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Principals' instructional leadership bolsters and supports teaching and learning. The study aimed to explore the principals' classroom observation practices and their influence on teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Machakos Sub-County, Kenya. Weber's (1996) instructional leadership model served as the foundation for the study. The research employed a mixed-methods approach using a convergent parallel design. The target population of the research is 3434 and has a sample size of 350 participants, encompassing 10 principals, 40 teachers, and 300 students. The participating schools were selected using a stratified random sampling method. The collected data was cleaned, processed, and analyzed using SPSS 25. Quantitative data was analyzed using percentages and displayed in frequency tables. Qualitative data was labeled, appropriately coded, and transcribed under specified themes. The findings of the study revealed that the principals regularly carried out supervision in the classrooms and ensured that students' behaviors were controlled in the classrooms by setting class rules. The research recommended that the Ministry of Education, along with the relevant educational agencies, should provide in-service training for principals on their roles as instructional leaders to enable them to proficiently discharge their functions; there should be an increase in the provision of the necessary learning resources to help enhance teaching and learning.

Background: At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed across the United States. Given the impact of virtual learning and lost access to school resources, schools eventually reopened with COVID-19 mitigation protocols in place. This qualitative study sought to understand parental perceptions of school-based COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Methods: Using a phenomenology approach, nine focus groups were completed with 40 parents of children in grades K-8 representing eight Maryland counties. Based on acceptance of masking policies (as indicated on a survey), parents were sorted into 2 groups--lower and higher masking acceptance. A thematic analysis was conducted for each group and themes were compared between the 2 groups. Results: The main themes were related to parents' general sentiments regarding COVID-19, compliance, pandemic-related changes over time, changes in personal opinions, and in-person learning. Both groups described challenges related to inconsistent COVID-19 mitigation policies and practices, the challenges of rapid and frequent changes in guidelines during the pandemic, and the benefits of in-person learning. Conclusions: Parents of elementary and middle school children, regardless of general acceptance of masking policies, shared concerns about implementation and guidance regarding school-based mitigation strategies.

Educational leaders are increasingly expected to use school climate data to improve outcomes and promote equity for all learners, including in California where school climate is included in state accountability policy. In this study, beliefs towards school climate assessment were explored in a sample (n=298) of California superintendents using a 37-item Likert-style instrument. Data were analyzed using an item response approach and latent class analysis. Findings showed variation in beliefs including three subgroups labeled "true believers" "still questioning" and "remains skeptical." Findings suggest these groupings influence policy adoption and implementation. Education leaders are in a unique position to interpret and use school climate assessment data to facilitate change if they believe it is important, have the capacity, and trust the data. Implications for school and district improvement under the California continuous improvement model relies on stakeholders and local educational leaders believing in the value of school climate data and trusting its uses to effect change.

Prevalence estimates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) point to geographic and socioeconomic disparities in identification and diagnosis. Estimating national prevalence rates can limit understanding of local disparities, especially in rural areas where disproportionately higher rates of poverty and decreased healthcare access exist. Using a small area estimation approach from the 2016-2018 National Survey of Children's Health (N = 70,913), we identified geographic differences in ASD prevalence, ranging from 4.38% in the Mid-Atlantic to 2.71% in the West South-Central region. Cluster analyses revealed "hot spots" in parts of the Southeast, East coast, and Northeast. This geographic clustering of prevalence estimates suggests that local or state-level differences in policies, service accessibility, and sociodemographics may play an important role in identification and diagnosis of ASD.County-Level Prevalence Estimates of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children in the United States.

Many college students are motivated to vote in presidential elections. Like most Americans, however, they are far less likely to vote in elections for local officeholders. Often this is because they have little to no information about the candidates. Starting in 2020, with university support, the author and a colleague began providing nonpartisan information about candidates for local offices in their county. Their website is available to students and voters throughout their county. More colleges and universities should undertake similar ventures, which would fill a vital and underserved public need, strengthen the civic behaviors of college students, and enhance democracy.

