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Aims: To provide an overview of published research on migration and health conducted in Norway and identify gaps in the research field. Methods: Applying a scoping review methodology, we searched Medline for articles on migration health in Norway published between 2008 and 2020, and assessed them according to research topic, methodology, user-involvement and characteristics of the populations studied (country or area of origin, type of migrant/immigrant status). Results: Of the 707 articles retrieved, 303 met the inclusion criteria. Most studies (77%) were within the clinical disciplines reproductive health, mental health, infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases, or on socio-cultural aspects and the use of healthcare services. One third of the papers (36%) pulled participants from various geographic backgrounds together or did not specify the geographic background. Among those who did so, participants were mostly from The Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Only 14% of the articles specified the type of migrant/immigrant status and those included refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. A total of 80% of the papers used quantitative methods, of which 15 described an intervention; 15 papers (5%) described different types of user-involvement. Conclusions: Our findings suggest gaps in research related to migrant subgroups, such as those from Eastern-Europe and labour and family reunification migrants. Future studies should further investigate the self-identified health needs of different migrant groups, and might also benefit from a methodological shift towards more intervention studies and participatory approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To "make kin, not babies" is what Donna Haraway has recently proposed in response to the so-called "Anthropocene". Building on other critical engagements with Haraway's proposal, this paper interrogates it from a childist perspective. While striving towards a "pro-child" position on kinship, Haraway only goes so far in explicating this aim. The paper suggests that challenging adultism as well as attention to children's ongoing kinship practices are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British biologist and science populariser J. B. S. Haldane was known as a contrarian, whose myriad ideas and beliefs would shift to oppose whomever he chose to argue with. Yet Haldane's support for synthetic food remained remarkably stable throughout his life. This article argues that Haldane's engagement with synthetic food during the 1930s and 1940s was shaped by his frustration with the status and direction of scientific research in Britain. Drawing upon the Haldane Papers, I reconstruct how Haldane's interest in synthetic food emerged from the biochemical and physiological optimism of the early 20th century. His mid-20th-century writings were an opportunity for Haldane to voice his political opinions. He attempted to erase the conceptual divide between farm and factory, maintained that food shortages were a capitalist construct, and criticised British colonialism. By pointing out the failure of existing economic systems and governments to develop synthetic food, Haldane made the case that food production should be placed under the control of biologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners and policymakers often want estimates of the effect of an intervention for their local community, e.g., region, state, county. In the ideal, these multiple population average treatment effect (ATE) estimates will be considered in the design of a single randomized trial. Methods for sample selection for generalizing the sample ATE to date, however, focus only on the case of a single target population. In this paper, I provide a framework for sample selection in the multiple population case, including three compromise allocations. I situate the methods in an example and conclude with a discussion of the implications for the design of randomized evaluations more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring prehistoric variation in human–environmental interaction is critical for understanding the historical patterns and mechanisms of long-term human–land evolution. In this paper we review the published radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data from Late Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in China, analyze the spatial–temporal distribution of these sites, and compare it with the results of recent paleoclimatic and archaeological studies. We seek to study the trajectory and influencing factors of human–environmental interactions in late prehistoric China. We detect changing patterns in the relationship between humans and the environment during different phases of the prehistoric era in China. Climate change clearly affected the environment of hunter-gatherer groups between 50,000–10,000 BP (before present, defined as 1950AD), and variation in human population in Neolithic China (∼10,000–4000 BP) was likely influenced primarily by the development of agriculture, in addition to substantial climate events. The spatial scale of human settlements expanded in the Bronze Age (∼4000–2200 BP) in a period of cooling climate. During this time the impact of human activities on the environment increased significantly, primarily caused by technological innovations related to the onset of prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange in Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of cities in China is becoming increasingly important, not just within China but globally. China's urban population has grown from about 200 million