Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere. Hesitancy and resistance towards vaccination is a challenge for public health. Here the authors determine psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy or resistance attitudes in the UK and Ireland.
ABSTRACT Spatial heterogeneity represents a general characteristic of the inequitable distributions of spatial issues. The spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis investigates the heterogeneity among various strata of explanatory variables by comparing the spatial variance within strata and that between strata. The geographical detector model is a widely used technique for spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis. In the model, the spatial data discretization and spatial scale effects are fundamental issues, but they are generally determined by experience and lack accurate quantitative assessment in previous studies. To address this issue, an optimal parameters-based geographical detector (OPGD) model is developed for more accurate spatial analysis. The optimal parameters are explored as the best combination of spatial data discretization method, break number of spatial strata, and spatial scale parameter. In the study, the OPGD model is applied in three example cases with different types of spatial data, including spatial raster data, spatial point or areal statistical data, and spatial line segment data, and an R “GD” package is developed for computation. Results show that the parameter optimization process can further extract geographical characteristics and information contained in spatial explanatory variables in the geographical detector model. The improved model can be flexibly applied in both global and regional spatial analysis for various types of spatial data. Thus, the OPGD model can improve the overall capacity of spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis. The OPGD model and its diverse solutions can contribute to more accurate, flexible, and efficient spatial heterogeneity analysis, such as spatial patterns investigation and spatial factor explorations.
Abstract. The System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA) is an open source geographic information system (GIS), mainly licensed under the GNU General Public License. Since its first release in 2004, SAGA has rapidly developed from a specialized tool for digital terrain analysis to a comprehensive and globally established GIS platform for scientific analysis and modeling. SAGA is coded in C++ in an object oriented design and runs under several operating systems including Windows and Linux. Key functional features of the modular software architecture comprise an application programming interface for the development and implementation of new geoscientific methods, a user friendly graphical user interface with many visualization options, a command line interpreter, and interfaces to interpreted languages like R and Python. The current version 2.1.4 offers more than 600 tools, which are implemented in dynamically loadable libraries or shared objects and represent the broad scopes of SAGA in numerous fields of geoscientific endeavor and beyond. In this paper, we inform about the system's architecture, functionality, and its current state of development and implementation. Furthermore, we highlight the wide spectrum of scientific applications of SAGA in a review of published studies, with special emphasis on the core application areas digital terrain analysis, geomorphology, soil science, climatology and meteorology, as well as remote sensing.
Problem Statement and Purpose. This article examines the current state of geography in Ukraine, which appears to be negative. Therefore, the issue is relevant and of practical importance. The purpose of the study is to consider and discuss the object of geography, its goals, subject matter, and overall significance in Ukrainian society. To achieve this purpose, the following tasks were set: (1) to analyze the formation of modern geography in Ukraine, which historically developed based on global experience; (2) to reveal the structure of geography as a reflection of the harmonious organization of the geographical envelope; (3) to assess the long-term stability of the essence of geography. The study also presents views on the scientific relationship between geography and ecology. The paper contributes to the development of physical geography theory and promotes rational and sustainable nature management. Data and Methods. The research is based on the fundamental laws of cognition and dialectics, reference and normative literature, and the main principles of philosophy and geography. The analysis of materials was conducted in accordance with the laws of transition from quantity to quality, the negation of negation, environmental unity, geographical locality, systematization, and hierarchy of geographical objects and processes. The study takes into account the scientific principles of cartography, geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, coastal studies, oceanology, mathematical geography, and other sectoral and interdisciplinary branches of geography. Consideration is also given to the influence of various geospheres on the state, structure, and properties of the Earth’s geographical envelope. Results and Discussion. Within modern European civilization, geography emerged in ancient times through the reasoning of natural philosophers to ensure access to natural resources and to establish a progressive worldview. The accumulation of geographical knowledge, population growth, the need for trade routes, and the increasing demand for material resources led to an explosive development of geography. Its gradual evolution resulted in the diversification of geographical disciplines with solid theoretical foundations, all interconnected by the general theory of geography. The classification of geography and Earth sciences as different disciplines within Ukraine’s education system is erroneous and harmful. It disrupts the principles of continuous geographical development that have existed for over 2,500 years. Such separation poses real threats to rational nature management, spatial awareness, and a healthy worldview of society and individuals. Geography studies the geographical envelope as the natural environment of human existence across countries and regions, incorporating all geospheres and exogenous sectors within a natural-anthropogenic systemic diversity resulting from long-term differentiation of each sector. This diversity necessitated hierarchical systematization based on the general theory of geography. The further development of this theory requires the establishment of up to thirty sectoral and interdisciplinary geographical sciences, harmonized through long evolutionary processes. Their number, purpose, and properties correspond to the structure of the geographical envelope. The totality of geographical research is based on the diversity of natural objects as components of the geographical envelope. This categorically excludes equating the geographical and landscape envelopes, since their nature is fundamentally different and predominantly exogenous. Therefore, the geographical envelope is divided into three main surface exogenous sectors: landscape, thalassogenic, and coastal-marine. Eleven hierarchical systems are defined for each, from the elementary to the most complex, corresponding to the number of separate geographical disciplines. For the first time, a theoretical scheme for the comparison and correlation of these hierarchical systems across different sectors of the geographical envelope is proposed, taking into account the influence of geospheres. According to the definitions of geography and the classification of “Earth sciences” by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, their division into separate academic disciplines is not only irrational but also detrimental. The illogical nature of this separation contradicts the long historical development of geography, the principles of the general theory of geography, the findings of science studies, and the universal laws and principles of natural sciences. Such contradictions are antagonistic and may lead to the rapid disintegration of the relationship between physical (“natural”) and socio-economic (“human”) geography, ultimately threatening the degradation of geography as a fundamental life-oriented and worldview-forming science.