Despite the growing presence and visibility of paleoconservative critique of international curricula such as the IB, little scholarly attention has been invested in discerning how the rise of paleoconservative thought in mainstream politics has shaped or even redirected the IB's growth in the United States. This study strives to address this gap by examining the association between county-level voting patterns with the growth of the IB, the availability of different programs of the IB continuum, and school demographic data. Incidence Rate Ratios (IRR) and 95% Wald Confidence Intervals (CI) were estimated using mixed-effects Poisson models with county as the clustering variable. Notable findings include a shift in growth patterns beginning in 2008, where IB schools have increasingly clustered along partisan lines. The study concludes by considering the potential challenges these changing growth patterns may present to the IB's future in the United States and elsewhere.

The objective of the current study is to examine the impact of an in-school computer-assisted learning (CAL) intervention on the math achievement of rural students in Taiwan, including a marginalized subgroup of rural students called Xinzhumin, and the factors associated with this impact. In order to achieve this, we conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 1,840 fourth- and fifth-grade students at 95 schools in four relatively poor counties and municipalities of Taiwan during the spring semester of 2019. While the Intention-To-Treat (ITT) analysis found that the CAL intervention had no significant impacts on student math achievement, the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) analysis revealed significant associations with the math performance of the most active 20% of students in the treatment group. LATE estimates suggest that using CAL for more than 20 minutes per week for ten weeks corresponds to higher math test scores, both in general (0.16 SD-0.22 SD), and for Xinzhumin students specifically (0.3 SD-0.34 SD). Teacher-level characteristics were associated with compliance rates.

Objectives: With optimized antiretroviral treatment youth living with HIV (YLH) now spend most of their time in schools, making schools an important venue to optimize outcomes. We evaluated school support for YLH. Methods: We conducted surveys with public secondary/high schools in 3 Kenyan counties (Nairobi, Homa Bay, and Kajiado) to determine policies and training related to HIV. Chi-squared tests and Poisson regression were used to compare policy availability and staff training by county HIV prevalence and school type. Results: Of 512 schools in the 3 counties, we surveyed 100. The majority (60%) of schools surveyed had boarding facilities. The median student population was 406 (IQR: 200, 775). Only half (49%) of schools had medication use policies; more in boarding than day schools (65% vs 30%, p = 0.003). While most schools (82%) had clinic attendance policies; policy availability was higher in higher HIV prevalence counties (Homa Bay [100%], Nairobi [82%], Kajiado [56%], p < 0.05). Overall, 64% had confidentiality policies with higher policy availability in higher HIV prevalence regions (p < 0.05). Few schools had staff trained in HIV-related topics: HIV prevention (37%), HIV treatment (18%), HIV stigma reduction (36%). Few were trained in confidentiality (41%), psychosocial support (40%), or mental health (26%). Compared to day schools, boarding school were more likely to have staff trained in HIV prevention (prevalence ratio: 2.1 [95% confidence interval 1.0, 4.0], p = 0.037). Conclusion: In this survey of Kenyan schools, there were notable gaps in HIV care policy availability and training, despite high HIV burden. Development and implementation of national school HIV policies and staff training as well as strengthening clinic and family support may improve outcomes for YLH.

Increasingly, immigration policies are understood as structural determinants, rooted in racism, nativism, and ethnocentrism, which raise serious public health concerns for Latinx adolescents' mental health. Our objective was to examine how immigration policy enforcement affects mental health of Latinx youth raised in a county with an aggressive interior immigration enforcement program. From 2009 to 2021, Gwinnett County, GA, led the nation in deportations under the 287(g) program as a "universal enforcement model," where local law enforcement were deputized to detain undocumented immigrants, primarily through traffic violations. From June to July 2022, we followed a participatory action research approach with two groups of Latinx youth who grew up in Gwinnett County. In total, 10 youth took photos related to the research question, and engaged in facilitated dialogue using photovoice guide SHOWED/VENCER for four, 2-hour sessions that were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed following grounded theory principles to arrive at a conceptual model codeveloped and validated by youth. Youth described how 287(g) led to policing and deportation in their communities, fueling stereotypes, and discrimination that criminalized Latinx immigrants. Youth linked immigration enforcement policies like 287(g) to exclusionary systems that contributed to fear, marginalization, and loss in their communities, bringing experiences of sadness, grief, isolation, hopelessness, and low self-worth. From youth-driven research, we identified mental health implications of the 287(g) program among Latinx youth. The cascading harms of immigration enforcement policies highlight the need to address these policies and identify immediate strategies to promote Latinx youth mental health.

