Legal and economic perspectives on fair and equitable benefit sharing in the Nagoya Protocol.

Adopted in 2010 as a supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, the Nagoya Protocol (NP) mandates the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources provided by Indigenous peoples. Member states must newly enact or amend domestic laws to align with the NP. Consequently, many countries are currently implementing legislative, administrative, and policy measures to ensure fair benefit sharing from the use of Indigenous genetic resources.

The potential for cascading failures in the international trade network.

In our study, we introduce indicators that quantify the influence of each country in complex trade scenarios involving the exchange of raw materials, intermediate goods, and final products across multiple countries. We systematically employ an agent-based model to simulate the propagation of failures from one node to the entire network. This approach allows for the assessment of the impact of each country and the identification of patterns of interaction in the multi-step trade network.

Unmet Need for Family Planning and Spousal Separation in Nepal: A Spatial and Multilevel Analysis.

In Nepal, where increasing numbers of married couples live apart due to migration, progress in reducing unmet need for family planning (UMN) is stagnant. This study aims to identify spatial patterns of UMN of married women and spousal separation in Nepal and explore associations between UMN and spousal separation at individual- and district-levels. We used 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys data to conduct spatial and multilevel logistic analyses.

Anthropogenic warming induced intensification of summer monsoon frontal precipitation over East Asia.

Summer monsoon frontal rainfall in East Asia (EA) is crucial for water resources and flood hazards in densely populated areas. Recent studies have documented the increasing intensity of summer frontal rainfall over recent decades. However, the extent of ongoing climate change on the intensification of the EA frontal precipitation system remains uncertain.

Scaling behavior and text cohesion in Korean texts.

This study examines whether different types of texts, particularly in Korean, can be distinguished by the scaling exponent and degree of text cohesion. We use the controlled growth process model to incorporate the interaction effect into a power-law distribution and estimate the implied parameter explaining the degree of text cohesiveness in a word distribution. We find that the word distributions of Korean languages differ from English regarding the range of scaling exponents.

Challenges of COVID-19 prevention during protracted conflicts: differential adherence to preventive measures in "contact line" regions in eastern Ukraine.

Objectives: Despite the epidemiological importance of social vulnerabilities in compliance with preventive measures, little is known about the disproportional nature of preventive behaviors in crisis-affected populations. We examined adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors, focusing on social distancing measures in the conflict-affected regions in eastern Ukraine.

Methods: From a multisectoral needs assessment conducted in 2020 using a household interview of a stratified simple random sample, we included 1,617 rural and urban households located in the government-controlled area.

Multimodal deep learning of fundus abnormalities and traditional risk factors for cardiovascular risk prediction.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death globally, is associated with complicated underlying risk factors. We develop an artificial intelligence model to identify CVD using multimodal data, including clinical risk factors and fundus photographs from the Samsung Medical Center (SMC) for development and internal validation and from the UK Biobank for external validation. The multimodal model achieves an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.

Factors influencing injury or death due to traumatic events in Afghanistan's crisis-affected populations: a cross-sectional nationwide study.

Objective: Afghanistan, with one of the world's largest refugee populations, suffers an enormous burden of injury resulting in loss of life. This study aims to identify the epidemiology of injuries or death in the crisis-affected populations across Afghanistan and to investigate factors associated with injuries or deaths due to traumatic events.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Impacts of renewable energy on climate vulnerability: A global perspective for energy transition in a climate adaptation framework.

The transition to renewable energy can disproportionately impact the effectiveness of climate change adaptation, due to regional heterogeneity. Many countries attempt to promote renewable energy to reduce the impact of climate change, but the impacts of national energy policy in the climate vulnerability framework remain little understood. Here, we exploit variations in renewable energy uses to test the effectiveness of climate adaptation policy across the dimensions of climate impact and vulnerability.

Non-Communicable Diseases and Transitioning Health System in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea during COVID-19 Lockdown.

While there are increasing concerns on COVID-19 situation in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea), little is known about North Korea's health system function for Non-Communicable Diseases. Given the scarcity of available evidence, a scoping review was conducted in peer review articles from MEDLINE, SCOPUS, and Web of Science, and policy literatures from state-run media in North Korea to analyze the North Korea health system and COVID-19 pandemic. The transition to a market economy is expected to deepen the gap between the rich and the poor over access to health care, causing a new type of health inequality in North Korea.