in 1980 to about 800 million or 59% in 2018: that is about twice the total population of the USA and 1.5 times the total population of the EU. China has over 100 cities with over a million people. There are also more and more papers being written about urbanisation in China. However, urban development in China is very unlike urban development in the west or in many other developing countries. Despite the growth of a large, dynamic market sector, China is still a Communist country in terms of the pervasive and leading role of the party and the state. The question posed in this commentary is whether urbanisation in China is unique; or, to be more precise, whether the post-reform Chinese experience of urbanisation since around 1980 is so unusual that it constitutes an entirely unique case which lies outside conventional generalisations about urban change processes. This question links to recent discussions of comparative urbanism in which various scholars have grappled with questions about the generalisability of urban theory and experience. The tentative conclusion is that Chinese urbanisation may be unique and is certainly not easily subsumed into standard discussions about urban development and urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using multiple archeological and paleoenvironmental proxies, this paper makes the case for a climate-induced convergent catastrophe among the human population of terminal Stone Age Arctic Norway. We show that climatic changes correlate with the termination of the so-called Gressbakken phase (4200–3500 cal BP), and unpack the middle-range mechanisms linking the Gressbakken termination to contemporaneous changes in the biophysical environment. We show that what was a Holocene extreme, and likely volcanically-induced, climate deterioration around 3550 cal BP coincided with a population decline as reflected in the frequency of radiocarbon-dated archeological sites along with major changes in material culture and settlement pattern. Together, these proxies suggest a return to forms of social and economic organization based on lower population densities, higher residential mobility, and reduced locational investments. In establishing the middle-range ecological mechanics mediating these changes into archeologically observable patterns, the results indicate that the Gressbakken termination was the result of a particularly unstable climate period characterized by regional paludification, increased effective precipitation, forest decline, and likely impacts on reindeer populations and their migratory behavior, with drastic human implications. We argue for a convergent catastrophe-scenario in which a series of hardships between 4000 and 3500 cal BP exceeded the adaptive mitigation capabilities of the contemporaneous Arctic Norwegian population. Our study supports the notion that increased sedentism and locational investment actually increases vulnerability in the face of rapid biophysical change and contributes to the growing database of past human ecodynamics that speak to current socio-ecological concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of increasing and decreasing human activity are understood as 'boom and bust' phases in population density/size. Based on the comparison of the three proxies, we identify five phases of growing (boom) and four phases of decreasing (bust) population. The boom phases date to ca. 4000–3500, 3000–2900, 2200–2100, 1450–1300 and 1000–750 cal. BC. The bust phases to ca. 3200–3000, 2400–2300, 1650–1500 and 1200–1100 cal. BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years and across many nations, public health has become subject to forms of governance that are said to be aimed at establishing accountability. In this introduction to a special issue, From Person to Population and Back: Exploring Accountability in Public Health, we suggest opening up accountability assemblages by asking a series of ostensibly simple questions that inevitably yield complicated answers: What is counted? What counts? And to whom, how and why does it count? Addressing such questions involves staying attentive to the technologies and infrastructures through which data come into being and are made available for multiple political agendas. Through a discussion of public health, accountability and datafication we present three key themes that unite the various papers as well as illustrate their diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores long-term trends in human population and vegetation change in the Levant from the early to the late Holocene in order to assess when and how human impact has shaped the region's landscapes over the millennia. To do so, we employed multiple proxies and compared archaeological, pollen and palaeoclimate data within a multi-scalar approach in order to assess how Holocene landscape dynamics change at different geographical scales. We based our analysis on 14 fossil pollen sequences and applied a hierarchical agglomerative clustering and community classification in order to define groups of vegetation types (e.g. grassland, wetland, woodland, etc.). Human impact on the landscape has been assessed by the analysis of pollen indicator groups. Archaeological settlement data and Summed Probability Distribution (SPD) of radiocarbon dates have been used to reconstruct long-term demographic trends. In this study, for the first time, the evolution of the human population is estimated statistically and compared with environmental proxies for assessing the interplay of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping the Holocene landscapes in the Levant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a simple model of land use and