Croatia has a highly indented coastline, favourable ecological conditions, proximity to the markets, and potential for further mariculture development. This research aims to determine the status of Croatian mariculture considering: distribution of fi sh and bivalve farms, total mariculture area, buffer zone, Internal Waters Utilization, nominal intensity, number of registered operators, and employees in the industry. The spatial database was created using manual vectorization from recent (2022/2024) Google Earth satellite imagery. The results show that marine farms in Croatia occupy 0.056% of the area of internal marine waters. Out of this, 53 % of the surface is dedicated to bivalve and 47% to fi sh farming. Croatia’s total nominal intensity is 3.3 t/km of coastline in 2022. Farms are located in all coastal counties, with the largest occupied area in Zadar County (38.1%) and Dubrovnik-Neretva County (37.5%). Most of the national fish farming area is located in Zadar County (71%), while the largest area of bivalve farming (68%) is found in Dubrovnik-Neretva County. In PrimorjeGorski Kotar County, despite having the largest area of internal marine waters, only 4.3% of the total mariculture area is present. The analysis indicates that mariculture currently occurs in a tiny portion of internal marine waters and has generally lower nominal intensity than other Mediterranean countries. Although mariculture is present in all coastal counties, the distribution and productivity of farms is uneven. For future development, we suggest focusing on optimizing current production capacities and exploring innovative aquaculture practices to enhance sustainability and economic viability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-phase research is needed to understand how disaster-impacted residents maintain and adapt individual disaster communication (IDC; Spialek & Houston, 2018; Spialek et al., 2021). Residents engage in IDC when they search for, create, or share interpersonal or social media messages intended to help themselves and other individuals cope across disaster phases. This study examined how recovery-focused IDC and anticipatory resilience capacity explain the relationship between resources and preparedness focused IDC. We surveyed 417 residents who lived in 13 counties impacted by a spring 2023 tornado outbreak. Results revealed that individuals who have (a) more physical and social resources and (b) engage in more recovery-focused IDC following a disaster report higher levels of anticipatory resilience capacity in those recovery-focused messages, which in turn, leads individuals to participate in more preparedness-focused communication about potential future disasters. The findings support the development of interventions and campaigns to increase preparedness behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diplazium zangnanense, a new species of Diplazium Sw. from Medog county, Xizang Autonomous Region, China, is described and illustrated. Morphological comparisons between this new species and similar ones (e.g. D. kawakamii, D. medogense, D. muricatum, D. multicaudatum and D. spectabile) are provided. Molecular evidence shows that the new species is closely related to D. multicaudatum. The most distinctive characters of D. zangnanense are its decumbent to erect rhizomes, bicolorous scales with toothed margin on the stems, and oblong sori. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leesburg, Virginia, located approximately forty miles northwest of Washington's downtown core, has historically avoided the intense urban development pressures that many of Washington's more proximate suburban locations (i.e. Fairfax, Falls Church, Ashburn and Arlington) have experienced. Yet, Leesburg's position in Loudon County – one of the fastest growing counties in the United States in terms of population growth over the past two decades – now means that the Town of Leesburg is no longer situated in the metropolitan fringe. We posit that a recent development named Virginia Village represents a key turning point in the town's urban development history, specifically because the project reveals the uncertainty of the town's planning agenda and reveals the difficulties of protecting an authentic sense of place and small town-feel that distinguishes Leesburg from its neighboring suburban localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous shrinking cities have emerged in the new development stage of China, and the authorities have tried to adopt the policy pool of abolishing counties and establishing districts to alleviate urban shrinkage. This study uses urban nighttime light data from 2010 to 2017 to determine whether the policy is effective in a Difference-in-Difference model framework. We find that China's urban shrinkage shows a shrinkage–expansion cycle, and the policy of removing counties and establishing districts has a significant effect on the population of the counties, which indicates that the policy can ease urban shrinkage. Specifically, the positive effect is stronger for counties belonging to cities with higher administrative rank, and for cities located in the East region and Southwest region. Our study has great practical implications for the governance of shrinking cities and promoting sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accessibility improvement effect of transportation trunk lines can provide a reference for further optimizing regional transportation. Focusing on the different construction stages of the Sichuan–Tibet Railway (STR), this study determined the weighted average travel time and calculated both the internal and external accessibility of 74 