Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Executive Function in Children

The association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and executive function among children has been less investigated. We aimed to explore this topic. We randomly recruited 6387 children aged 6–12 years from five elementary schools in Guangzhou, China in 2019. Information on frequency and servings of children’s SSB consumption was assessed using a questionnaire. Children’s executive function was evaluated using parents’ ratings of the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), which comprises eight subscales—including inhibit, shift, emotional control, initiate, working memory, plan/organize, organization of materials and monitor, as well as three composite indexes including behavioral regulation index (BRI), metacognition index (MI), and global executive index (GEC). SSB consumption was positively associated with all subscales and composite scores of BRIEF as well as higher risks of elevated executive difficulties, indicating poorer executive function. For example, children who drank SSB ≥2 times/week were related to higher scores of GEC (estimates, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.44, 1.79 to 3.09) compared with those who never drank SSB. The odds ratio of elevated GEC associated with SSB consumption ≥2 times/week was 1.62 (95% CI: 1.34, 1.96) than non-consumers. The results of this study indicated that SSB consumption was associated with poorer executive function in children.

Index method for assessing the quality of the urban environment: international and Russian experience

В современных условиях высокого уровня урбанизации качество городской среды как неотъемлемый компонент качества жизни населения выступает одним из приоритетных направлений государственной политики, отраженных в национальных проектах России. Целью статьи является критический анализ зарубежных и отечественных методик оценки качества городской среды, основанных на индексном подходе. Рассматривается методический опыт крупнейших научно-исследовательских и консалтинговых организаций, проводящих сравнительные исследования городов на регулярной основе с использованием композитных индексов. Выделяются основные направления оценки качества городской среды, охватывающие экономические, социальные, культурные, экологические, политико-правовые аспекты жизнедеятельности населения. Показываются преимущества композитных индексов как универсальных инструментов агрегирования большого массива данных в целях осуществления комплексной оценки качества городской среды. Делается вывод о том, что существующие системы оценки ориентированы на измерение «средней городской температуры» с преимущественным использованием доступных статистических данных, позволяющих единовременно обеспечить массовый охват городов в целях их сравнительного анализа. На основе проведенного анализа формулируется перспективная научно-методическая задача - разработка композитных индексов, позволяющих оценивать внутригородские территориальные дисбалансы среды жизнедеятельности. Реализация указанной задачи имеет высокую практическую значимость для управления развитием сверхкрупных городов (мегаполисов), включая разработку дифференцированных программ совершенствования городской среды на уровне внутригородских территорий - районов, микрорайонов. In modern conditions of high urbanization, the quality of the urban environment as an integral component of the quality of life of the population is one of the priority areas of state policy, reflected in national projects of Russia. The purpose of the paper is a critical analysis of foreign and domestic methods for assessing the quality of the urban environment, based on an index approach. The publication considers the methodological experience of major research and consulting organizations conducting comparative studies of cities on a regular basis using composite indices. The main directions of assessment of the quality of the urban environment, covering economic, social, cultural, environmental, political and legal, are identified. The author shows the advantages of composite indexes as universal tools for aggregating a large array of data in order to carry out an integrated assessment of the quality of the urban environment. It is concluded that existing assessment systems focus on the measurement of "average urban temperature," preferring the use of available statistics that allow for a one-time mass coverage of cities for comparative analysis. Based on the analysis, a promising scientific and methodological task is formulated, namely: the development of composite indices that allow assessing the intracity territorial imbalances of the life environment. The implementation of this task is of high practical importance for the management of the development of super-large cities (megacities), including the development of differentiated programs for improving the urban environment at the level of inner-city territories - districts, microdistricts.

Data transformations when constructing a composite system quality index

The features of the data distribution can significantly affect the composite characteristics of objects, so composite indexes of objects must necessarily take into account the features of the data. Some types of data are characterized by distributions with a significant anomaly, when the vast majority of observations are concentrated near the boundary values. This type of data cannot always be characterized by an asymmetry coefficient. In addition, if the values of a variable are approximately symmetric with respect to zero or are concentrated near zero, the sample cannot also be characterized by the coefficient of variation. The paper proposes a transformation that allows us to identify the anomalous nature of variables using the signal-to-noise ratio. Variables are evaluated in the standard range, which is shifted to the right relative to zero. If it is necessary to logarithm, such a transformation will avoid the pressure of small values of variables that, after direct logarithm, would have large negative values. The application of logarithmic correction for the detected anomalous variables redistributes the values of the obtained weighting coefficients in the direction of a more correct interpretation and, in particular, solves the problem with the negativity of the weighting coefficients.

Measuring Regional Performance in the Italian NHS: Are Disparities Decreasing?