market arbitrage, this paper investigates the impact of population decline – when existing homeowners compete to attract a small number of new residents – on homeownership and land use. We show that, if a strictly positive cost is required for ownership abandonment, selling used houses is impossible in the periphery, while leasing is possible. We also show that only long-life-quality houses, which require a larger initial investment and sustain greater utility for longer than conventional ones, attract new residents to the periphery. Social welfare may decrease, because the government has to maintain the slowly shrinking, less densely inhabited urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographically and economically, there is an ongoing global shift that has resulted in the uneven development and distribution of monetary, human and knowledge capital. This paper first examines and consolidates economic, social and urban theories of growth and decline and demonstrates how globalisation has conceptually shifted the spatial scale and trajectory of urban change theories. The examination of the population trajectories of the 100 largest American cities from 1980 to 2010 demonstrates that the majority either grew or shrank continuously. This trend counters early cyclical models and supports the argument that globalisation has altered population trajectories. Second, conceptualisations of urban shrinkage trajectories are reviewed and a two-dimensional trajectory typology encompassing both economic and demographic change is presented. The diversity of urban shrinkage experiences is demonstrated through the application of the typology to the 20 largest shrinking American cities, 12 of which experienced overall population loss and simultaneous economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at movements over time in regional employment–population ratios, an important and much neglected determinant of regional performance. We utilise data on gross flows into and out of employment and focus on information contained in the transition rates. The paper applies an unobserved components econometric model to a panel of Australian data to identify and explain the evolution of regional employment–population ratios over time. The approach identifies a common (i.e. nationwide) factor while allowing for region-specific effects, including region-specific impacts of the common factor. The contribution of the common factor to changes in regional employment–population ratios ranges between 38% and 80%. Conversely, regional elements explain between 20% and 62% of changes. The findings highlight the importance of adopting explicit regional employment policies as a complement to national policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to find a better solution from an improved genetic programming (GP) algorithm for classification problems without increasing computation costs as far as possible. Firstly, the standard GP algorithm is difficult to succeed in finding better individuals since too large search landscape and it is easy to run into local optimum when evolution reaches a certain stage, while, by enlarging the evolutionary generation or the size of population might increase computation complexity. So, a two-stage GP may be a good solution for these. In the first stage, GP is used to induce a relatively simple classifier and construct features; in the second stage, GP is executed on these features to evolve a better classifier. Secondly, in order to improve the convergence, a new initialization (NI) strategy and a new function operator selection method are designed. In this paper, a NI strategy based two-stage GP algorithm (NITGP) is proposed, and compares with the standard GP on a set of artificial, real-world datasets and image edge detection tasks. The experimental results show that our approach can evolve classifiers with better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify convergence clubs in house prices among Spanish regions over the period 1995:Q1 to 2007:Q4 and to investigate which factors are responsible for club formation. Employing a novel regression-based convergence test proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007) we find that regional house prices do not converge to a common trend, which confirms the existence of some degree of segmentation in the Spanish housing market. The research results support the existence of convergence clubs, indicating that Spanish regions form four separate groups that converge to different house price levels. Results of an ordered logit model suggest that differences in population growth, size of the rental market, initial house supply and geographical situation have played a crucial role in determining club membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolation is a fundamental geographical characteristic that plays an important role in invasion ecology. However, risk mapping for established non-native species currently tends to ignore isolation, and instead focuses on the risk of population growth through the use of species distribution models. By focusing on how geographical isolation can be used to improve invasive species risk assessments this paper aims to: (i) provide a brief review of how methods to quantify isolation have developed, (ii) describe least-cost modelling as one approach to quantify isolation, (iii) promote catchment area mapping as a method of continuous isolation mapping that can improve invasive species risk assessments that may currently only consider risk from population growth, and (iv) discuss ways in which geographical isolation could be modified to control invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]