Abstract
Background
This study aimed to cross-compare European countries’ responsiveness to their populations’ mental health (MH) needs.
Methods
For the EU-27 countries and the United Kingdom, the 2023 Headway Initiative collected data on 15 key performance indicators (KPIs) in responsiveness in healthcare, including workforce, facilities, quality of care, and MH expenditure, and 14 KPIs in responsiveness in workplaces, schools, and society. Bivariate correlations between Headway-transformed KPI scores, which were standardised in a 1–10 Likert Scale (1: worst performance; 10: best performance), tested for putative associations.
Results
Responsiveness in healthcare: Sweden (10), Denmark (8.8), and Finland (8.3) showed the best performance, while Romania (1.0), Slovakia (1.1), and Latvia and Bulgaria (1.2) had the poorest performance. Responsiveness in workplaces: schools, and society, Germany (10.0), France (9.1), and Denmark (9.1) were the most responsive countries, while Greece and Slovakia (1.0) had the poorest responsiveness. MH status total scores negatively correlated with global scores on responsiveness in healthcare (r = −0.34, p = .075), workplaces (r = −0.46, p = .014), schools (r = −0.59, p = .003), and society (r = −0.53, p = .003) – poorer MH status, greater responsiveness.
Conclusions
European countries significantly differed in their responsiveness to the populations’ MH needs, although the real effectiveness of their MH policies remains to be elucidated. Whether more responsive countries, which achieved poorer MH outcomes, successfully met greater preexisting MH needs, they failed to do so, or the relationship is driven by other third variables (e.g., quality of MH assessment) requires future investigation.
María José López-Armada, Jennifer Adriana Fernández-Rodríguez, Francisco Javier Blanco
Control of excessive mitochondrial oxidative stress could provide new targets for both preventive and therapeutic interventions in the treatment of chronic inflammation or any pathology that develops under an inflammatory scenario, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Increasing evidence has demonstrated the role of mitochondrial alterations in autoimmune diseases mainly due to the interplay between metabolism and innate immunity, but also in the modulation of inflammatory response of resident cells, such as synoviocytes. Thus, mitochondrial dysfunction derived from several danger signals could activate tricarboxylic acid (TCA) disruption, thereby favoring a vicious cycle of oxidative/mitochondrial stress. Mitochondrial dysfunction can act through modulating innate immunity via redox-sensitive inflammatory pathways or direct activation of the inflammasome. Besides, mitochondria also have a central role in regulating cell death, which is deeply altered in RA. Additionally, multiple evidence suggests that pathological processes in RA can be shaped by epigenetic mechanisms and that in turn, mitochondria are involved in epigenetic regulation. Finally, we will discuss about the involvement of some dietary components in the onset and progression of RA.
Camille Boulanguer, Sarah Goldman, Maya Jandah
et al.
In a 2019 New York Times article, Paul Krugman declared himself a “crypto skeptic” and shared his pessimistic predictions for cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, unbacked cryptomoney is now very important in our societies and has revolutionized the monetary and financial landscape as exemplified by the increased pressure from competent regulators to monitor and regulate it. Cryptocurrencies are described by their high volatility that permits regulators to define them as non-safe financial assets when it comes to energy consumption. The anonymous property of cryptocurrencies opens the door to tax evasion, making it especially susceptible to avoiding environment-related taxes aimed at tackling negative impact of climate change. Against this background, the paper sets a twofold aim: to demonstrate that unbacked cryptomoney is volatile and it may pose a threat to financial and fiscal stability; and to develop the idea that, given their different degrees of anonymity and their decentralisation nature, cryptocurrencies could actively participate in the process of tax evasion and therefore incur high costs for countries. Given the general ecological condition and ensuing concerns, it is clear that avoiding eco-taxes represents a serious issue since money from eco-taxation could have been invested in environmental social and governance projects. Therefore, a clear and compelling legal framework should be implemented worldwide to reduce the tax evasion phenomena via cryptomoney channels.
