The Asymmetrical Effect of Polarization on Support for Independence: The Case of Catalonia

The article analyses the consequences of elite polarization at the mass level in the centre-periphery dimension. We analyse the rapid rise in support for independence in Catalonia, focusing on the role of party competition around the centre-periphery cleavage. We argue that mainstream actors’ adoption of centrifugal party strategies with respect to the national question produced a polarizing dynamic in the party system that eventually caused voters’ attitudes regarding the centre-periphery issue to harden. Indeed, we posit that this increase in mass polarization was a consequence of party agency that subsequently helped to drive attitudes regarding independence. To test this hypothesis, we measure centre-periphery polarization (as perceived by voters) by adopting two different perspectives—inter-party distances (horizontal polarization) and party-voter distances (vertical polarization)—and then run logistic regressions to explain support for independence. The findings show an asymmetrical effect on polarization. While the centrifugal strategy implemented by Catalan regionalist parties paved the way for a radicalization of voters on the Catalan nationalist side, among voters for non-regionalist parties, attitudes towards independence were initially less conditioned by this polarization. The results provide evidence of the political effects of elite polarization.

Mobile Payments, Demographics and Firm Performance in Kenya

Technological advancements have presented firms with an opportunity to use mobile payments to enhance their performance. This study explores the relationship between mobile payments and firm performance in Kenya. The moderating effects of demographics are also studied. Using primary data collected from 289 supermarkets based in Nairobi City County, we determine whether the use of mobile payment has enhanced firm performance as defined by profitability, operation costs, revenues and the number of customers served. Empirical results from logit regression analysis reveal that the use of a mobile to make payments in supermarkets directly impacts the performance of supermarkets. Additionally, consumer characteristics have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between mobile payments and profitability of supermarkets. We conclude that the use of mobiles to make payments in supermarkets in Kenya has acquired the requisite critical mass level to be in a position to influence revenues of these firms.

The Role of Political Elites in Eliciting Mass-Level Political Anger

Contemporary American politics is notable for its high levels of anger and partisan antipathy. While these developments are attributable in large part to societal-level sociopolitical trends, I argue that they are also the result of politicians’ deliberate and strategic attempts to elicit mass-level anger. In this paper, I analyze over one million tweets sent by members of the 116th Congress to demonstrate that political elites do appeal to anger and that the angriest of these appeals are most likely to come from the most ideologically extreme Members of Congress – that is, the most liberal Democrats and the most conservative Republicans. I further show that this relationship is stronger for Democratic politicians, and that authoring tweets with a greater amount of anger generates more engagement. The results suggest that as long as politicians have an incentive to appeal to mass-level anger, the divisions characterizing American politics are likely to persist.

COV-DOCK server: A web server for COVID-19 ligand-target docking

MotivationDespite mass level vaccinations and the launch of several repurposed drugs, the emergence ofCOVID-19 reinfection has posed a key challenge in front of health authorities across the world.There is an urgent need to find new drugs and the understanding of the COVID-19 target–ligandinteractions will play an important role in this direction. Here, we present COV-Dock Server, aweb server that predicts the binding modes between COVID-19 targets and the small drugmolecules.ResultsWe collected experimentally solved structures of proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Further, we used thepredicted structure of experimentally unsolved proteins that were also collected. These structureswere prepared for the docking. Next, 257 candidate drugs were docked against these targetsusing the meta-platform to understand the binding energy distributions. This server provides afree and interactive tool for the prediction of COVID-19 target–ligand interactions and enablesdrug discovery for COVID-19.