counties in Tibet under scenarios where the STR is not yet operational, partially operational, and fully operational. The results indicate the following: (1) After the full operation of the STR, internal transportation accessibility improved by 45%, with the average travel time reduced by approximately 4 h, showing a significant time-space convergence effect; (2) In terms of external transportation, the full operation of the STR will significantly shorten the inter-provincial travel time of all counties, with the average external travel time reduced by almost 50%, from an average of 45 h to 23 h; (3) The accessibility response of different counties to the operation of the railway exhibits clear spatial differences. The internal accessibility of the counties along the railway line improved by 50–80%, while the improvement rate of counties that are not close to the STR is between 10% and 50%; (4) Although the accessibility improvement effect brought by the construction of the STR is significant, there is still a characteristic of spatial non-equilibrium. Accompanying the operation of the STR, a further eastward-oriented accessibility advantage area has emerged based on the original accessibility advantage areas centered around Lhasa. However, the improvement effect for northwestern counties with accessibility disadvantages remaining very limited. Therefore, more plans for new transportation trunk lines such as the Xinjiang–Tibet Railway are needed, to comprehensively improve the relatively poor and uneven accessibility pattern of Tibet, as well as contribute to the shared well-being of the people and the coordinated development between regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a unit-level one-inflated beta model for the purpose of small area estimation. Our specific interest is in estimation of seat-belt use rates for Iowa counties using data from the Iowa Seat-Belt Use Survey. As a result of small county sample sizes, small area estimation methods are needed. We propose frequentist and Bayesian implementations of a unit-level one-inflated beta model. We compare the Bayesian and frequentist predictors to simpler alternatives through simulation. We apply the proposed Bayesian and frequentist procedures to data from the Iowa Seat-Belt Use Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity has adverse consequences for those affected. We tested whether the association between obesity and its adverse consequences is reduced in regions in which obesity is prevalent and whether lower weight bias in high-obese regions can account for this reduction. Studies 1 and 2 used data from the United States (N = 2,846,132 adults across 2,546 counties) and United Kingdom (N = 180,615 adults across 380 districts) that assessed obesity's adverse consequences in diverse domains: close relationships, economic outcomes, and health. Both studies revealed that the association between obesity and its adverse consequences is reduced (or absent) in high-obese regions. Study 3 used another large-scale data set (N = 409,837 across 2,928 U.S. counties) and revealed that lower weight bias in high-obese regions seems to account for (i.e., mediate) the reduction in obesity's adverse consequences. Overall, our findings suggest that obesity's adverse consequences are partly social and, thus, not inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1867–1868 northern Sweden suffered from a famine that has not gained much scholarly interest. Here we study how this famine was relieved in Västerbotten county. We use unique regional and local administrative sources alongside other contemporary reports. Our results show that the relief quantities coming into Västerbotten county were significant, in proportion to the size of the population, the depth of the harvest failure, and in relation to historical state aid. In addition, we reveal the complex interplay between the state, market, and civil society that, at least on the county level, contributed to a seemingly efficient administration for alleviating the effects of harvest failure. However, our results point to bottlenecks in the administration of relief at the local municipal level, which call for further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated for the first time the tourism–carbon emissions nexus based on the destination construction perspective, using the China's national scenic areas (CNSA) construction as a vehicle for concretization. A multi-source county panel dataset of 29,628 samples was constructed. The staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) model and spatial DID model were further formulated. The findings show that: (1) the CNSA resulted in a 0.1024% reduction in carbon emission intensity (CEI) in treatment counties relative to non-treatment counties, and although the effect exhibits a delay, it persists and intensifies over time; (2) our heterogeneity results indicate that the inhibiting effect is significantly more pronounced in the western, eastern, and county subsamples; and (3) the spatial DID analysis reveals that the CNSA exerts a negative spatial spillover effect on CEI. This work enhances comprehension of the tourism–carbon emissions nexus, with implications for advancing regional carbon emission reduction policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of poor people and the total number of people in United States counties are strongly and non-linearly correlated, illustrated by power laws. The total number of people and the number of enterprises in U.S. counties and micropolitan statistical areas are also non-linearly correlated. Graphs of power law data points of the latter relationship visually map the