A study of the Revista General de Informacion y Documentacion, from 2005 to 2022. The objective is aimed at qualifying the structure of the research field and assessing the trajectory of the thematic areas covered. Applying as methodology the analysis of co-words, the construction of bibliometric networks and the creation of scientific maps. 514 documents are extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database. The keywords assigned by the authors of the documents are selected and divided into three subperiods: 2005-2010, 2011-2016 and 2017-2022. In the results, 1701 author keywords and 37 bibliometric networks are obtained. In the period 2005-2010, the structure of the research field is represented on the scientific map with very few central and specialized topics, considering an initial and underdeveloped organization. In the period 2011-2016, the structure of the research field is distributed on the scientific map with a more varied number of central and specialized topics, but still insufficient, considering an organization in the process of development. In the period 2017-2022, the structure of the research field is shown on the map with all kinds of family of topics (central, specialized, transversal, emerging or disappearing), being valued as a dynamic, complex and heterogeneous organization. Regarding the evolution of the thematic areas, the map shows solid progress between the last two periods. The morphology of the thematic field treated in RGID is outlined in three phases: foundation, process of development and consolidation.
Victor Dante AYAVIRI-NINA, Sofia Alejandra MATOS AROCA, Gabith Miriam QUISPE FERNANDEZ
et al.
The present research develops a bibliometric analysis of innovation in the social economy, the study provides a
comprehensive vision of the current state of the field and highlights the most relevant publications, authors, sources and research
topics, taking as its general objective to analyze the behavior and advances in the literature about innovation in the social economy
through a bibliometric analysis, in this way Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) were considered as data sources, forming a database
of 304 registered articles, of which 111 belong to Scopus and 193 Web of Science (WoS). In the processing and representation of
data, the Bibliometrix and VoSviewer programs were used, which highlights information on trends, citation analysis, H index,
analysis of co-occurrences, keywords, affiliations on innovation research in the social economy. The growing scientific production
underlines the growing importance of the social economy as a driver of sustainable economic development. Geographic distribution,
thematic trends, and identification of influential contributors contribute to future research and practical efforts within this field.
Sylvester William Chisale, Samuel Eliya, John Taulo
Interrupted power supply and poor access to electricity (15%) have been persistent problems in Malawi for decades. Diversification of resources is required to solve the challenges. Therefore, this study is aimed at conducting a techno-economic analysis of a hybrid system to ensure electricity reliability, bill reduction, and reduced grid demand at a school. The study investigated six hybrid system scenarios that had various combinations of the grid, diesel, solar PV, wind, biogas, and battery. The HOMER Pro model was used to determine the best system combination. Six scenarios were examined further using the CRITIC-PROMETHEE II approaches. The best system configuration included grid, solar PV, and biogas electricity. Biogas generation is mainly from human excreta. The study also investigated the effect of the 2022 inflation rate on the financial performance of the system, which had shown a sharp increase in capital, replacement, O&M costs, and payback time. The proposed system’s levelized cost of electricity is 0.095 $/kWh, which is less than Malawi’s grid’s levelized cost of 0.11 $/kWh. Environmentally, the system could help to reduce greenhouse emissions, including those from the sewage system. Therefore, schools and governments should invest in alternative energy generation.
Samuel K. K. Amponsah, Francis K. E. Nunoo, Angela E. Lamptey
et al.