Contributing Factors in Whether Displaced Households Want to Receive Humanitarian Information from Humanitarian Actors: Iraq Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment.

Due to political conflict, insurgency, and the COVID-19, the number of displaced households in need of humanitarian support in Iraq has increased. This study investigated factors related to desire of displaced households to receive humanitarian information. Data from the eighth round of the Iraq Multi-Cluster Needs Assessment was used.

The timing of unprecedented hydrological drought under climate change.

Droughts that exceed the magnitudes of historical variation ranges could occur increasingly frequently under future climate conditions. However, the time of the emergence of unprecedented drought conditions under climate change has rarely been examined. Here, using multimodel hydrological simulations, we investigate the changes in the frequency of hydrological drought (defined as abnormally low river discharge) under high and low greenhouse gas concentration scenarios and existing water resource management measures and estimate the time of the first emergence of unprecedented regional drought conditions centered on the low-flow season.

Emergent constraints on future precipitation changes.

Future projections of global mean precipitation change (ΔP) based on Earth-system models have larger uncertainties than projections of global mean temperature changes (ΔT). Although many observational constraints on ΔT have been proposed, constraints on ΔP have not been well studied and are often complicated by the large influence of aerosols on precipitation. Here we show that the upper bound (95th percentile) of ΔP (2051-2100 minus 1851-1900, percentage of the 1980-2014 mean) is lowered from 6.

QAnon shifts into the mainstream, remains a far-right ally.

The rise of domestic fringe groups within the United States has been well documented, threatening political and social stability. The QAnon conspiracy theory has developed as one such destructive group, though it remains a largely misunderstood movement. Through a mixed-methods analysis of over 3.

An Updated Meta-Analysis of Remote Blood Pressure Monitoring in Urban-Dwelling Patients with Hypertension.

Following the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, this study aimed to evaluate the overall effects of remote blood pressure monitoring (RBPM) for urban-dwelling patients with hypertension and high accessibility to healthcare and provide updated quantitative summary data. Of 2721 database-searched articles from RBPM's inception to November 2020, 32 high-quality studies (48 comparisons) were selected as primary data for synthesis. A meta-analysis was undertaken using a random effects model.

Navigating optimal treaty-shopping routes using a multiplex network model.

The international tax treaty system is a highly integrated and complex network. In this system, many multinational enterprises (MNEs) explore ways of reducing taxes by choosing optimal detour routes. Treaty abuse by these MNEs causes significant loss of tax revenues for many countries, but there is no systematic way of regulating their actions.

Nurse-Coordinated Blood Pressure Telemonitoring for Urban Hypertensive Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has put hypertensive patients in densely populated cities at increased risk. Nurse-coordinated home blood pressure telemonitoring (NC-HBPT) may help address this. We screened studies published in English on three databases, from their inception to 30 November 2020.

Considerations on the Implementation of the Telemedicine System Encountered with Stakeholders' Resistance in COVID-19 Pandemic.

Non-face-to-face consultation, which ensures physical distance between patients and doctors, is increasing as a substitute mode for dealing with highly infectious diseases. Korea, with its remarkable Information and Communications Technology infrastructure, introduced telemedicine in 1988, yet it has not been formally accepted owing to stakeholders' resistance and legal restrictions. This study aims to determine the feasibility of implementing the telemedicine system and find solutions of its development and resistance by stakeholders.

Searching for Digital Technologies in Containment and Mitigation Strategies: Experience from South Korea COVID-19.

Background: Korea has achieved health policy objectives in pandemic management so far, namely minimizing mortality, flattening the epidemic curve, and limiting the socio-economic burden of its measures. The key to the Korean government's success in combating COVID-19 lies with the latest digital technologies (DTs). The prompt and effective application of DTs facilitates both containment as well as mitigation strategies and their sub-policy measures.

COVID-19 in South Korea: Lessons for developing countries.

South Korea's response is considered by many as one the most effective models against COVID-19. The average number of new cases per day fell to 6.4 in the first week of May and currently 90% of all confirmed cases have fully recovered after a massive outbreak in February 29.

Effects of Remote Monitoring of Blood Pressure in Management of Urban Hypertensive Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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