The term Quale Mechanics is proposed here as describing the qualitative aspects of Quantum Mechanics that are susceptible of metaphysical considerations. The aim of Quale Mechanics is to distill the quantum discourse to its pillars in order to construct its proper – philosophical in nature – quale discourse. The framework of the discussion is initiated by revisiting the platonic approach of the manner in which knowledge is perceived/processed, and then by discussing the four sapiential stages before arriving at concept of the eide. The sensible-suprasensible dichotomy is exposed by contrasting aistheta to the eide. A discussion on the historical development and the foundation of the pillars of Quantum Mechanics is followed. This includes Planck’s solution for the black-body radiation problem with the introduction of quanta – in conflict with Newtonian physics – followed by Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect and the implications involving the dual nature of light (particle vs. wave) and two generalizations of the quantum character of matter: the planetary model of the atom by Bohr, and the dual particle-wave character of electron demonstrated by de Broglie. The subsequent distillation of these semi-classical concepts into more abstract mathematical concepts by Heisenberg, Born, Dirac and Pauli are then reviewed – with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and with the concept of wavefunction as landmarks that unmistakably departs from the classical deterministic view of matter. A representative illustration of these achievements is given by the Casimir effect – with implications for gravity and an illustration of how vacuum can in fact not be considered to be truly void. Quantum Mechanics, as the most accurate mathematical framework which can be employed in order to describe and predict the natural phenomena occurring at the atom-size dimensions of reality, may thus be considered as the root from which the concept of Quale Mechanics is emerged in order to construct the parallel between the metaphysical existence and the quantum physical wavefunction collapse. It is concluded that, within its underlying, Quantum Mechanics is a (hopefully fruitful) reiteration of the Ancient Greek Weltanschauung.
History (General) and history of Europe, Science (General)
As China has taken its place at the heart of the ASEAN economy, as well as global maritime and financial traffic, it has continued to internationalise its businesses at an accelerated rate and in some of the most technologically advanced ways. Singapore has been a key destination since it began its massive investments in the region. Like other foreign investors, Chinese companies have targeted logistics, manufacturing and high value-added services. But now it seems that Chinese investment is focusing on the digital economy, which can be traced through the study of the projects and acquisitions of two key players: Alibaba and Huawei. This paper measures, characterises and contextualises Chinese OFDIs in Singapore from 2000 to 2022 in order to show how, through increasing investment in Southeast Asia's richest economy, China is consolidating both its own power in the digital domain and Singapore's position of regional superiority.
Carolina Cerrano, José Antonio Saravia Bianchimano
Este artículo aborda la campaña electoral del Partido Nacional uruguayo en la elección nacional de noviembre de 1958. Ese año el nacionalismo alcanzó la mayoría del poder ejecutivo colegiado después de esperar esa victoria por noventa y tres años, lo que implicó un cambio de conducción en el país. Esta investigación analiza las propuestas de las diferentes agrupaciones partidarias y cómo éstas interpretaron en sus medios de prensa el ansiado triunfo. Asimismo, se estudia la figura de Luis Alberto de Herrera en sus últimos comicios como candidato, después de jugar un rol gravitatorio en el Partido Nacional por varias décadas.
Named after the Hindu spring festival of Holī, horī songs generally portray the frolicsome play of the day with the throwing of coloured powders by Kṛṣṇa as the main protagonist pranking Rādhā and the gopī-s in Braj. The horī analysed in the present paper shows idiosyncrasies unveiling religious, theological, and ritual significance, besides offering precious insights into a ‘living tradition’: the celebration of Holī in the city of Banaras, at the cremation ground in Maṇikarṇikā ghāṭ where śaiva devotees enact and ‘actualise’ the horī. The song depicts Śiva playing Holī in the cremation ground with his retinue of ghostly creatures that are his favourite companions along with Aghorī-s. In place of colours, Śiva tosses the ashes from funeral pyres. In his divine dance and drumming, Mahādev uses the poisonous snakes adorning him as water-guns to squirt venom instead of gulāl. The atypical choice of Śiva in one of his fearful manifestations as the subject of a horī is discussed through references to philosophical and theological interpretations and specific symbolism. The apparent contradiction of the celebration of a lively festival in the setting of the cremation ground, resolved in the divine character of Śiva, is illustrated and contextualised starting from textual analysis.