relative prosperity/poverty levels of more than 3000 counties or more than 500 micropolitans despite orders of magnitude differences in population or enterprise numbers. The utility of Prospov maps is illustrated by superimposition of different socioeconomic and entrepreneurial characteristics on them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas are a primary instrument for biodiversity conservation, and area-based targets have become a hallmark of global efforts with the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biological Framework recommending at least 30 percent of land and water be protected by 2030. In parallel, the United States has implemented “America the Beautiful,” a call for local, state, and regionally led efforts to conserve, connect, and restore 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. Achieving these goals is complicated, however, by the multiple policy scales at which conservation decisions are made and governed and the limited guidance provided on how gains to protected and connected areas should be evaluated. We assess the connectedness of U.S. protected areas at multiple scales and find that less than 3 percent of the United States is protected and connected. Connectedness increases when the area under investigation is partitioned into smaller policy units (e.g., counties), a product of the modifiable areal unit problem. Similarly, connectedness values increase by an order of magnitude when assessed relative to the protected area network rather than considering all land area. Both findings support the need for standardized reporting frameworks and highlight the challenges in coordinating conservation goals across administrative units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The aims of this study are to assess the accuracy of soil erodibility K calculated by different methods in the key soil loss areas of Anhui Province, and to refine each calculation method based on the measured erodibility K. [Methods] The Nomo equation, modified Nomo equation, EPIC model, DG model and Torri model were utilized to estimate the soil erodibility K values. Based on monitoring data from runoff plots in Huoshan County, Guangde County, Yuexi County and She County, the actual erodibility factor K values were obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of each method. [Results] The soil erodibility K values in Huoshan County, Guangde County, Yuexi County and She County were 0.033~0.035, 0.018, 0.021 and 0.041 (thm² h)/(hm² MJ mm), respectively. The differences in soil erodibility K values derived from different methods were significant, with all methods greatly overestimating the K values. The overall ranking of the methods in terms of soil erodibility followed the order: K Torri> K Noma> KM-Nomo >K DG> K Epic. The methods of calculating K values for each were improved, in which the improved Nomo equation and the modified Nomo equation showed superior performance. [Conclusion] The improved Nomo equation and modified Nomo equation are recommended to apply in the key soil loss areas of Anhui Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a long history of racial change in the United States, and how this plays out within neighbourhoods, a key recurring question is whether some neighbourhoods are able to achieve and maintain racial diversity, or whether they simply transition to dominance by a new racial group. We test and find evidence of 1631 neighbourhoods across the United States from 1980 to 2020 that exhibit persistent racial diversity (PRD), and assess where this PRD occurs. Our analysis shows that PRD neighbourhoods (PRDNs) are likely to be present in counties with more economic opportunities–that is, counties with higher socioeconomic status (SES). PRDNs themselves, however, tend to be relatively lower SES neighbourhoods within relatively higher SES counties, suggesting that affordable locations surrounded by more economic opportunities may have served as an environment in which diversity can persist over a long period of time in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, distributed photovoltaics (DPV) has ushered in a good development situation due to the advantages of pollution-free power generation, full utilization of the ground or roof of the installation site, and balancing a large number of loads nearby. However, under the background of a large-scale DPV grid-connected to the county distribution network, an effective analysis method is needed to analyze its impact on the voltage of the distribution network in the early development stage of DPV. Therefore, a DPV orderly grid-connected method based on photovoltaics grid-connected order degree (PGOD) is proposed. This method aims to orderly analyze the change of voltage in the distribution network when large-scale DPV will be connected. Firstly, based on the voltage magnitude sensitivity (VMS) index of the photovoltaics permitted grid-connected node and the acceptance of grid-connected node (AoGCN) index of other nodes in the network, the PGOD index is constructed to determine the photovoltaics permitted grid-connected node of the current photovoltaics grid-connected state network. Secondly, a photovoltaics orderly grid-connected model with a continuous updating state is constructed to obtain an orderly DPV grid-connected order. The simulation results illustrate that the photovoltaics grid-connected order determined by this method based on PGOD can effectively analyze the voltage impact of large-scale photovoltaics grid-connected, and explore the internal factors and characteristics of the impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to account for model uncertainty and to identify the robust determinants of county-level rent levels for a panel of 111 counties and independent cities in Virginia from 2008 to 2017. Of the fifteen determinants tested, the results show that single-family home prices, per capita education spending, and educational attainment are robust and positively associated with rent levels, while unemployment rate, population density, labour force participation, and the percent of the population that is Latino are robust and negatively associated with rent levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

