrates more than 90% of all employees working in an SBD. We apply the widely recognized method of McMillen and Smith (2003) to our database and compare the results. Our method is more conservative in identifying areas as sub-centers (SBD) and presents lower standard errors.

Increasing saving intentions through leaderboards: A gamification approach

Saving money is important but challenging. To spur financial saving intentions, we propose a new strategy—gamification. Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of competitive leaderboards in increasing individuals’ saving intentions. The results of two studies (total N = 618) show consistently that people’s saving intentions are higher when presented with a leaderboard than when not. Further, as leaderboards elicit social comparison, we explore whether the height of the comparison standard and individuals’ social comparison orientation moderate the effect. We find that the effect of leaderboards on saving intentions is more pronounced when people compare with a higher (as compared to a lower) standard (Study 1), but that the effect is not influenced by individuals’ social comparison orientation (Study 2). Taken together, this research provides a new and simple-to-implement strategy to facilitate saving intentions in order to help improve people’s financial well-being.

Financial Standing of Officials of the Special Gendarme Corps

The article focuses on the level of prosperity of the ranks of the Special Gendarme Corps and its trends during the post-reform and late imperial period. It carries out comparative analysis of several categories of gendarme employees and identifies disparities in their financial standing. There were more than a dozen basic and supplementary allowances, which were both permanent and temporary and were paid for by the Treasury. During the period under review, there was the growth in the monetary income of gendarmes, which enabled them to see themselves as being superior to people of other socio-professional categories such as senior and mid-ranking army officers and police officers. This thesis implicitly confirms that bribery was not widely spread among gendarmes. However, there was impoverishment among the gendarmerie personnel because they did not have any other source of income besides service-related earnings. This made them rather vulnerable, resulting in revitalization measures of social support of gendarme employees. A characteristic feature of material provision for gendarmes during the period under review was a widening gap between allowances for the officers and lower ranks. Gendarmes of lower ranks usually had big families and therefore were often in want for money. In other words, they had a lower standard of well-being. As a result, many of them being unable to support their families had to leave the Special Gendarme Corps and search for other livelihoods. Partially, they managed to improve their predicament by using alternative sources of income such as renting out, subsistence farming and service-related odd jobs. However, these sources were not widely available.

Empowerment of Grass Roots Communities Through Information-Driven Learning

Methodologies involving issues to empower remotely distributed communities localized with sub-standard or lower-standard information backbone are still in demand of imperative attention from the policy initiation level in each country. Hence, particular attention should be given to grassroot-level participants in formulating non-conventional approaches to elucidate on demand-driven content by articulating grassroots communities in homogeneous coherence, and at the same time emulating to multifarious conjunctures of socio-economic elements. Efforts have been given in this chapter in synthesizing contents dependent on technologies, meant for distant mode of education and online education including analytical approaches to develop a pragmatic repository of the education system.

The World after the Termination of Intra-EU BIT S

This article examines the potential consequences of the termination agreement recently signed by 23 EU Member States, which will soon terminate the existing intra- EU BIT S of the signatory Member States. The author concludes that the retroactive application of the termination agreement to disputes that have been initiated before this termination agreement enters into force is a serious violation of the Rule of Law. He also finds that the Facilitator procedure offered by the termination agreement is not a suitable tool to settle any ongoing intra- EU BIT disputes. In light of the significant shortcomings in the judicial legal systems of many EU Member States, the author calls for the adoption of an EU Investment Protection Regulation as well as the creation of a European Investment Court. Finally, despite the fact that the termination agreement is not intended to apply to intra- EU ECT disputes, the author expects that the fallout of the Achmea judgment will lead to substantial “reforms” of the ECT in due course. All these developments will inevitably lead to a lower standard of investment and investor protection within the EU.

Persistent beliefs: Political extremism predicts ideological stability over time

Previous research suggests that political extremists have stronger convictions in their beliefs than moderates. The present research examines the relationship between political extremism and belief stability, defined as the extent to which people change their ideological beliefs over time. Studies 1 ( N = 397) and 2 ( N = 291) revealed that participants at the left and right extremes report more stable beliefs than political moderates. We then reanalyzed a longitudinal study that tracked actual ideological changes over time during a referendum (Study 3, N = 5812). Results indicated that for ideological orientation measured at three time points, politically extreme respondents had lower standard deviations—and hence, more stable ideologies over time—than moderates. Furthermore, the effect appeared more pronounced among people at the left than people at the right. We discuss implications of these insights for political extremism in society and the malleability of political ideology.

Does Value Averaging Strategy Improve Investment Performance? Evidence from the Korean Fund Market

This study analyzes whether a value averaging (VA) strategy, which adjusts the amount of investment each period to achieve the target amount of investment in risk assets, as a modified form of a dollar cost averaging (DCA) strategy, improves investment performance. Using 18.5 years of fund market data in Korea from 2001 to June 2019, we compare the investment performance of VA strategy relative to two alternatives: DCA strategy, which invests a certain amount in each period, and Buy-and-Hold (BH) strategy, which refers to half-and-half asset allocation between risky and risk-free assets and has an expected return which is the same as that of DCA in the ex-ante sense. Our historical performance analysis reveals that the VA strategy has lower average return and higher standard deviation compared to the BH strategy and has lower average return and lower standard deviation compared to the DCA strategy. These findings are in stark contrast to the claims made by advocates of VA strategy that the strategy improves investment performance.

Perceived Environmental Threats and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Investigating the Role of Political Participation Using a South Korean Survey

Climate change and environmental pollution are increasingly ravaging countries around the world. This study examines the direct effects of perceived environmental threats and political participation, as well as their joint effects, on individuals’ support for a lower standard of living and the increased government spending necessary for environmental protection. Using the 2014 South Korean General Social Survey and an ordered probit, the study finds that individuals’ perceptions of environmental threats are associated positively with their support for government spending and a lower standard of living. Political participation is statistically significant and positive only in its relationship with support for a lower standard of living. Nevertheless, political participation is a powerful moderator and amplifies positive relationships between individuals’ perceptions of environmental threats and their support for a lower standard of living and government spending on environmental protection. In estimating predicted probabilities of strong support, perceived environmental threats and political participation jointly increased support for lower living standards by 35.67% and for government spending by 69.58%.

Back-End Sentencing and Parole Revocation

Back-end sentencing refers to the practice of sending formerly incarcerated people back to prison for parole violations. The concept was popularized by Jeremy Travis in his book But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry (2005) to sensitize researchers and policymakers to the overlooked contribution of parole violations and revocations to the increased use of incarceration during the 1980s to early 2000s. European scholars have used the term “back-door” sentences to refer to the same idea. Although revocation results in an action that is analogous to a sentence, procedures employed in revocation hearings operate under a lower standard of evidence—a “preponderance of the evidence”—and have fewer opportunities for representation and appeal than sentences given out in criminal courts. In California, where back-end sentencing had become routine by 1995, nearly half of all entries into prison annually were the result of parole board revocations rather criminal convictions. A portion of the violations that resulted in reincarceration were “technical violations,” which include noncriminal violations of a parolee’s terms of supervision, such as traveling more than 50 miles from their residence, not showing up for appointments, or associating with gang members or criminal peers. Commentators emphasized the ways that the back-end sentencing traps individuals in a “revolving door” between prison and the community supervision phases of punishment, “churning” back and forth between the two. Some research explicitly employs the term “back-end sentencing” whereas other scholarship relevant to the topic focuses on how parole systems deal with parole violators via the revocation process.