The Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Significant Factors Associated with Young-Driver-Involved Crashes in Florida

Over the last three decades, traffic crashes have been one of the leading causes of fatalities and economic losses in the U.S.; compared with other age groups, this is especially concerning for the youth population (those aged between 16 and 24), mostly due to their inexperience, greater inattentiveness, and riskier behavior while driving. This research intends to investigate this issue around selected Florida university campuses. We employed three methods: (1) a comparative assessment for three selected counties using both planar Euclidean Distance and Roadway Network Distance-based Kernel Density Estimation methods to determine high-risk crash locations, (2) a crash density ratio difference approach to compare the maxima-normalized crash densities for the youth population and those victims that are 25 and up, and (3) a logistic regression approach to identify the statistically significant factors contributing to young-driver-involved crashes. The developed GIS maps illustrate the difference in spatial patterns of young-driver crash densities compared to those for other age groups. The statistical findings also reveal that intersections around university areas appear to be significantly problematic for youth populations, regardless of the differences in the general perspective of the characteristics of the selected counties. Moreover, the speed limit countermeasures around universities could not effectively prevent young-driver crash occurrences. Hence, the results of this study can provide valuable insights to transportation agencies in terms of pinpointing the high-risk locations around universities, assessing the effectiveness of existing safety countermeasures, and developing more reliable plans with a focus on the youth population.

A Scoping Review Examining Interventions Intended to Help LGBTQIA+ Youth Transition Out of Homelessness

Objective: Youth self-identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer, intersex, asexual, and other identities (LGBTQIA+) are overrepresented among the homeless youth population in western countries. Although scholars have documented the situations and events contributing to disproportionately high rates of homelessness among LGBTQIA+ youth compared to cisgender peers, researchers have not as thoroughly examined the efficacy of services available to this group to assist their transition from homelessness to stable residency. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the peer-reviewed literature to determine how many journal articles have been generated that addressed (a) the assessment of client satisfaction or (b) the effectiveness of intervention designed to help LGBTQIA+ homeless youth transition from homelessness to stable tenancy. Method: A database search of six peer-reviewed, health care publication indexes, with 50 key search terms was performed. The database search spanned publication years with no beginning year, but ended in January 2021. Results: Nineteen articles were identified that described programming, reported intervention outcomes, or outlined policies and recommendations intended to help LGBTQIA+ youth transition out of homelessness. Of the 19 studies, only five (26.31%) reported program evaluation (n=1, 5.26%), the assessment of intervention effectiveness (n=2, 10.52%), or an analysis of client satisfaction (n=2, 10.52%). Findings exemplify the dearth of scholarship and research examining this area of academic inquiry and public health need. Discussion: Without empirical research investigating service provision for the LGBTQIA+ homeless youth population, service providers have little data upon which to inform practice based on an understanding of the services that are needed and desired by this population to transition out of homelessness, the effectiveness and perceived satisfaction of those services, and whether services should be modified to better meet the needs of those for whom it was intended. Scholars and researchers are called upon to generate this needed public health research, which should include service recipient perspectives to target outcomes and interpret findings.

Expression of Behavior and Attitudes toward Sustainable Tourism in the Youth Population: A Search for Statistical Types

Youth attitudes and behavior in tourism activities are crucial for sustainable tourism development. This study aims to identify the statistical types of youth according to their expressed behavior in sustainability and attitudes toward sustainable tourism development. Survey data were collected from 1085 respondents representing different Baltic Sea countries—Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia. A unique research instrument, constructed by the authors, was developed for the empirical research, responding to the latest theoretical insights and models and was empirically validated by statistical methods (the factor validity of the scales was tested with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, etc.). Attitudes towards sustainable tourism development were measured with the SUS-TAS scale. The factor clustering method used in the study identified the statistical types of the youth included, according to the expression of sustainable behavior and the attitudes toward sustainable tourism development. The results indicated that the majority of youth belong to the “oriented toward sustainable behavior” type (50.6%), while the analysis of youth attitudes showed that 71.5% belong to the socioeconomic type, indicating that young people prioritize the long-term socioeconomic wellbeing of the region, which can be achieved through efficient management, tourism planning, and active public participation in the implementation of tourism policies.

A Study on the Internet Usage Pattern of Youths in Sikkim

Internet is being used by people all over the world. It has become a part of their day-to-day activity. The smartness brought by internet and its related devices have made life of people easy. Sharing knowledge, researching, and reaching out to people are now within the reach of fingertips. This study aims to find the internet usage pattern of youth in Sikkim, India. Fourteen internet activities have been identified and through a survey. The usage of these activities was analysed for the youth population in Sikkim, India. It has been found that, more or less, all the activities are used by the youth population of Sikkim. The most popular activity is use of emails and social networking sites while blogging and video calling is not too popular. In addition, it has been found that 67% of the users use internet for more than 3 hours per day. Hence, there also is a serious risk of “internet addiction.”

Career Predilections and Options to Opt Occupation for the Youth in Pakistan

The aim of this study is to find the employment options and career choices of young people in a developing country, Pakistan. In this regard, an exploratory approach is used to conduct this study. The findings of the study show that there are formal and informal options for the youth to choose occupations. Formal includes the employment opportunities provided by the government which include in the long term and short term in their services; however, informal employment includes different kinds of work in the different sectors. Overseas employment is the external option of the career choice for the youth. However, a business incubation center is an internal source of career for university students and graduates who want to opt for entrepreneurship as their career choice. This study provides implications for the government and non-government organizations to create different kinds of employment opportunities to accommodate the huge youth population and make them productive for the economic development of the country and reduce the rate of unemployment.