Given the regional disparities that historically characterize the Italian context, in this paper we propose a framework to evaluate the regional health care systems’ performance in order to contribute to the debate on the relationship between decentralisation of health care and equity. To investigate the regional health systems performance, we refer to the OECD Health Care Quality Indicators project to construct of a set of five composite indexes. The composite indexes are built on the basis of the non-compensatory Adjusted Mazziotta-Pareto Index, that allows comparability of the data across units and over time. We propose three indexes of health system performance, namely Quality Index, Accessibility Index and Cost-Expenditure Index, along with a Health Status Index and a Lifestyles Index. Our framework highlights that regional disparities still persist. Consistently with the evidence at the institutional level, there are regions, particularly in Southern Italy, which record lower levels of performance with high levels of expenditure. Continuous research is needed to provide policy makers with appropriate data and tools to build a cohesive health care system for the benefit of the whole population. Even if future research is needed to integrate our framework with new indicators for the calculation of the indexes and with the identification of new indexes, the study shows that a scientific reflection on decentralisation of health systems is necessary in order to reduce inequalities.

Financial Contagion: A Tale of Three Bubbles

The primary purpose of the study is to identify and measure the properties of asset bubbles, volatility clustering, and financial contagion during three recent financial market anomalies that originated in the U.S. and Chinese markets. In particular, we focus on the 2000 DotCom Bubble, the 2008 Housing Crisis, and the 2015 Chinese Bubble. We employ three main empirical methods; the LPPL model to identify asset bubbles, the DCC-GARCH model to measure volatility clustering, and the Diebold-Yilmaz volatility spillover index to measure the level of financial contagion. We provide robust evidence that during the DotCom bubble there was very limited spillover between the S&P 500, the Shanghai, and the Shenzhen Composite Indexes. However, there was significantly more spillover effects in the two more recent crises, i.e., the Housing crisis and the 2015 Chinese Bubble. Together, these results highlight the fact that as financial markets have become more globalized, there are greater levels of volatility transmission and correspondingly fewer potential benefits from international diversification.

Global Patterns of Digital Repression

This chapter presents quantitative data to explain the main arguments of the book. Specifically, it provides pooled, cross-national, time-series data to describe global patterns of digital repression, and it uses that data to develop and validate two composite indexes: a latent construct of digital repression and a latent construct of digital repression capacity. It discusses overall findings from the digital repression index—the relationship between regime type and digital repression, highest- and lowest-performing countries, as well as outliers. It also compares digital repression enactment to capacity, and investigates differences between autocracies and democracies. Finally, it analyzes individual components of digital repression—social media surveillance, online censorship, social manipulation and disinformation, Internet shutdowns, and arrests of online users for political content—and provide explanations for authoritarian and democratic use.

The Pandora"s box of frailty assessments, which is the best for clinical purpose? A critical review

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Assessment of frailty is recommended for patients undergoing elective transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) to appreciate post-interventional prognosis. Several studies investigated frailty in this population using single markers (e.g. gait speed), clinical judgment scales (e.g. Rockwood) or composite indexes (e.g. Fried). However, there is a lack of consensus on the most appropriate tool for assessment of frailty in clinical practice. Purpose To evaluate which frailty assessment is the most used and meaningful for post-interventional prognosis in older TAVI patients. Methods A systematic search was performed in PubMed (May 2020). We included randomized controlled trials or observational studies (prospective or retrospective) without time restrictions investigating the association of frailty and 1-year all-cause mortality in older (≥70 years) TAVI-patients. Results 60 studies (151,723 patients) were included. Studies heterogeneity (methods) was considerable. 40 different frailty assessments were identified. The most used single marker (Table) was gait speed (5-meter walk test), investigated in 16 observational studies (8/8 prospective/retrospective with 5,747/40,535 patients). 11 studies found mortality prediction by reduced gait speed, with hazard ratios (HR) between 1.36 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23-1.50) and 14.71 (95%CI 6.50-33.30) as well as an Odds Ratio (OR) of 2.34 (95%CI 1.03-5.32). Frailty in composite indexes (Table) predicted mortality in 10 of 11 observational studies 4-items index: HR 1.84 (95%CI 1.23-2.69) to 3.05 (95%CI 1.24-7.46), 5-items index: OR 1.63 (95 CI 1.12-2.37) to 2.75 (95%CI 1.55-4.87). Conclusion Predominantly, single markers, especially gait speed, are used to assess frailty in TAVI-patients. Composite indexes seem to be relieble as well and should be considered for prediction of 1-year mortality. Review results Single marker of frailty Total studies Predictive for 1-y mortality Gait speed (GS) 16 (46582) 11 (41376) Activities of Daily Living (ADL) 14 (6600) 6 (1405) Serum albumin (SA) 15 (49334) 13 (48729) Handgrip strength 10 (5912) 5 (1105) Composite indexes 4-items (GS, HG, SA, ADL) 6 (1957) 6 (1957) 5-items (GS, HG, exhaustion, low PA, weight loss) 5 (3014) 5 (3014) Clinical judgment scale Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) 9 (6415) 5 (4316) Numbers indicate number of studies and (number of patients)