County's level economic disparities remain as a key policy issue for sustainable and healthy regional development, particularly for their spatiotemporal dynamics. This research adopted Geographic Information Systems software and spatial econometric analysis methods to analyze the temporal and spatial disparities, spatial structures, and dynamic evolution processes of the Xizang Autonomous Region's county-level economy. With the application of the coefficient of variation and spatial autocorrelation methods, the research identified a significant trend of narrowing economic differences among the 74 counties. The study also observes a growing spatial autocorrelation, pointing towards a more clustered economic growth pattern, particularly influenced by the Lhasa economic circle's expanding regional radiation capacity. The findings underscore the importance of strategic development planning, including the integrated development of Lhasa and Shannan. This study contributes to the literature on regional economic development and offers insights for policy formulation aimed at sustainable and equitable growth in Xizang, which could also benefit future development of counties in developing countries with comparable economic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformation of regional identities by administrative spatial restructurings has been relatively little studied, particularly in the context of regional deinstitutionalization. This article develops further a theoretical and conceptual framework of regional identities in spatial restructurings by discussing how deinstitutionalized 'phantom' regions with 'penumbral' borders beget more hybrid spatial identities. Empirically, the focus is on the Huizhou region in China: we study the changes in regional identity generated by several spatial de‐ and reconstruction processes. Underlining hybridity, we show that, although regional identity is shifting away from territorial belonging to Huizhou in some parts of the region (e.g. Wuyuan County), cultural identification with the Huizhou region remains strong even after a long period of administrative separation. Relatedly, we point out that deinstitutionalization in the Huizhou region has not been exhaustive and its regional identity is being increasingly reconstructed in a utilitarian manner for economic purposes. Despite (and partly because of) this, a sense of regional belonging has been maintained. Regional identities associated with Huizhou are relational and, more precisely, hybrid, as they are connected to regions that are neither fully institutionalized nor deinstitutionalized but appear as multilayered palimpsests that are being transformed through processes of constant making and remaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I clarify the phenomenological concept of lifeworld by drawing on the geographical themes of place, place experience, and place meaning. Most simply, lifeworld refers to a person or group's day-to-day, taken-for-granted experience that typically goes unnoticed. One aim of phenomenological research is to examine the lifeworld as a means to identify and clarify the tacit, unnoticed aspects of human life so that they can be accounted for theoretically and practically. Here, I discuss some key phenomenological principles and then draw on phenomenological renditions of place as one means to clarify some of the lifeworld's social, environmental, spatial, and geographical aspects. To concretize my discussion, I draw descriptive evidence from British writer Penelope Lively's Spiderweb, a 1990s novel describing one outsider's efforts to come to inhabit a place--a fictitious present-day village in the southwestern British county of Somerset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity degree is an effective monitoring method to sensitively perceive the frequency, characteristics, quality, efficiency and other immediate conditions and subtle changes of scientific and technological innovation events, and it is an important supplementary to macroeconomic data. This paper constructs a monthly monitoring and evaluation indicator system for the activity degree of scientific and technological innovation in Chongqing, and systematically sorts out the data of 39 administrative districts and counties and 16 development zones of 12 months in 2021. The analysis reveals that (1) in the whole city and the development zone, there is a polarization effect of "one district" being active while "two groups" being inactive, and high energy level platforms being active while low energy level platforms being inactive; (2) districts and counties with development zones show prominent advantages in innovation activity, and the longer the establishment time and the higher the energy level, the more obvious the advantages could be observed; (3) local governments played an important role in the process of guiding and mobilizing the local innovation activity, and the stronger of the government's guiding function was observed in the less active of the region; and (4) the city's landmark science and technology activities and