Ana Mendez-Lopez, David Stuckler, Martin McKee
et al.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated policy responses, such as physical distancing interventions, pose risks to mental health that could be mitigated by social support systems. We examine associations between changes in mental health in the population aged 50 years and older in Europe and stringency of pandemic responses and social protection. Methods: We analysed data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe: n = 50,278 individuals aged 50 years and older in 26 European countries between June and August 2020. Linear multivariable regression models were used to evaluate potential risk factors for deterioration in self-reported mental health and investigate whether social protection systems mitigate it. Results: Across the European Union, 28.1% (95% CI:27.1–29.2) of participants reported worsening mental health since the beginning of the pandemic, ranging from 16.1% in Slovakia to 54.8% in Portugal. Factors associated with increased risk of deterioration included: being female (12.7 percentage points (ppt), 95%CI:9.2–16.2); experiencing unmet healthcare needs during the pandemic (14.6 ppt, 95%CI:11.2–18.1); job loss during the pandemic (6.2 ppt, 95%CI:1.1–11.8); and financial hardship (5.1 ppt, 95%CI:2.9–7.2). Greater stringency of physical distancing measures in countries was associated with worsening mental health (0.2 ppt per each one point increase on a stringency index, 95% CI:0.09–0.4); however, country-level pre-pandemic expenditures on various social protection packages was associated with decreased probability of worsening mental health (−1.3 ppt, 95%CI: 0.3 to −2.3 per €1,000 increase in health care expenditures per capita and, among the unemployed, −3.8 ppt, 95%CI: 1.6 to −2.4 per €100 increase in unemployment expenditure per capita). Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with substantial mental health deterioration exhibiting social inequalities. Adverse mental health has been exacerbated by policy responses to the pandemic regulating physical distancing, but social protection expenditure might have helped mitigate the impact. Strengthening social protection systems might render the mental health of the population more resilient to the consequences of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public aspects of medicine, Social sciences (General)
Проект NEWSLA — это проект, получивший поддержку программы ERASMUS MUNDUS. Включает в себя универсальную подготовку современной формы второй ступени высшего образования по славистике, подготовлен тремя университетами (Силезский университет в Катовицах, Остравский университет в Остраве, Университет имени Св. Кирилла и Мефодия в Скопье). Программа обучения, разрабатываемая в рамках этого проекта, будет содержать также курс на тему «Город в литературе и культуре» этих трех стран, охватывающий следующие темы: город как центр мира, город как мифологическое место, геокультурная символика города, феномен «потерянных» городов, отношение человека к городу, фланирование или искусство прогулки по городу и город как переводческая проблема. В статье представлены различные аспекты и примеры из указанной программы обучения.
Статья поступила в редакцию 17.01.2022.
Цитирование
Танушевска Л. Топос города — широкое поле для создания курса лекций в рамках проекта NEWSLA // Славянский альманах. 2022. No 1–2. С. 293–303. DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2022.1-2.3.06
History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
Inflationary era of our Universe can be characterized as semi-classical because it can be described in the context of four-dimensional Einsteins's gravity involving quantum corrections. These string motivated corrections originate from quantum theories of gravity such as superstring theories and include higher gravitational terms as, Gauss-Bonnet and Chern-Simons terms. In this paper we investigated inflationary phenomenology coming from a scalar field, with quadratic curvature terms in the view of GW170817. Firstly, we derived the equations of motion, directly from the gravitational action. As a result, formed a system of differential equations with respect to Hubble's parameter and the inflaton field which was very complicated and cannot be solved analytically, even in the minimal coupling case. Based on the observations from GW170817, which have shown that the speed of the primordial gravitational wave is equal to the speed of light, our equations of motion where simplified after applying this constraint, the slow-roll approximations and neglecting the string corrections. We described the dynamics of inflationary phenomenology and proved that theories with Gauss-Bonnet term can be compatible with recent observations. Also, the Chern-Simons term leads to asymmetric generation and evolution of the two circular polarization states of gravitational wave. Finally, viable inflationary models are presented, consistent with the observational constraints. The possibility of a blue tilted tensor spectral index is briefly investigated.
This paper gives both a general canonical quantum gravity theory and the general canonical quantum gravity theories of the Universe and general black hole, and discovers the relations reflecting symmetric properties of the standard nonlinear gravitational Lagrangian, which are not relevant to any concrete metric models. This paper concretely shows the general commutation relations of the general gravitational field operators and their zeroth, first, second and third style, respectively, of high order canonical momentum operators for the general nonlinear system of the standard gravitational Lagrangian, and then has finished all the four styles of the canonical quantization of the standard gravity.
The paper’s starting point is the distinction of different traditions, which shape scholarship in the classics at an international level. In a very personal perspective, it gives important examples of the impact the “School of Paris” and French intellectual concepts in a broader sense had, and still have, on the author’s scholarly biography, particularly in his dealing with topics of anthropology, geography, religion, and the imaginaire in general.
