“In the Key of Loss”

This article addresses a particular example of the intersection of literature and cinema in the film Call Me By Your Name, made by Luca Guadagnino and based on the novel of the same title by André Aciman, and the themes of nostalgia and loss in the work of both. The film results from the encounter, in its production and in a large number of retrospective discussions, between the cosmopolitan writer André Aciman and the Italian director Luca Guadagnino who, while attentive to global issues such as the trans-Mediterranean migration which features in the film, is very much grounded in his home region of northern Italy. The (rather differently figured) Jewish and homosexual identities of the two protagonists in the novel and the film are also addressed.

Tanzania’s president will blend change with continuity

Significance Having now completed her first 100 days in office, her style distinguishes her from her predecessor but there is considerable policy continuity. As with Magufuli, the focus of her administration is on consolidating the power of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party. Impacts Samia’s sensitivity to political nuance in Zanzibar, her home region, should help the unity government there survive beyond the 2025 poll. Samia’s presidency will have only marginal impacts on women’s place in society; she has never embraced a forthright feminist philosophy. Confirmed as the strongest of the continent’s liberation movement parties, CCM’s strategic influence is likely to increase.

Geographic Trends in the Otolaryngology Match (2016-2020)

Objective Presenting geographic matching trends over 5 match cycles (2016-2020) to serve as a context for changes in residency match outcomes due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Study Design Retrospective review. Setting Single academic institution-affiliated otolaryngology–head and neck surgery residency program. Methods Residency match outcomes for all applicants to our institution (2015-2019) were collected from the National Residency Matching Program, including medical school and matched program. Matches were categorized as home program, home region, or out of region and sorted by US geographic region. Statistical analysis included frequencies, totals, χ2 testing, and binary logistic regression. Results From 2016 to 2020, the US MD senior match rate was 84.9%: 18.9% to home programs, 35.7% to home region, and 45.3% to out of region. Rates were similar across regions and decreased over time. Westerners matched to home programs more than Southerners or Midwesterners (27.5% vs 16.0% and 16.0%, P < .01). Southerners and Westerners were more likely to match within their regions (South: 63.1%, P = .011, odds ratio [OR] = 1.296, 95% CI, 1.060-1.584; West: 42.0%, P = .018, OR = 1.462, 95% CI, 1.066-2.004). Matching from out of region was more likely in the West and less likely in the South (West: 58.0%, P = .017, OR = 1.379, 95% CI, 1.059-1.796; South: 36.9%, P < .001, OR = 0.584, 95% CI, 0.47-0.727). Conclusion From 2016 to 2020 in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, about 1 in 5 matches were to home institutions, a trend that appeared to be more common in the West. Over 4 out of 5 trainees match to nonhome programs, and nearly half relocate to a new region for training. Changes to travel, rotations, and interviews due to COVID-19 may influence these trends.

Colonial Education, Political Elites, and Regional Political Inequality in Africa

Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regions have been systematically much more represented than others. Combining novel historical and geospatial records, I show that this regional political inequality derives not from colonial-era development in general but from colonial-era education in particular. I argue that post-colonial ministers are partly a byproduct of civil service recruitment practices among European administrators that focused on levels of literacy. Regional political inequality is an understudied pathway through which colonial legacies impact distributive politics and unequal development in Africa today. JEL: F54, I26, N37, N47

MAIN CHANGES IN THE MARKET POSITION AND COMPETITIVENESS OF GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE TNCS IN THE CONDITIONS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

The paper investigates changes in market positions and competitiveness of global automotive TNCs in the system of international business. Country, sectoral and corporate factors influencing the choice of investment and non-investment methods for the development of new markets by automobile TNCs were identified, and a study of the degree of their influence on the company's decision-making was carried out. The features of the development of key markets of countries in different geographic regions are highlighted. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative changes in the structure of production and sales of cars by European TNCs was carried out, which were the result of their active internationalization. Particular attention is paid to the "home" region of automobile TNCs, including the analysis of the specificity of environmental regulation of the location of automobile factories in the EU. It has been determined that the environmental aspect has become the most important element of the competitiveness of automobile companies. In the process, it was found that for the "home" region at the present stage, European automotive TNCs usually choose a strategy of mergers and acquisitions with exceptions in the form of joint ventures for the production of low-cost cars or greenfield-projects for luxury cars. In addition to acquisitions in order to strengthen their position in other markets, companies seek to specialize and get rid of non-core assets. The countries of Asia, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East are considered by European automobile TNCs as the most promising for further development and production of their products there. Market development strategies and the choice of method of starting production there are largely determined by the peculiarities of their national legislation, the expected magnitude of demand and the stability of the political situation. At existing enterprises, if necessary, companies increase production capacity, invest in equipment upgrades, move from assembly to full cycle production, as well as increase the level of localization (including by investing in the construction of engine plants).