the rule of the time node have initially appeared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies suggest that concrete creep may be further exacerbated by climate change. However, up to now this effect has not been quantified in literature. The current study addresses this gap and presents a probabilistic approach for quantitatively assessing this effect. For this purpose, five different stochastic creep models (i.e. Model Code 1999, Model Code 2010, B3, B4, and B4s models) are used under considerations of the historical and future climatic conditions in Sweden to assess the long-term creep coefficient and the subsequent stress redistribution of an axially loaded column. While some creep models show similar percentage increases in the long-term creep coefficient in all Swedish counties, other creep models show higher percentage increase values for northern than for southern counties. The highest increase in the end-of-century creep coefficient is found using models B4 and B4s (e.g. over 40% increase is possible for northernmost Sweden, i.e. Norrbotten county, under RCP8.5). Furthermore, the current article also shows that the end-of-century creep coefficient is more sensitive to uncertainties not related to the climate (i.e. parameter and creep modelling uncertainties) than to climate uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aftercare seeks to address challenges juveniles face when re-entering the community after residential placement. This study compares changes in recidivism in five Pennsylvania counties that piloted aftercare reforms in 2005 to 2010 as part of Models for Change to recidivism in counties that did not. The sample includes 3,107 referrals to court in pilot counties and 8,272 in comparison counties. Estimates show no discernible effect of the reforms on recidivism. The estimated change in re-referrals to court lies between a decrease of 4 percentage points and an increase of 14 points. Differences in implementation effectiveness and participation may explain these null results. Although this analysis does not detect changes in recidivism, these pilots laid the groundwork for Pennsylvania's later juvenile justice reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the situation of the Turkish varieties of Luristan province is studied. The main languages of the province are Luri and Laki, and i n some regions varieties of Persian impacted by Luri. However, in Aligudarz, Azna, and Borujerd counties of the province, there are a number of Turkish -speaking villages too. Turkish varieties spoken in these villages, lexically, and sometimes morphologically and syntactically, show their own specific properties. We can argue that these Turkish varieties have acquired these properties as a consequence of being in contact with Luri as the dominant language of the region. Investigations of this research shows that the Turkish varieties in question, in some lexical categories, clearly, are impacted by Luri and Persian more significantly than the other lexical categories. On the other hand, the Turkish varieties in the three aforementioned counties do not seem to be influenced by Luri equally. Therefore, regarding different conditions of the language communities these varieties are used in, we should imagine different perspectives for them in terms of language survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we propose that economic connectedness (friendship among individuals with different socioeconomic statuses) is associated with higher entrepreneurial activity, and regional social capital in the form of network cohesiveness related to clustering coefficient (support ratio) weakens (strengthens) this relationship. Using a sample of U.S. counties and controlling for focal-county lagged effects and conditions in the neighboring counties, we find support for the hypothesized effects. The proposed factors are not influenced by historic measures of county-level collectivism, gender inequality, or religiosity. Natural amenities in the focal county strengthen the association between economic connectedness and entrepreneurial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the spatial autocorrelation and spatiotemporal clustering characteristics of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome(SFTS) in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2023. Methods: Data of SFTS in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2023 were collected. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted using GeoDa software, while spatiotemporal scanning was performed using SaTScan 10.0.1 software to identify significant spatiotemporal clusters of SFTS. Results: From 2011 to 2023, 5720 SFTS cases were reported in Anhui Province, with an average annual incidence rate of 0.7131/100,000. The incidence of SFTS in Anhui Province reached its peak mainly from April to May, with a small peak in October. The spatial autocorrelation results showed that from 2011 to 2023, there was a spatial positive correlation(P < 0.05) in the incidence of SFTS in all counties and districts of Anhui Province. Local autocorrelation high-high clustering areas are mainly located in the south of the Huaihe River. The spatiotemporal scanning results show three main clusters of SFTS in recent years: the first cluster located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the eastern region of Anhui Province; the second cluster primarily focused on the region of the Dabie Mountain range, while the third cluster primarily focused on the region of the Huang Mountain range. Conclusions: The incidence of SFTS in Anhui Province in 2011–2023 was spatially