Ports offer economic progress to many coastal developing countries. In view of the economic importance, the rising demand for maritime benefits requires the expansion of existing ports. However, marine ecosystems may become vulnerable to negative impact from the construction of these maritime structures. Therefore, the aim of the study was to establish the impact of Tema port expansion on the diversity and population structure of fish species. Data were collected quarterly from June 2018 to November 2021 through trawling fishing activities off the coast of Greater Accra, Ghana, and subsequently analysed using Primer 6 software. Sampling locations along the coast of Greater Accra included Vernon Bank (VNB), Disposal area (DSA) and Offshore Sakumono (OSK). The increased and reduced number of species at VNB and DSA, respectively, could be alluded to dredging and disposal of dredged spoils. Diversity indices at OSK site was higher than those observed in disturbed areas due to the absence of impact in this control area. Thus, it is recommended to conduct further studies on the assemblage of invasive species that migrated to the VNB during dredging activities, since these species can have severe economic impact on fishing activities of artisanal fishermen, especially at the local level.
Abstract Tropical cyclone (TC) damage function (DF) is widely used to model TC‐event level damage and thus assess the TC risk for a country or region. The scalability of these DFs at more localized scales, such as the province scale, has not been systematically explored. We use a unique Chinese data set to examine the damage at the TC‐event scale and province scale. Our results show that the parameters and performance of TC DF are spatially dependent. For a sigmoidal DF, the parameter dependence is manifested by a flatter curve calibrated on the TC‐event scale compared to the province scale. In the case of a power‐law DF, the dependence of its parameters is evident in the statistically more significant coefficients of the explanatory variables that are aggregated to the TC‐event scale, compared to the province scale. Performance comparison results further reveal that the scale dependence of performance is related to the type of DF. Integrating hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, the power‐law DF complements the typical sigmoidal DF, producing more accurate estimates of direct economic loss and annual average damage at both the TC‐event and province scales. However, its performance, compared to that of the sigmoidal DF, is more influenced by the scale at which it is calibrated. Our findings elucidate scale‐related research questions in TC risk assessment, offer insights into the selection of DFs, and inspire the future prospect of using multiple DFs to reduce the functional uncertainty.
Objectives To estimate the incidence and prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) by age and describe secular trends and geographic variations within the UK over the 20-year period between 1990 and 2010 and hence to provide updated information on the impact of MS throughout the UK. Design A descriptive study. Setting The study was carried out in the General Practice Research Database (GPRD), a primary care database representative of the UK population. Main outcome measures Incidence and prevalence of MS per 100 000 population. Secular and geographical trends in incidence and prevalence of MS. Results The prevalence of MS recorded in GPRD increased by about 2.4% per year (95% CI 2.3% to 2.6%) reaching 285.8 per 100 000 in women (95% CI 278.7 to 293.1) and 113.1 per 100 000 in men (95% CI 108.6 to 117.7) by 2010. There was a consistent downward trend in incidence of MS reaching 11.52 per 100 000/year (95% CI 10.96 to 12.11) in women and 4.84 per 100 000/year (95% CI 4.54 to 5.16) in men by 2010. Peak incidence occurred between ages 40 and 50 years and maximum prevalence between ages 55 and 60 years. Women accounted for 72% of prevalent and 71% of incident cases. Scotland had the highest incidence and prevalence rates in the UK. Conclusions We estimate that 126 669 people were living with MS in the UK in 2010 (203.4 per 100 000 population) and that 6003 new cases were diagnosed that year (9.64 per 100 000/year). There is an increasing population living longer with MS, which has important implications for resource allocation for MS in the UK.
Let $G$ be a simple group over a global function field $K$, and let $π$ be a cuspidal automorphic representation of $G$. Suppose $K$ has two places $u$ and $v$ (satisfying a mild restriction on the residue field cardinality), at which the group $G$ is quasi-split, such that $π_u$ is tempered and $π_v$ is unramified and generic. We prove that $π$ is tempered at all unramified places $K_w$ at which $G$ is unramified quasi-split. The proof uses the Galois parametrization of cuspidal representations due to V. Lafforgue to relate the local Satake parameters of $π$ to Deligne's theory of Frobenius weights. The main observation is that, in view of the classification of generic unitary spherical representations, due to Barbasch and the first-named author, the theory of weights excludes generic complementary series as possible local components of $π$. This in turn determines the local Frobenius weights at all unramified places. In order to apply this observation in practice we need a result of the second-named author with Gan and Sawin on the weights of discrete series representations.
Fixed point results of Perov type mapping which satisfy generalized Tcontractive conditions in the setup of cone b-metric spaces associated with generalized c-distance are proved and illustrated by nontrivial examples.
In our previous work with Grifo and Hà, we showed the stable Harbourne-Huneke containment and Chudnovsky's conjecture for the defining ideal of sufficiently many general points in $\mathbb{P}^N$. In this paper, we establish the conjectures for all remaining cases, and hence, give the affirmative answer to Harbourne-Huneke containment and Chudnovsky's conjecture for any number of general points in $\mathbb{P}^N$ for all $N$. Our new technique is to develop the Cremona reduction process that provides effective lower bounds for the Waldschmidt constant of the defining ideals of generic points in projective spaces.