Młodzież w sieci w czasie pandemii. Diagnoza, problemy, wyzwania

The post-pandemic world of adolescents is a kaleidoscope of many changes. The research area of problems and challenges faced by adolescents during the pandemic, emerging from numerous studies, undoubtedly requires in-depth research, even extremely demanding and rarely conducted in sociology so-called longitudinal studies. The starting point for further research in this kind of diagnosis, however, is a preliminary review of the research available worldwide on the problems faced by youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in its first and second waves. After researching and analysing the most important, interesting and conducted on a large population of empirical research findings in Poland and around the world, those that are symptomatic for the diagnosis of problems and challenges were selected to be mapped for further observation and study. The article is exploratory in nature, outlining the problem phenomena that clearly emerged in the youth population during the pandemic period. The purpose of the article is to review the studies, their comparative analysis, and then to identify the most important phenomena and issues worthy of investigation in the adolescent population during and after the fourth wave of the pandemic, during the pandemic era.

Urbanization, the Youth, and Protest: A Cross-National Analysis

Demographic changes associated with the transformation from traditional to advanced economies are the basis for many of today’s theories of violent and non-violent protest formation. Both levels of urbanization and the size of the “youth bulge” have shown to be reliable measures for predicting protest events in a country. As these two processes result from modernization, it seems logical to hypothesize that the combined effect of the rise in urbanization and the increase in the youth population, urban youth bulge, would be a more relevant predictor for protests. Our tests on cross-national time-series data from 1950 to 2010 for 98 countries reveal that the combined effect of the two forces is an important predictor of anti-government protests. It may seem that the role of the urban youth bulge would appear to be an issue of the past as in more recent decades the proportion of the urban youth tends to decline in most countries of the world. However, this factor tends to be very relevant for many developing countries where both youth bulges have been growing for several decades and the general urban population is on the rise.

Difficulties of Quality Education in Higher Education in India

Higher education will lead the world in 21st era because it not only creates greater personal and social prosperity, but it also affects all facets of development, including intellectual, social, cultural, aesthetic, physical, spiritual, and human capital development, directly or indirectly. Afterward, US and China, India has the world's third largest higher education system. University Grants Commission (UGC) is the largest regulatory body at the higher level, and it enforces its guidelines, advises the administration, and facilitates communication between the federal government and the states. The University Grants Commission oversees accreditation for higher education by 15 independent institutions. While the nation has progressed significantly in terms of enrolment, the standard of education continues to be a source of concern, which is critical for achieving the country's goals and implementing national policy. Weak facilities, exam-driven curriculum, memory-based exams, a shortage of qualified faculty, ineffective teaching strategies, a lack of funding, inconsistencies in government policy on higher education, entrenched political motives, massive demands from the youth population, political unrest, increasing privatisation, a lack of access and equity, and so on are some of the problems in higher education. There are several more problems like this, and this paper objectively examines all of them, as well as potential solutions.

معاشرتی علوم كے میدان میں جامعات کے پاکستانی نوجوان محققین کےمسائل اور ان کا حل

Pakistan is blessed with more than 60% of the youth population, which can play a constructive role in the progress of the country. But, due to inadequate planning, low education budgets, insufficient number of educational institutes, and governmental negligence, this resource is being wasted. Education, in general, higher education, in particular, are sub-standard. This paper discusses and identifies several issues faced by the young researchers of the universities, especially in the field of social sciences. For the collection of data, two questionnaires were circulated among the Pakistani researchers studying in or graduating from the universities in Pakistan and technologically advanced countries. The responses were then quantified, the results were extracted, and the recommendations in their light are presented.

Genome-wide differential expression profiling of lncRNAs and mRNAs in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells exposed to e-cigarette extract

Background Electronic-cigarette (e-cig) usage, particularly in the youth population, is a growing concern. It is known that e-cig causes endothelial dysfunction, which is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases; however, the mechanisms involved remain unclear. We hypothesized that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) may play a role in e-cig-induced endothelial dysfunction. Methods Here, we identified lncRNAs that are dysregulated in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells (iPSC-ECs) following 24 h of e-cig aerosol extract treatment via microarray analysis. We performed Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) pathway analyses of the dysregulated mRNAs following e-cig exposure and constructed co-expression networks of the top 5 upregulated lncRNAs and the top 5 downregulated lncRNAs and the mRNAs that are correlated with them. Furthermore, the functional effects of knocking down lncRNA lung cancer-associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) on EC phenotypes were determined as it was one of the significantly upregulated lncRNAs following e-cig exposure based on our profiling. Results 183 lncRNAs and 132 mRNAs were found to be upregulated, whereas 297 lncRNAs and 413 mRNAs were found to be downregulated after e-cig exposure. We also observed that e-cig caused dysregulation of endothelial metabolism resulting in increased FAO activity, higher mitochondrial membrane potential, and decreased glucose uptake and glycolysis. These results suggest that e-cig alters EC metabolism by increasing FAO to compensate for energy deficiency in ECs. Finally, the knockdown of LUCAT1 prevented e-cig-induced EC dysfunction by maintaining vascular barrier, reducing reactive oxygen species level, and increasing migration capacity. Conclusion This study identifies an expression profile of differentially expressed lncRNAs and several potential regulators and pathways in ECs exposed to e-cig, which provide insights into the regulation of lncRNAs and mRNAs and the role of lncRNA and mRNA networks in ECs associated e-cig exposure.