Op-Ed---- Public Health as I see it- India &LMICs1

Op-Ed---- Public Health as I see it- India &LMICs1 The concepts of public health, one of the broad and vast scientific streams, is not getting required attention and support in India and other LMICs (low and middle income countries) like the western countries and HICs (high income countries) even in this covid-19 pandemic era. There are several reasons for this difference in public health encouragement between LMICs and HIC, the most significant factors are policies, lack of awareness and resources such as institutes, funds etc. Added to this the policy and decision makers seem to be ignorant about the significance of public health in reducing the burden of disease and health expenses at mass level. The field of public health will be more significant & useful if divided into Medical and Non-Medical branches as it incorporates scholars and experts of different fields and this division will increase significance, utility as well as efficiency of public health scholars. At present it is a mixture of scholars of different backgrounds and the title Master of Public Health seems quite inappropriate title for scholars’ of non-health field backgrounds called Master (of public health) with a simple 2 year course. Moreover the non-medical graduates will find difficulty in getting primary data related to health sciences and vice versa is also true for medical graduates and scholars. For example the non medical scholars doing research on Kala-azar don’t have enough knowledge of kala-azar to interpret the findings like spleen size, life cycle of vector, modes of transmission etc. and vice versa is also true for medical graduates. Since the preparedness and efficiency of these scholars depends on the education they receive and how effectively they use it, the training and work field should be designed as isolated fields to make the scholars’ real master instead of making jack of all trades Master of nothing. This is one of the reasons why the scholars of public health are not getting good jobs, enough attention and reputation. Added to this the credibility and reliability of public health experts can be endangered by practice of using secondary data in research largely derived from medical graduates. Hence it’s better if the public health experts department with proper division is established to reap the maximum benefits from scholars of different fields. Public health consists of experts from different fields and services which can be utilized in cases of emergency and critical support. Their abilities can be utilized while managing existing cases of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart ailments, routine ante-natal care, accidents, as well as communicable disease like covid-19 if we have a clear role to be played by public health scholars. For example let the management public health expert do the management works while let medical public health experts find out the formula to deal with covid-19 as medical public health experts. Of course everyone will have importance and at the same time expertise in their respective field which can be utilized as team work to deal with various healths related issues. The significance of doctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital-based staff have been noticed and praised during this covid-19 era but still the public health experts are not getting enough attention, why? Taking example of covid-19, Public health experts may not be able to provide sophisticated complex treatments but their role in preventing, identification of cases, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation monitoring, referrals, logistic management etc. would prove helpful and significant to deal with the situation. Their ability would depend on their training about the infection and its identification, transmission, diagnostics and treatment support. India has a three-tier public health system for provision of primary (HSC, APHC, and PHC), secondary (provided by SDH, CHC, and DH specialist on referral from primary care provider) and tertiary (medical college hospitals etc. highly specialized medical care) care. All these centers must have public health experts well qualified and trained to reduce the burden of disease as well as OOPE (out of pocket expenditure) at mass level. India and other LMICs must focus now on preparing the qualified, skilled public health soldiers in order to reduce the burden of disease and health care expenses which are interfering with the nation's development.1. DR PIYUSH KUMAR, M.B.B.S., EMOC (FOGSI), PGDPHM,SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICER, HEALTH DEPARTMENT, [email protected] Mobile-+919955301119/7677833752,GOVERNMENT OF BIHAR

Fueling the Populist Divide: Nativist and Cosmopolitan Preferences for Representation at the Elite and Mass Level

Although populist leaders often employ an anti-elite discourse which presents the elite as unable or unwilling to represent ordinary citizens, we know very little about who elites actually think should be represented, or how this differs, if at, all from what ordinary citizens want. In this article we find that there is a considerable difference between the groups that voters want to see represented in parliament and those which political elites want to see represented. In particular, we find that political elites tend to hold far more ‘cosmopolitan’ preferences than ordinary voters, and prioritize the representation of greater diversity in parliament based on the groups politicised by the new social movements and identity politics of the 60s and 70s, such as women, ethnic minorities, LGBT and the disabled. By contrast, voters more often hold nativist preferences than political elites and more often prioritize the representation of groups such as the working class, and white local people. Moreover, British voters who hold nativist preferences of political representation are more likely to be politically alienated and more likely to support Brexit.

A Case of Negative Externality: Use of Pesticide and Its Impact on Health Among Farmers in Salumbhu Village, Nepal

The widespread and uncontrolled use of harmful pesticide to facilitate mass-level agricultural production creates negative externalities ranging from environmental degradation to having adverse health implications to the users. This article explores a primary village-level data of farmers in the Salumbhu village of Nepal to investigate the health effects associated with pesticide use. A total of six health symptoms grouped into two categories such as serious health-related issues and irritants are analysed separately using ordered logit model. For the robustness of the results, Poisson and negative binomial models are also used. We found that farmers as compared to the non-farmers are significantly more prone to facing serious health issues. Furthermore, as farmers are the applicators of pesticide, the odds of them facing all the health symptoms increases significantly. The results are uniform across different measures of health and over multiple models, which advocates the need of appropiate regulations in the usage of pesticide in Nepal.

Sense of Coherence, Quality of Life and Mental Health among Adults Identified with Different Levels of Depression

This research has focused on the role of sense of coherence in perceived quality of life and mental health among adults identified with different levels of depression. The research is grounded in a mental health model stemmed from medical sociology, which focuses on the mass level health and coping mechanisms in diverse populations. In a mass-level study, a survey research design was selected for approaching participants and collecting information from 300 adults having depressive symptoms. More specifically, a cross-sectional design was employed for data collection. About seven months were consumed in compiling this research, out of which major time was spent in data collection. Findings of the study confirmed the anticipated outcomes as a sense of coherence positively predicted perceived quality of life and mental health among adults having depressive symptoms.