clustered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank's 2023 Growth Report identified 1,100 innovation-driven enterprises that demonstrated exceptional growth in the 2010s. These enterprises not only exhibited rapid expansion, but they also engaged in significant innovation during the previous business cycle. According to the descriptive findings of the report, these firms are mostly located in the capital and in counties where there are universities with multiple faculties. This study investigates whether the concentration in the capital city is a unique phenomenon considering the firm demographic characteristics of the counties. The prevalence of innovation-driven enterprises did not significantly differ in six counties compared to Budapest, when considering the scope of activity, size, ownership structure and age of these firms. These counties were Baranya, Csongrád-Csanád, Fejér, Hajdú-Bihar, Heves and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Morgantown, West Virginia, curbside recycling is available to residents who reside within the city limits. However, residents in Monongalia County who reside outside the Morgantown city limits are expected to bring their recyclables to a drop‐off site which discourages people from recycling in general. Moreover, there exists a disparity between residents within and outside the Morgantown city limits in terms of rights to have access to curbside recycling. This study presents the economic value of curbside recycling at the County level. Furthermore, the paper presents a framework and empirical analysis that separate the value of the improved program as a club good and the value of the program as a public good, using a survey data from Morgantown and Monongalia County in collaboration with a local waste and recycling service provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revenue decentralization represents a framework that facilitates enhanced fiscal autonomy for subnational governments, thereby enabling the tailoring of services to meet local needs and potentially fostering economic growth. In Kenya, the ratification of the 2010 constitutional formalized novel revenue frameworks aimed at supporting the operations, management, and sustainability of devolved county governments. However, there remains a paucity of empirical analysis examining the relationship between the revenue decentralization reforms and county‐level economic growth. We begin by identifying the main sources of county revenues within the decentralization frameworks, then investigate the dynamic interrelation with county economic growth. Through panel vector autoregression estimation techniques, our analysis reveals a positive and statistically significant association between own‐source revenue and conditional grants with county‐level economic growth. We discuss the implications of our findings and call for policymakers to reassess the fiscal instruments with the aim of strengthening the roles and responsibilities of counties. Key Takeaways: Revenue decentralization, in conjunction with fiscal instruments that facilitate the collection of own‐source revenue, has the potential to stimulate economic growth at the county level.Conditional grants, while partially significant, demonstrate their capacity to promote economic growth in historically marginalized counties.Our analysis reveals no substantial evidence that the equitable share of revenue significantly contributes to county‐level economic growth.This paper highlights the necessity of ongoing restructuring of decentralization frameworks to enhance the autonomy and sustainability of county governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Coefficient of Variation and GIS spatial analysis, we detected the spatial and temporal evolution and development patterns of border trade in Yunnan counties, analyze the de‐ velopment pattern of border trade in depth by combining with the model of border trade develop‐ ment level, and explore the driving mechanism of border trade by using geographic probes. The results show that: ① the overall trend of county border trade in Yunnan Province is on the rise, and the total volume varies unevenly among counties, with Ruili City in the west and Mengla County in the south as the representative counties with higher total trade volume, while the over‐all trade volume in Ximeng County in the southwest and Lushui County in the northwest is smaller. ② From 2010 to 2020, the development pattern of county border trade in Yunnan Prov‐ ince varies. ③ During the same period, the border trade development in the western and south‐ eastern border counties is high and the growth rate is stable; the development in the northwestern and southwestern counties is low and the growth is fast; the development in the southern coun‐ ties is high and the growth is slow. ④ The main driving factors affecting the border trade in the counties factors are policy and transportation factors, and the secondary driver is GDP per capita, while there are differences in the driving factors of border counties with different neighboring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two ammonoids, Guanlingoceras guanlingensis n. gen. n. sp. and Neoprotrachyceras sp. are described from the late early Carnian (Julian 2) Xiaowa Formation of Guizhou province, China. Guanlingoceras guanlingensis n. gen. n. sp. is characterised by ventral spirals which are duplicated with small nodes and robust spines arranged in an alternating pattern. These discoveries further not only enrich the ammonite biodiversity in South China but also indicate the age of Xiaowa Formation should be assigned to Julian 2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]