We generalize the algorithm that establishes the correspondence between metric-affine Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity and General Relativity (GR) to any bosonic matter sector. Along the way, a polished version of the proof of existence of a metric compatible frame associated to any metric-affine Ricci-Based Gravity (RBG) is presented. Particular attention is given to the problem of generating solutions of a RBG from the GR conterpart, providing a general recipe for the EiBI case. This extends previous results obtained for specific matter that included anisotropic fluids, scalar fields and electromagnetic fields.
We compute the modified friction coefficient controlling the propagation of tensor metric perturbations in the context of a generalized cosmological scenario based on a theory of gravity with quadratic curvature corrections. In such a context we discuss the differences between gravitational and electromagnetic luminosity distance, as well as the differences with the standard results based on the Einstein equations. We present numerical estimates of the modified luminosity distance on the cosmic redshift scale typical of Supernovae and standard sirens.
Resumo As últimas décadas do Império testemunharam o advento de um núcleo de cafeicultores paulistas que vislumbrou na crise da escravidão uma janela de oportunidades para ampliar os negócios econômicos e a participação na administração pública nacional. Embora se valesse de mão de obra cativa, esse núcleo, de origem campineira, compreendeu que a abolição, caso remediada pela imigração em São Paulo, fragilizaria a cafeicultura escravocrata rival - sobretudo a fluminense. Adotou-se uma política de paciência estratégica, que se dava como forma de evitar rupturas com os correligionários da lavoura paulista e como maneira de aguardar a precipitação dos acontecimentos. Os acenos do núcleo ao abolicionismo, paradoxalmente, deram-se num cenário em que o uso da mão de obra servil não era economicamente arcaico. Mediante levantamento de fontes primárias relativas ao custo da produção cafeeira, concluiu-se que a lucratividade do trabalho cativo não destoava dos ganhos próprios ao sistema livre de produção. A adesão da lavoura campineira à abolição, portanto, não foi uma opção oriunda da planilha contábil de cada fazenda. Tratou-se, conforme ratifica a correspondência entre campineiros, de uma equação de economia política que tinha como fatores o movimento abolicionista, o desmantelamento da cafeicultura rival e o ganho de espaço na administração pública.
The State of Nationalism (SoN) seeks to create a comprehensive guide to nationalism. This installment of SoN is dedicated to a review and annotated bibliography about 'Social Class'.
History (General) and history of Europe, Political science
Carl Dunlea, General Fusion Team, Chijin Xiao
et al.
A description of an edge-biasing experiment conducted on the SPECTOR (Spherical Compact Toroid) plasma injector is presented, along with initial results. The insertion of a disc-shaped molybdenum electrode (probe), biased at up to +100V, into the edge of the CT (Compact Torus), resulted in up to 1kA radial current being drawn. Core electron temperature, as measured with a Thomson-scattering diagnostic, was found to increase by a factor of up to 2.4 in the optimal configuration tested. H_alpha intensity was observed to decrease, and CT lifetimes increased by a factor of up to 2.3. A significant reduction in electron density was observed; this is thought to be due to the effect of a transport barrier impeding CT fueling, where, as verified by MHD simulation, the fueling source is neutral gas that remains concentrated around the gas valves after CT formation.
This study offers a series of reflections on the evolution of think tanks in Europe and the United States. In addition to exploring how these organizations have come to place a higher premium on political advocacy than rigorous policy research, the article raises a series of questions about how the preoccupation of think tanks with their global rankings, and their desire to inundate stakeholders with quick response policy research, can have serious implications for how policymakers formulate public policy. In the end, this study argues that for think tanks to serve the public interest, they need to engage in scientific research that adheres to proper and verifiable academic standards. Otherwise, these organizations will join the growing chorus of voices whose only interest is to serve their own institutional goals and those of their benefactors.
Political institutions and public administration (General)
Let $K$ be a number field and ${\mathcal O}$ be the ring of $S$-integers in $K$. Morgan, Rapinchuck, and Sury have proved that if the group of units ${\mathcal O}^{\times}$ is infinite, then every matrix in ${\rm SL}_2({\mathcal O})$ is a product of at most $9$ elementary matrices. We prove that under the additional hypothesis that $K$ has at least one real embedding or $S$ contains a finite place we can get a product of at most $8$ elementary matrices. If we assume a suitable Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, then every matrix in ${\rm SL}_2({\mathcal O})$ is the product of at most $5$ elementary matrices if $K$ has at least one real embedding, the product of at most $6$ elementary matrices if $S$ contains a finite place, and the product of at most $7$ elementary matrices in general.