Frequency of presenting visual acuity and visual impairment in Chinese college students

AIM: To obtain the baseline data on presenting visual acuity (PVA) and evaluate the prevalence and associated factors for visual impairment based on PVA in 9070 Chinese college students. METHODS: The freshmen at a university in southern China, including 6527 undergraduate students and 2543 graduate students, were investigated for some socio-demographic characteristics and underwent routine medical examination, including measuring PVA, height, and weight. Visual impairment was defined according to the new World Health Organization criteria for blindness and visual impairment. RESULTS: In 9070 college students, the mean PVA in the better eye was 0.094±0.163 logMAR. The prevalence of visual impairment based on PVA was 2.7%. Only 38.3% college students had normal visual acuity [PVA equal to 0 logMAR (20/20) in both eyes]. There were 69.8% of students wearing spectacles. Logistic regression showed that home region (non-Guangdong provinces, P<0.0001, OR=1.70) was risk factor for visual impairment while BMI (P=0.001, OR=0.92) was protective factor from visual impairment. Ethnicity (Han Chinese, P<0.0001, OR=3.17) was risk factor for wearing spectacles while age (P=0.01, OR=0.90) was protective factor from wearing spectacles. CONCLUSION: This study provides the baseline data on PVA and the prevalence of visual impairment in Chinese college students. Our analyses reveal that BMI and home region are associated factors for visual impairment based on PVA, while age and ethnicity are associated factors for wearing spectacles.

Back-Shoring vs. Near-Shoring: A Comparative Study

After decades of manufacturing offshoring strategies, generally addressed to low cost countries, in the last few years companies have been increasingly revising their location strategies. In so doing, they often implement either back-shoring (relocation to the home country) or near-shoring (relocation to the home region) alternatives. While the former strategy has gained increasing attention among scholars in recent years, studies on near-shoring are still scarce. Moreover, the academic literature rarely compares the two phenomena in order to understand why companies prefer to implement one instead of the other. This paper aims to shed new light on similarities and differences among back- and near-shoring strategies. In order to reach such an objective, we assume a contingency approach by focusing on a specific industry, the footwear sector, which has been significantly characterized by offshoring strategies. In order to reach the research aim, the comparison between back- and near-shoring strategies will be conducted focusing on three main issues: a) characteristics of the companies implementing the relocation strategy (firm’s size); b) motivations inducing companies to relocate; c) barriers to the implementation of the relocation decision. Given the explorative nature of the paper, the features of 41 back- and near-shoring decisions implemented by 25 Italian and Spanish companies operating in the footwear industry will be analysed. Preliminary findings show smaller companies are more likely to back-shore instead of near-shore, probably because of the lower competences and resources they own. At the same time, availability of skilled contractors and/or availability of government aid in the home country induce them to back-shore instead of near-shore. Finally, the lack of skilled suppliers mainly characterizes the back-shoring alternative.

Research on Pharmaceutical Product Life Cycle Patterns for Sustainable Growth

An important agenda of pharmaceutical companies is the establishment of therapeutic area strategies, drug modality, and geographic strategies for research and development. It is worthwhile to understand the changes in therapeutic area, modality and internationalization of the top-selling pharmaceutical drugs over the past. Hence, the purposes of this study are to investigate changes in therapeutic area, modality and internationalization of the top-selling drugs and to identify their life cycle patterns. We compared the top-selling drugs between 2011 and 2017, and found that the percentages of nichebuster cancer drugs and home region-oriented drugs have increased whereas the proportions of traditional blockbuster cardiovascular drugs and global drugs have decreased. We compared product life cycle patterns via a Kruskal–Wallis test, and identified the features of product life cycle patterns per therapeutic area and modality. We performed a case study on drugs in the same class with the same pharmacological mechanism but found no differences across cases. Our results provide insights into therapeutic area strategies that consider life cycle patterns and geographic strategies that consider the competitive advantages of home region-oriented drugs. Finally, we presented new and simple models of life cycle patterns. This approach may help such enterprises establish and maintain sustainable growth.

Comparison of Two Network-Theory-Based Methods for detecting Functional Regions

Background: Functional regions are abstract, uniformly defined territorial units that form an important basis for many development strategies of a country or a region.Objectives: This study analyses the application of network theory to the detection of such regions.Methods/Approach: Functional regions are analysed using two methods based on the graph theory: the Walktrap algorithm and the chain approach. The quality of the two regionalization methods is analysed using the fuzzy set theory with the revised method. Slovenia was used as a case study.Results: The Walktrap algorithm generated eight functional regions; seven of them corresponded to those identified in previous studies. The only difference occurred in the northwestern mountainous part of Slovenia. The chain approach led to similar results, although it resulted in a huge functional urban region of the capital Ljubljana.Conclusions: The results show that the Walktrap algorithm calculates regions that are more closed, where more workers find work in the home region, than the chain approach.

Manggaraian People's Perspective on Migration: A Study of Popular Manggaraian Songs' Lyrics

Migration is one of important issues in the Manggaraians' life. Their migration from Manggarai to various regions in Indonesia has made subtantial impacts on Manggaraian society. Over a long period of time, they have transformed from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This socioeconomic shift has become one of recurrent themes in Manggaraian popular songs. Two of the songs featuring this theme are “Lelak Loce Renda” written by Felix Edon and “Hemong Beo” written by Yasintus S.A. Jaar. Two questions that the present study intends to answer are, what factors encourage Manggaraian people to migrate out of their home region according to the lyrics of the abovementioned two songs? and how do they perceive migration as part of their socioculturalral realities? The answers to these questions are developed using a sociocultural perspective based on a theoretical concept posited by Everett E.Lee named pull and push factors. The study has led to the conclusion that the factors that has motivated the Manggaraians to migrate out of their home region thus far can be grouped into "push" factors and "pull" factors. The greatest push factor is found in a Manggaraian cultural value called goet-goet because of which they see migrating for better future is a respectable decision. The greatest pull factor is the expectation that the places to which they want to migrate offer more economic opportunities than those available in their hometown or home villages.